Literally a retread
When it comes to saving the environment, Ubisoft has taken a unique approach. The publisher has been caught red-handed recycling map layouts and topography in theFar Crygames.
As spotted byGamepressure.com(pictured below) the settings ofFar Cry 4andFar Cry Primalare virtually identical from a bird’s-eye view, despite the former taking place in the modern-day Himmalayas and the latter being set in Eastern Europe during the Stone Age.
According to an anonymous source speaking withKotaku, theFar Cry Primaldevelopment team usedFar Cry 4‘s heightmaps as a skeleton for the new game, rather than start from scratch. And this wasn’t the first time this has happened, either, asFar Cry 3: Blood Dragonborrowed the general locale design fromits predecessoras well.
While I certainly didn’t notice this pattern during my playthroughs of these games and recognize it’s a relatively simple way to reduce development costs for these stopgap games between numbered entries, this sort of blatant rehash in a full retail game isn’t a good look for Ubisoft.
As withBlood Dragon, the practice seems more understandable in a budget-price expansion, rather than something being passed off as unique and new. While I enjoyed my time withFar Cry Primal, there is a dissonance between its refreshing qualities and how rote the series has become at its core — something that surely isn’t helped byliterally retreadingthe same ground.
Turns out Ubisoft used Far Cry 4’s map to make Far Cry Primal[Kotaku]
