New Far Cry 7 Update Is Both Good and Bad News

Some big changes could be coming to the Far Cry series.

By Tyler Fischer

A new update about the future of Far Cry, and thus an update on Far Cry 7 as well, is good news for fans of the Ubisoft series. If you're a Far Cry fan, you'll know the series has seen better days. When Ubisoft evolved the Far Cry series with Far Cry 3, it took the series more mainstream than it had been previously. Far Cry 3 is often lauded as one of the best games of its generation, and a huge improvement on its predecessors. Ubisoft more or less held this standard with spin-off Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and follow-up Far Cry 4, without tweaking the formula really at all. 

Then came Far Cry Primal, where the formula was maintained, but several creative risks were taken by taken the series to the caveman days. And it didn't quite work out. Far Cry Primal was a noticeable step down from the aforementioned trio of games. It was decent, but not great. 

Then came Far Cry 5, where Ubisoft finally made some meaningful changes to the formula. Far Cry 5 was still very much a Far Cry game, but its open-ended design, silent protagonist, and other changes evolved the formula, which, at this point, some were getting a little tired of. Unfortunately, Ubisoft did not stick the landing. Far Cry 5 has great music, an interesting setting, strong characters, and a fairly compelling story. However, everything else, including all the changes it made, fell short. 

Things got worse with Far Cry New Dawn, which has next to nothing it can hang its hat on. It's bad where Far Cry 5 was bad and bad where Far Cry 5 was good. There's a reason it's almost universally seen as the worst game in the series. And then most recently, we got Far Cry 6, which isn't much better. Far Cry 6 is bloated with uninspired and boring content. The same can be said for its characters and story. And for only the second time in the series, following New Dawn, it had a boring villain who has let down by minimal screen time, terrible narrative pacing, and the perplexing decision to change cutscenes from first-person to third-person. 

All of this is to say, the series needs a new direction. It needs to get back to its roots while also modernizing in key ways. It's a tricky task, and it's clear that task was too large for the previous Far Cry leadership team, which brings us to the aforementioned update. Far Cry has a new IP director: Drew Holmes. Whether Holmes will end up being the man for the job, remains to be seen, but it's a step in the right direction. The Far Cry series needed someone new at the helm. 

What's the bad news? Well, Holmes previous involvement in the games above is some cause for concern. When it comes to the Far Cry series, he has worked on Far Cry 5 and Far Cry New Dawn. He was responsible for the stories of both games. Far Cry 5's narrative wasn't perfect -- in fact, it had some glaring issues -- but overall it was one of the better in the series. However, the story of Far Cry New Dawn was not good. In fact, it even managed to cheapen the story of Far Cry 5. So, there's some conflict here. What's encouraging is Holmes' other writing credits include BioShock Infinite, Red Faction, and Saints Row. Thankfully, not the newest Saints Row nor the newest Far Cry, which is two bullets dodged. 

For now, it may be too early to say if Holmes' appointment is a good thing or a bad thing, however, there's no denying the fact that the Far Cry leadership needed a shake up. Because of this, we are leaning towards this change being a good thing. 

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