Right now I do want to make my way through the landscape rather than just keep to the roads. There was such a big focus was on shooting and although ‘nature’ on those islands was important, yes – it was also rather in the way. Flashbacks from previous games come back to me (although there won’t be any hand gliding from cliff-tops in Oros). I know it’s going to be a painful process but I trust Ubisoft will keep things moving, surprise me as much as guide my way. Scoping out for bears is a fascinating but worrying feeling: For one thing, a player here is vulnerable without a decent beast at one’s side. The Far Cry series has gone back in time and really grown-up. The environment and its wildlife are now the big bad-ass character, although on top of this, there will be rival tribes, like the Udam out there who’ll want to eat us. Now the cut-scenes have more vitality we need to follow them and we need to focus on our equipment, tools and skills. We’ve left behind guns and thugs, cheesy characters and dialogue (although not the advantage of a good map) and now there’s something much more intense and real about… everything. ![]() The difference is the scenario has changed: we’ve gone prehistoric. Bring it on.Īll the Far Cry elements are there so far: immediacy of controls, reliance on tools and environment, narrative cut-scenes blending quickly and seamlessly into the game. But now with good gameplay and narrative timing – I’ve got my own cave. Cut-scenes have opened up and then closed tightly around me (abandoning me to the wild), crafting items have been breathlessly gathered and I have only just begun to feel like I’m ready to make it out there… in the non-linear(-ish) map waypoints of Oros. It’s been a dense, first-person acclimatisation with the controls and rudimentary weapons I’ve already felt vulnerable in the dark exposed in the vicinity of fierce feline predators and seen fellow tribesman gored by mammoths. Up until this (sweet, pivotal) moment – looking out at a view from the ledge of my first cave and the landscape now open and beckoning – the game has delivered. And because it’s Far Cry, I’m guessing there’s going to be drug-induced trances and ‘emergent’ world-life too. Players need to feel involved, seeing powerful things surviving dangerous experience. With this title, here on the PS4, this marriage is getting really interesting.Īnd I’ve learned quickly that Oros is not just a different, prehistoric time setting (the intro presents a simple device to illustrate this: the year of 2016 appears and counts backwards with changing sounds that mark the rewinding process – really effective.) No, it really does feel like a more dangerous place than ever more always the attraction of fun, virtual worlds. They just seem to have been waiting for a big upgrade in technological realism, just as there have always been tribal or primeval elements in the games. However, they’ve always been trying for greater realism at the same time as being top-notch first-person shooters inspired by Alex Garland’s The Beach. I remember getting – finally – bored by the enemy AI and even, hand-gliding. I know these games were involving, wide in scope, cinematic and great fun but memories of their worlds seem somehow a little pastiche. ![]() I had to read the sturdy reviews it’s received across the board just to check it wasn’t similar to numbers 2, 3 or 4. ![]() I’ve just reached a land called Oros, and so far it’s paying off in terms of sheer involvement and setting. ![]() Researching super worlds where you’re going to invest time and money before getting lost in them is important these days. Once, I was a member of a small group of hunters in another land, far away, until we were brutally savaged by a sabretooth tiger. Welcome to a situation you’ll face in Far Cry Primal. Whatever happens, I will need to get back to my village soon to replenish supplies, catch up with my Wenga buddies and spend more time increasing much-needed skills and abilities. Then… do I have enough patience to reach and destroy the alarm horns my owl has also located? I don’t need any extra company. But what’s going to be my plan this time? It’s getting colder again so getting to fire at the top will be the priority. I’ve been sent packing a number of times already my tiger slain, my arrows and spears depleted and my body clubbed by too-powerful commanders. Thanks to my grappling hook I’m now hauling myself upwards, the sound of the rope creaking in the freezing wind. From the bottom of the cliff-face I’ve surveyed already the Udam cannibal camp thanks to my eyes in the sky my owl companion has scouted the layout and tagged the different types of foe. The snow is falling and I’m gradually getting colder.
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