Why Did Ubisoft Remove Towers and the Mini-Map From Far Cry 5?
Although Far Cry 5 has been surrounded by controversy, Ubisoft recently announced that following the newest title in the franchise would not feature towers or a mini-map, causing many players to ask why not. Now, these questions about the game have been answered by the game’s lead writer Drew Holmes.
Last week Ubisoft announced that Assassin’s Creed Origins and Far Cry 5 would not have the usual towers to uncover items within a certain area of the mini-map, or even the mini-map itself and while many fans let out a sigh of relief, it left others wondering why. In a recent interview with Drew Holmes, the lead writer of Far Cry 5, these reasons for the ‘missing’ features were explained. Holmes stated that it was to help encourage and increase player exploration of the world as he believed that in “Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4 you got into a rhythm of, ‘the only way that I can find out what to do in this area is to go climb a tower, hit a button and all of these things pop up.’ We really wanted to focus on exploration with a sense of, ‘I’m not sure what to do or where to go’.”
In addition to the explanation, he said that he thinks the setting of Montana will feel a lot more familiar, and will offer the main question of the game as “What should I do in this situation,” rather than where can I find these items. Holmes continued saying, “I’d have to go and try and meet some locals, see if they’d do anything. Or go to a town and see if there’s anything to do around there. So the goal really was to get rid of the towers as a way of forcing me to interact with the people, pay attention to my surroundings. And sort of intuitively figure out, ‘well, if there’s a town here, there’s a gas station down the road,’ so everything sort of feels like a believable world.”
Now while the removal of towers might not seem like a big deal with the different setting, something that may take players a little getting used to, is the complete removal of the mini-map that is so prevalent in open world games. Holmes explained that this is to get players out of the habit of looking at the bottom corner of their screen, and instead actually paying attention to the world and the game itself. He stated, “You’ve got to actually pay attention to the world and making sure that the art side is doing a good job of making sure there are good landmarks to orient yourself.” The idea is to get players to discover what they might want to do each day, while figuring out the lay of the land.
It would seem then, that Ubisoft is allowing players more freedom than ever before, leaving them to their own devices in a totally open world. Of course, if Far Cry is anything like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in terms of this freedom of exploration, fans are sure to love it all around the world. Of course, Far Cry 5 will take it to the next level without the mini-map, but that should be part of the fun of it, right? Far Cry 5 will be released next February for the PS4, Xbox One and PC.
What do you think about this new idea for the open world of Far Cry 5? Let us know in the comments below and keep it locked for updates!