In a recent interview with GameSpot, Far Cry 6 narrative director Navid Khavari mentioned that the game will feature moments when the camera shifts to a third-person perspective so players can better relate to the character and see the upgrades they’ve earned. This will mark the first time — at least off the top of my head — that anything other than a fixed first-person view was used for the protagonist in a Far Cry gameplay sequence. This sounds like a really cool addition to a serviceable but aging franchise.
And look, I get it, Far Cry is a first-person shooter first and foremost. Even though the sixth mainline entry in Ubisoft’s long-running series (the second of which is still my favorite) will shift to third-person perspective during specific moments, it will probably always be a first-person shooter at its core.
And, that’s fine, I guess. I mean, I will probably still play it, and I’ll more than likely enjoy doing so. This is a highly anticipated game among the Half-Glass Gaming crew, after all. But I wish the entire game would offer a third-person option, even if the first-person perspective is default. And considering that the Ghost Recon franchise has already been dabbling with this option, it shouldn’t be a far cry to implement it in other Ubisoft franchises as well.
“But Julian,” I hear you saying, “you should just play Ghost Recon instead of Far Cry if you want a third-person option.”
And that’s a fair point. But anyone who’s played both franchises knows that Far Cry and Ghost Recon offer vastly different experiences. Ghost Recon offers more tactical action (although this element of the franchise seems to be in decline); most enemies can be downed with a direct shot to the torso or head, and most enemies can drop the player with a well-placed shot as well. Ghost Recon also employs tactical team elements, whereas Far Cry is primarily a single-player experience with some light co-op elements (and sometimes with NPC squads that you don’t really control so much as call in and fight beside).
Far Cry is also a separate beast from Ubisoft’s other shooter franchise, The Division, but I don’t want to stray too far from my initial point. Let me reign things in a bit before I get myself lost in the weeds.
At the end of the day, Far Cry plays like Far Cry. Although it has always been a first-person shooter series — and I’ve always enjoyed it as such — I would love the option to either choose first-person or third-person from the outset, with the option to shift perspective on the fly. Having the option to go into first-person perspective for precision gun combat while then also being able to drop into third-person perspective for traversal through the open world — or while driving a vehicle — would make the game feel so much more playable.
And if the gunplay is capable enough in third person, shooting and causing havoc from that perspective would be a great change of pace.
Although the Far Cry series is traditionally thought of as first-person shooters, a lot of the cooler elements — having a living world that fights you as well as itself, clearing out outposts, maniacal and super engaging antagonists, and just a ton of blowing stuff up — are not intrinsically married to a first-person camera perspective.
Far Cry is very much its own beast, and I don’t think the addition of a third-person camera perspective would alter that much. And considering Ubisoft is playing around with a limited third-person perspective already, it seems like it’s probably time for them to commit to it whole hog.
