Ubisoft has a lot of plans for Far Cry 5 to make it one of the most unique offerings in the franchise, including the omission of towers and a mini-map. Now, Ubisoft has opened up about why it is making such significant changes to Far Cry 5.
Drew Holmes, the writer of Far Cry 5, provided some insight into the development team’s thinking for taking such a hard turn away from what gamers expect from the first person shooter adventure game. As Holmes puts it, the lack of a mini-map and towers will put give players more of an opportunity to truly explore the game world and rely on their experience and intuition when making decisions.
Holmes said:
“We really wanted to focus on exploration with a sense of, ‘I’m not sure what to do or where to go’. The removal of the mini map was so you’re not staring at a little corner of your screen saying, ‘what’s new in the world?’ You’ve got to actually pay attention to the world and the art side is doing a good job of making sure there are good landmarks to orient yourself. That it becomes more [or] less the game guiding you on where to go, and more of you saying, ‘where do I want to go, what do I want to do today?’”
While many gamers will certainly miss the benefits that come with the mini-map and towers in a Far Cry game, the removal of both features will make for a more immersive experience for players. Hopefully there will still be a way for players to access a map through the pause menu or by picking one up, just so there’s still a way to get their bearings in the vast open world of Montana.
This isn’t the only major departure from tradition that Ubisoft is taking with Far Cry 5. For instance, rather than sending gamers to exotic islands and environments, the company is throwing gamers into the dangerous, and apparently cult-like valleys and mountains of Montana. Additionally, gamers will get a chance to experience other new features, such as more customization for their characters, four main villains instead of one, and multiplayer co-op available throughout the Far Cry 5 campaign.
This more individualized, immersive experience seems to be Ubisoft’s main goal with this newest entry in the Far Cry franchise. Holmes continued his thoughts, adding that without a mini-map or towers, gamers will be forced to explore and discover more of the world and its people, which in turn should help improve the overall experience. Holmes said:
“I think when you set a game in a more familiar setting like Montana, we wanted to compare it to, ‘what would I do in this situation?’ I’d have to go and try and meet some locals, see if they’d do anything. Or go to a town and see if there’s anything to do around there. So the goal really was to get rid of the towers as a way of forcing me to interact with the people, pay attention to my surroundings. And sort of intuitively figure out, ‘well, if there’s a town here, there’s a gas station down the road,’ so everything sort of feels like a believable world.”
It’ll be interesting to see how gamers react to the changes once the game releases. Hopefully the effort to make the game more immersive than its predecessors won’t backfire and make the game less enjoyable than the Far Cry series has become known for.
Far Cry 5 is set to release on February 27, 2018 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: GamingBolt
When we first saw Far Cry 5 we thought that it is going to be a great game and we really hope I can stack up to our anticipations. Drew Holmes, the writer of Far Cry 5, has informed as that the game won’t have any towers and there won’t even be a mini-map! This will likely make the game more unique and push the players into exploring his surroundings.
“We really wanted to focus on exploration with a sense of, ‘I’m not sure what to do or where to go’. The removal of the mini map was so you’re not staring at a little corner of your screen saying, ‘what’s new in the world?’ You’ve got to actually pay attention to the world and the art side is doing a good job of making sure there are good landmarks to orient yourself. That it becomes more [or] less the game guiding you on where to go, and more of you saying, ‘where do I want to go, what do I want to do today?’”, Holmes said.
Sure, both of those features will be missed by the franchise’s fans as they played a significant role in the role of the game. Moreover, apart from those changes, players will also find themselves in the mountains of Montana instead of the tropical islands gamers got used to. Other features on Far Cry include: Character customization, four main villains, and multiplayer co-op.
“I think in Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4 you got into a rhythm of, ‘the only way that I can find out what to do in this area is to go climb a tower, hit a button and all of these things pop up.’ We really wanted to focus on exploration with a sense of, ‘I’m not sure what to do or where to go’.”
According to Holmes, the lack of a mini-map or towers, will encourage gamers to explore the world further. As a result, the experience will be more personalized and mesmerizing.
“I think when you set a game in a more familiar setting like Montana, we wanted to compare it to, ‘what would I do in this situation? I’d have to go and try and meet some locals, see if they’d do anything. Or go to a town and see if there’s anything to do around there. So the goal really was to get rid of the towers as a way of forcing me to interact with the people, pay attention to my surroundings. And sort of intuitively figure out, ‘well, if there’s a town here, there’s a gas station down the road,’ so everything sort of feels like a believable world.”
This is the first time such changes are made in a Far Cry game. We will have to wait and see what the gamers’ reactions will be upon its release.
Far Cry 5 releases on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on February 27th, 2018.
For the last 15 years or so, we have witnessed the rise of a great evil: the video game mini-map. Recent events have given me hope that the dark era of the mini-map may finally be coming to an end.
Far Cry 5 Minimap Ps4
For years, it has been assumed that open-world games require a mini-map in the corner of the screen. From Grand Theft Auto III to Assassin’s Creed to Red Dead Redemption, the minimap has sat there, full of icons, coaxing your eyes away from the center of the screen. Come look at me, it says. I’m full of crucial information you can’t get anywhere else. You need me.
And then, this year, some possible signs of a turning tide. Assassin’s Creed Origins, the 10th (or so) game in that long-running series, has no mini-map. Every single Assassin’s Creed game has had a mini-map until now. It’s always been there, sitting in the corner of the screen. In Origins, it’s gone.
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That’s just one example, though. Could mean anything. What about Ubisoft’s other major open-world series, Far Cry? The best game in that series, Far Cry 2, had no mini-map and instead made players look down at a handheld map. It was a bold choice, and made the game much more interesting. Starting with Far Cry 3, though, that stupid little info-circle has lurked in the corner of the screen, daring us to turn it off and play the game in the best way. Fallout 4 armor color swap kits. Far Cry 4 and Far Cry Primal both had a mini-map as well.
So, what of next year’s Far Cry 5? Check out this screenshot from IGN’s extended hands-on during E3 2017:
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NO MINI-MAP, BABY. Just like with Origins, it would appear they’ve replaced the mini-map with a compass at the top of the screen. One Ubisoft game dropping its mini-map could be an experiment or an outlier. The rookie season 1 episode 9. Two suggests a pattern.
I could be wrong about all of this, of course. Other recent open-world games have been less consistent. Ubisoft’s other big 2017 open-world game Ghost Recon Wildlands did have a mini-map, though it’s easy to turn it off and play without it. October’s Shadow of War had a god-awful mini-map that commits the worst mini-map offense: you can’t toggle it off without also toggling off your health gauge, focus gauge, and other crucial information.
Far Cry 5 No Mini Map
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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild made the un-Nintendo-like move of following the trend and including a mini-map, though the game absolutely didn’t need one and it was easy to turn it off. However, the tremendous PS4 open-worlder Horizon Zero Dawn also had a compass in place of a mini-map. That game had some impressively well-done HUD options in general, particularly considering that it was developer Guerrilla Games’ first open-world game.
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Long have I waged my own personal war against mini-maps. One of the first big articles I wrote after being hired at Kotaku in 2011 was about how much better Grand Theft Auto IV is with no mini-map. Since then I’ve written similar articles about so many major open-world games that I’ve lost count. It’s to the point that people make fun of me for it. That’s okay. That’s just the status quo, trying to assert itself.
Mini-maps are bad. They distract from the game you’re playing and frequently offer information that you don’t even need. They draw your eyes away from the world you’re exploring and, in the words of fellow anti-mini-map-crusader Mark Brown, encourage players to “follow the little dotted line.” They are a relic of a bygone era, when video game worlds may not have been easy enough to navigate without them.
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Let this be a sign, and let other game developers follow Ubisoft and Guerrilla’s lead. May video game mini-maps slowly fade from the mainstream, eventually remembered as a crutch we used to use back when open game-worlds were still relatively new and no one was sure how best to explore them. Let us enter a new age of mini-map-free video games with our eyes fixed on the horizon and not on the corner of the screen.