In an industry known for delays, it is difficult to assign any real confidence to a release window, even if that release window is officially provided by the developers themselves. In Far Cry 7’s case, however, we don’t EVEN have an officially slated release window. However, we do have some rumours as to what Far Cry 7’s release date might be.
Let’s assume – for the sake of argument – that these rumours correspond to the release window Ubisoft is aiming for. If we’re going to project how likely a delay might be, we need to look at the sort of plots Ubisoft’s writers tend to write, and then ask ourselves: how daunting of a task might development of Far Cry 7 be, based on the game’s features its plot necessitates? So, let’s try to guess what sort of plot 7 might have.
WHAT WILL FAR CRY 7 BE ABOUT?
If Far Cry 7 is ANYTHING like the previous entries franchise, we can say with confidence that:
- The player-character won’t have a very “big” personality.
The reason for this is simple: your character is supposed to be somewhat of an “everyman” – someone blank enough for the player to feel you don’t have to suppress your own personality to fit into the person you’re playing as – you can just transplant your personality into the character you’re controlling, which makes a TON of sense. It isn’t very fun to be TOLD who we are by a game. It’s much MORE fun to TELL the game who we are, and to play an empowered version of OURSELVES.
However, when looking at the themes of Far Cry, it becomes obvious that the game’s stories are always human interest stories – stories about the psychodramas underlying war, power and death. And, when asking what FC 7 will be about, it’s hard not to feel that there’s an elephant in the room – ever since Far Cry 3, it’s been impossible to talk about the franchise without talking about its villains. Therefore, the “small” personality of the player-character must be counterbalanced by the following:
- The villain MUST have a “big” personality.
We – humans – LOVE seeing psychopaths on screen, because they’re just so ABNORMAL to us. We can’t understand slaughtering people, and not caring about it. So what’s more fascinating than seeing a human being that just seems to have that part of their brain missing?
Far Cry games have, historically, been power fantasies – at the end, you overcome some overwhelmingly powerful adversary. However, in order for it to really MATTER, you have to feel powerless at some point. SO, we can predict that:
- The villain will do something terrible to us.
I mean, if they’re psychopaths, why wouldn’t they do something terrible to us? For example, Michael Mando’s Vaas (FC 3) covers you in gasoline and sets fire to the building you’re in; Gustavo Fring’s Antón (FC 6) attempts to kill you, alongside a boat full of refugees, by sinking the boat you’re on via gunfire.
And that’s how we’ll reach catharsis, too – this awful person will do something awful to us, which will make it feel great when they get their comeuppance.
And to ensure that your antagonist feels believably despicable, something else must be true:
- The villain will be played by someone great.
Troy Baker, Michael Mando, and Giancarlo Esposito are all actors that have played your antagonist, and have all been pivotal to the positive reception of those games. So, one can probably assume with a high degree of confidence that Far Cry 7 will feature a HEAVYWEIGHT actor. And here’s the thing – the dent that paying this actor will leave in the game’s budget will not be inconsequential, which, if not properly accounted for by Ubisoft, could lead to delays.
So, what will Far Cry 7 be about? Most likely, the railing against forces much greater than yourself, and the bringing down of some pseudo-psychopathic antagonist. In fact, according to certain online sources, Far Cry 7 might be about rescuing the protagonist’s family, with you having only 24 real-world hours to do so.
And this is a LOT of work for a lot of people – the 3D team has to do loads of scanning work in order to ensure the nuances of that aforementioned actor are properly captured. The writers have to do a lot of drafts and edits in order to ensure that the antagonist is believable. The music team has to write compellingly dramatic, or creepy, music in order to immerse us. And – as mentioned above – the actor will probably be expensive.
All of this is to say that there’s a lot of work that goes into crafting a compelling narrative, which would lead one to expect SOME sort of delay – some sort of problem somewhere along that chain of design.
Dmitry Rogalchuk, Head of Content at https://casinocanada.com/, believes that the implementation of time-bound missions may not be the most successful solution. Although if we compare it to deathloop, which was also limited to one day, the time pressure in the game was not felt. Plus it would be nice to create the feeling of a real city, where the inhabitants have their own things to do. Life boils without waiting for the player.
In addition, instead of microtransactions an intriguing alternative could be the integration of a gaming casino. In this case, the main objective is not to encourage gambling for fun. However, the goal here is not to enjoy gambling. As for example in GTA, where one of the most difficult missions is tied to the robbery of the casino and immerse players in the very essence of the virtual game. To carry out a risky operation that requires wit and ingenuity.
So, it’s probably wise to not consider this release date to be set in stone. All that being said, Far Cry 7 is RUMOURED to release somewhere around Fall 2025. So, let’s hope Ubisoft doesn’t have to crunch TOO much to make that happen.
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DO FAR CRY GAMES TEND TO GET DELAYED, HISTORICALLY SPEAKING?
Let’s look at their last few major Far Cry releases, and see:
- Far Cry 6’s release was delayed from Feb 18th to October 7th – almost eight months. However, COVID 19 is at least somewhat to blame for that one.
- Far Cry 5 was delayed by a month (Feb 27th to Mar 27th).
- The PC version of Far Cry Primal was also delayed by a week,
- Even Ubisoft’s upcoming game – Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – was initially announced as being a 2022 release, and is now thought to be releasing in December 2023.
All of that is to say that it would be anomalous if Far Cry 7 were not delayed. Hopefully, Far Cry 7 will be released sooner rather than later. Either way, with all the new releases on the way, it’s definitely an exciting time to be a gamer.
