Like many other first person shooters, Far Cry is a series that sticks to its first person perspective constantly, even presenting story moments and cutscenes that way. The upcoming Far Cry 6 is already looking to do some new things that series fans might not be used to – such as being able to explore a full city for the first time – and that’s true for how it presents its cutscenes as well.
Speaking in an interview with Press-Start, Far Cry 6 narrative director Navid Khavari confirmed that the upcoming first person shooter will have third person cinematics, making it the first game in the series to have those.
“We wanted to elevate that narrative as much as we can and we introduced a whole lot of new techniques that haven’t been done on the brand before,” said Khavari. “I think the first one is, you know, we’re going to have third person cinematics, where the player gets to see their character, their customised character, in the third person and sort of interacting with all the other characters. We have also employed what we call the B cam, which means that we shoot the scenes in full performance capture and then, the actors go away and then we brought on a camera technician from film and television that essentially shoots the scene with steady cams, dollies, even cranes to give that sort of filmic feel to the cutscenes.”
Khavari went on to explain the importance of cinematics, and how Far Cry 6 plans on using them to do justice to its story and its world, while also making sure that the game doesn’t rely on cinematics too much.
“We don’t want a game that is just primarily focused on cinematics,” he said. “Far Cry has such a dynamic open world and in Far Cry 6 that’s where kind of the feel and look of Yara as this moving postcard, one that you’re you’re literally walking through this postcard and has a contrast of beauty but also the impression of Anton and this sort of weighty drama. We needed to make sure those things were cohesive and live together. I think in some ways, I find that cinematics can serve as sort of signposts in terms of tone that kind of inform the rest of the tone of the story and the open world, and it was important for us to make it feel cohesive.”
In the same interview, Khavari explained that antagonist Anton Castillo – played by Giancarlo Esposito – will have a bigger role in Far Cry 6 than villains in the series usually do. Read more on that through here.
Far Cry 6 is out on February 18, 2021 for PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia.
