Far Cry 6 World Director Ben Hall talks to TechRadar about the ‘overarching philosophy’ that the game shares with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
Set on the fictional Caribbean island of Yara, Far Cry 6 looks to push the boundaries of what we’ve seen from the long-running series before, offering not just a region to explore but an entire country. Yara’s Cuban influences are clear: sweeping vistas, vivid flora and a guerrilla revolution brewing at its core in response to a tyrannical dictatorship. What results is a conflict set against a tropical paradise that’s brimming with culture, music and personality, but also oppressed by the dictator Anton Castillo, with its citizens harassed by his military checkpoints and patrols. It’s an environment you might not immediately associate with another of Ubisoft’s established franchises, Assassin’s Creed. But Far Cry 6 World Director Ben Hall tells us that, while there are key differences between the worlds of Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed, there are some clear similarities too. If there’s one person who has the experience necessary to create Yara’s living and breathing world, it’s probably Ben Hall. A senior-level designer on Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, before becoming the World Director on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Hall knew that taking on the role of World Director of Far Cry 6 would present a challenge different to any he’d faced before. While Assassin’s Creed games are third-person, open-world titles with a heavy historical influence, Far Cry games, by contrast, are first-person shooters and as Hall Points out “much faster”. “It’s a new challenge in the way you approach certain elements of world building,” he tells us. “But from an overarching philosophy, it remains somewhat the same in terms of the process of building, the level of detail – going into that research was something that was important that we put into this world for Far Cry. We went to similar lengths of reference and research as we would for an Assassin’s Creed game, so bringing that same philosophy into it was important. “But then obviously, being in first-person, spatial awareness becomes slightly different, the focus and attention to detail at an individual location level becomes slightly different.
