Following a brief excursion to the Himalayas, Ubisoft is sending its tentpole open-world franchise back to the Stone Age with next month’s Far Cry Primal, which, despite the fact that it’s not a numbered sequel, still offers fans a “full-on Far Cry” experience.
That’s according to Lead Writer Kevin Shortt, who allayed fears that Primal is releasing as a stop-gap title in the wait for the seemingly inevitable Far Cry 5. For Shortt, Primal stands as its own separate beast – in every sense of the word – offering up a campaign that is purportedly 30 hours in length.
Speaking to IGN, the scribe revealed that:
“Primal is a full-on Far Cry. The main campaign is around 30 hours, we’ve created a whole new world, new flora and fauna. it’s a full game, and so if anyone has doubts about that, they just spend a bit of time in the game to realize it’s something huge. This is our new Far Cry game.”
Rooted in the primordial setting of 10,000 BC, Far Cry Primal represents a marked change of pace from Ubisoft and indeed the series itself. But that’s not to say the quasi-sequel nixes a lot of the tropes of the franchise, with crafting and taming wild animals both set to feature in next month’s release.
Yes it’s prehistoric but it’s a period in the stone age we wanted to represent. And dinos, historically, are millions of years in the past, and humans and dinos never were together, so we just decided to be true to that. Would it be fun? Sure. But for us, no. We wanted to represent the stone age – we want to be as true to that period as we can while giving our colorful flair.
Far Cry Primal is poised to leap onto PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 23. PC owners, meanwhile, will have to wait an extra week before picking up the primordial offshoot on March 1.
