STACK NZ Nov #57

GAMES

FEATURE

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crazy like Vaas; he just lives in a world where he is so rich and powerful that he can do anything’). Moreover, the studio has also underscored the importance of player-generated narrative. “While the story is important as a backbone for the game, we really want to provide as much freedom for you as a player as possible,” Hutchinson explains. “The story is there to drive you around the world, get you to interact with the various features and learn about why Kyrat is in the state it’s in. This time around we’ve added a bunch of choices within the story which affect your missions, objectives and how the story ends, which we hope means people feel more ownership of it.” Along with the choice-driven narrative, additional gameplay features include the ability to drop a friend directly into co-op in the open world, and the introduction of new tools including a grappling hook and a gyrocoptor. And if you were a fan of the hallucination sequences in Far Cry 3 , the good news is Ubisoft heard you, and the dev team have designed a similar system for FC4. “People loved them, so we wanted to bring them back. But this time we wanted them to be filled with gameplay, not just story,” Hutchinson reveals. “We spoke about how we could bond this desire with our goal to give a real sense of depth and believability to Kyrat. The result was the invention of a fictional set of myths and legends for the country, which took the shape

A new a villain, a new protagonist, and new geographical setting. Far Cry is back.We spoke with creative director Alex Hutchinson.

ar Cry 3 was a real surprise package in 2012. Released amidst a crop of triple-A competition, it was a technical tour de force featuring a compelling, layered campaign, and one of the best villains ever found in a video game. Now the series is back, ditching the tropical Asian-Pacific archipelago of 3 for the mountainous regions of Nepal. The fictional region of Kyrat is where Far Cry 4 will play out. “We wanted a unique, open world environment that challenged gameplay in a new way, so a location with mountains was a big plus,” says Australian Alex Hutchinson, creative director on the game. “We also wanted somewhere that was full of animals living in close proximity, and we wanted somewhere exotic that would be a new and unique playground for the player.” The game area is approximately the same size as the environment in Far Cry 3, but Hutchinson tells us that the area is denser this time around, and consequently there’s far more to do. “It’s got more events, more people going about their daily life. We’ve also got a bunch of new systems – you can earn karma by helping the locals and then spend that karma by calling them to help you in battle. “There’s also lots more interaction between animal species and a much more complex dialogue system for both friendly and enemy

We wanted a unique, open world environment that challenged gameplay in a newway.

of the five playable Shangri-La sections.” Finally, we ask Hutchinson what other locations were on the table before they settled on Nepal. “We’re always talking about

characters: one of my favourite moments playing yesterday was deciding to shoot the rebel soldiers who had been fighting with me on a whim. Logically they all turned against me, then one of them hid behind a barrel and yelled, ‘you’re shooting at the wrong side, f***face’. Very proud we got to say f***face in the game in an emergent, natural way.” Story is important in FC4, and clearly developing a strong nemesis in the game is now a prerequisite (Hutchinson says Pagan Min is ‘not

possibilities, other locales... but to reveal anything would sadly compromise our future plans and then ninjas would descend from

the ceiling and cut your throat before you could include it in your magazine.”

Far Cry 4 is out on November 18

NOVEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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