Top 10: Ideas that will make Far Cry 3 a masterpiece

Far Cry 2 is undoubtedly a brilliant game. It’s got wonderful graphics, an engaging storyline, impressive tech and mind-blowing open world goodness. So good is it, that we gave Ubisoft Montreal’s FPS a whopping 9/10 in our review. But it’s not perfect. Cue our Top 10: Ideas that will make Far Cry 3 a masterpiece, where we detail our ideas for the inevitable sequel. Ubisoft’s already made mention that it’s in the “preliminary stages”, and that the Africa setting still has a “huge amount of promise”, so, let the fun begin!

10. Savage beasts!

The animals in Far Cry 2 are brilliant. We’ve driven off the beaten track on more than one occasion just to ride alongside a pack of zebra. But the animals in Far Cry 2 are not dangerous. They’re all passive. Assuming Far Cry 3 is also set in Africa, we’d like to see some aggressive animals thrown into the mix. How about lions and tigers and bears… oh my! (Perhaps not bears). What about having to contend with killer snakes, or spiders? We imagine it might get animal rights activists hot under the collar, but how cool would it be to have to worry about a savage lion eating your face, or a pack of monkeys assaulting your Jeep, as you speed away from a chasing army of soldiers?

9. Improve your ability to kill!

This one is more for the console versions of the game, rather than the PC version, which has much more precise controls with the keyboard and mouse. In the PS3 and 360 versions shooting in the first few hours of the game is very difficult. Much of this is down to the fact that your weapons are woeful, with recoil that makes accurate shooting nigh on impossible and durability that makes them break more often than not. The feeling that it’s quite hard is exacerbated by the fact that the enemies are tougher to kill than the Terminator. Sure, head shots do the trick, but anything else feels like chucking flowers at a brick wall. The bad guys take loads of non head shot bullets before they go down, even on the normal difficulty. We’d like your enemy to react a little more realistically in the next Far Cry, and some subtle tweaking to the accuracy of the shooting in the console versions.

8. Save system rethink

Given that Ubisoft Montreal will almost certainly take a similar open world approach with Far Cry 3 as it has done with Far Cry 2, we can expect the save system it employs to play a similarly crucial role in the gameplay. Again, this is one for the console versions rather than the PC version (in which you can save anywhere and whenever you like). The save system in FC2 has turned out like Marmite – some people love it, some people hate it. You can only save at safe houses, which are sporadically dotted throughout the 50km game world, when you use the coach transportation system and when you complete missions (via an annoying pop-up that sometimes triggers in the middle of fire fights). What this sometimes causes is frustrating and forced replay when you die halfway through long, more difficult missions without a buddy to revive you, because you reload from the safe house save.

What kind of save system would we like to see in the next Far Cry? For some gamers, the save system fits perfectly in the immersive, dangerous open world tone that Far Cry 2 presents because it increases tension and makes death mean something. But for us it proved somewhat of a drag. We’d like a save anywhere system, just like on the PC version. The save files on the PC version are only 1MB, which is perfectly doable on console. If you don’t like it, just don’t use it. Problem solved.

7. Improve the AI

There are moments in Far Cry 2 when the AI does some wicked stuff, like crawl away half dead to the cover of some bushes and take pot shots at you with their dying breath. But the AI also suffers from momentary lapses in not only concentration, but rational thought. We’ve seen the AI blow itself into oblivion by firing a rocket launcher into the cover it’s using. Indeed the AI will often fire wildly into cover as if it expects its bullets to somehow pass through metal and into your flesh. And there’s also the odd moment when bad guys will turn the wrong way when shooting at you. But the worst, and funniest ‘when AI goes bad’ moments come when enemies jump in vehicles and drive straight at you as fast as they can with nary a care for what’s between their starting point and you. In Far Cry 3 we’re after smarter AI, obviously.

6. More dynamic missions and more varied environments

One of our main gripes with Far Cry 2 is that, on the whole, the missions can feel a bit samey. Bar some key story-based missions, which, admittedly are bloody brilliant, a lot of them follow a similar assassination path: approach settlement/check point, scout area, plot attack plan, find key NPC or object to destroy/retrieve, execute/intimidate. While we love the ability to tackle missions however we see fit, and we want that freedom to remain in Far Cry 3, we’d like more varied missions.

And how about making them more dynamic? In Far Cry 2 all hell will break loose in a settlement but the key NPC you’ve been sent to intimidate/assassinate, usually holed up in an upstairs office, will be seemingly oblivious to what’s going on just metres away. How about in Far Cry 3 your target makes a run for it, and you have to jump in a vehicle and chase him down in a high speed pursuit? Or maybe he or she hides, and you have to sniff them out?

Far Cry 2 looks gorgeous. The African setting is wonderfully realised. But, once you’ve played the game for hours on end things can start to look a bit samey, too. This isn’t the fault of Ubisoft Montreal per se. It wouldn’t really fit to see a Liberty City style area in the middle of an African savannah. But in the next game, if we assume the developer will return to the African setting, we’d like to see more varied environments.

How about some underground sections (we know, Far Cry isn’t a corridor shooter, but some more enclosed, claustrophobic sections might provide a nice counter point to the open world sections)? How about underwater missions (you can swim in Far Cry 2, but mostly above water)? What about some bigger towns with Assassin’s Creed-style populations? What can you think of?

5. Make your work for factions count for something other than money

We love the two rival factions in Far Cry 2, but we were a tad disappointed to find that your decisions on which to accept missions for never made much of a difference to the story or the way they react to you. There’s a reputation system in place with the buddies – how about in Far Cry 3 Ubisoft Montreal implements a reputation system for the factions, too? Undertaking a mission with one faction might make another hate you, and be less likely to offer you work in the future. Taking on work with one faction might make them trust you more, and open up options you wouldn’t have seen otherwise. We’re getting into RPG territory here, and we realise that Far Cry is first and foremost a FPS franchise, but we think there’s room to make you think more about the missions you undertake, and the consequences of those decisions.

4. Be able to shoot while you drive

A small one this, but something that would definitely add some drive by goodness to the next game. In Far Cry 2 you can’t shoot a weapon while you drive, which to us it a tad unrealistic. Yes you can quickly switch between the driver’s seat and the back seat turret, if you’re in a vehicle with one, but there’s no shooting while moving in the game. Hopefully in Far Cry 3 you’ll be able to keep one hand on the wheel, and one hand training the barrel of your gun firmly down the throat of your enemies.

3. Give players some options when tackling checkpoints

Ahhh, checkpoints. Not save game checkpoints mind, we’re talking about Far Cry 2’s numerous manned checkpoints that make open road driving more of a suicide mission than a safari. Again, Marmite. Some people love the checkpoints for making Far Cry 2’s game world feel more realistic. They feel having to either sneak past them, find an alternative route or kill the guards that patrol the areas is all part of the dangerous African environment you have to contend with. Critics say they are simply annoying, artificially pad out the gameplay and feature an enemy respawn rate akin to a competitive online shooter.

So, what’s the solution? We reckon it’s possible to create a middle ground that will keep both camps happy. Assuming there will be some kind of checkpoint system in Far Cry 3, we’d like to see the player being offered a few more options when faced with a checkpoint. How about being able to bribe enemy soldiers with whatever currency Ubisoft Montreal implements in the next game? How about being able to improve your reputation with the faction they’re associated with so that all soldiers at all checkpoints don’t have an automatic shoot on sight policy? Or maybe just lowering the enemy soldier respawn rate will be enough.

2. Destructible environments

Far Cry 2 is, from a technical perspective, absolutely brilliant. The propagating fire is mind blowing and the physics are second to none. But the one thing it’s lacking is proper destructible environments. Structures can’t splinter into smithereens, as some are able to do in Crytek’s Crysis. This is obviously a difficult problem to tackle in open world games, and there’s no easy solution. What if you destroy a building that’s crucial to the story later on in the game? Wouldn’t it be a bit unrealistic to have buildings respawn?

Crytek’s approach was to make small structures destructible, larger ones indestructible. Perhaps this is the only solution for an open world game of this type. We don’t have all the answers, but if Ubisoft Montreal can come up with a revolutionary way to incorporate destructible environments into the open world FPS genre, that’s both believable and fun, then Far Cry 3 might just hit that coveted 10.

1. Campaign co-op

The Buddy system in Far Cry 2 lays the ground work for what we reckon would make Far Cry 3 absolutely stupendous – campaign co-op. We know, it’s open world, but still, imagine the possibilities – one person driving, another in the passenger seat, shooting, another on a turret, pumping anything that moves with lead. Or how about four players, each in their own vehicle, tearing up the African savannah? And how about fusing the Buddy system with the campaign co-op, so you’re able to increase your reputation with certain player mercs, helping them out as and when you see fit. We’re getting into MMO territory here, but that’s fine. We like fresh thinking.

The problems come with keeping everything together – what’s to stop people simply going off and doing their own thing? But we’ve seen in Saints Row 2 that it’s technically possible to stop things from descending into chaos. And the potential rewards are huge – imagine coordinating a four man assault on a heavily guarded mansion over Xbox LIVE, PSN or PC? One player might do the recon, another provide sniper support, another sneaking in with machete and silenced pistol at the ready and the other offering heavy weapon support? And then, like clockwork, the attack begins. Go on Ubisoft Montreal. Give it a shot.

What do you think of our ideas? What ideas have you got? Let us know in the comments section below.