Far Cry Primal’s Reveal was an Exercise in Patience

Today, Ubisoft revealed a new entry in their open world nature series Far Cry. After lighting tigers on fire with a flamethrower and taking massive amounts of drugs, players are going to be heading back to when animals ruled the land and we were all inhuman savages who got by in the world by beating each other to death. No, not the 1980s, we’re getting hella prehistoric with Far Cry Primal!

And how was this revealed? With a goddamn, annoyingly long pan out of a cave painting.

There’s nothing wrong with a slow buildup, because it’s fun to deliver information in a piece by piece basis and give some mystery. Halo 3: ODST’s planned E3 2008 reveal just had a simple screen with a countdown and the words “pardon our dust”, and that was enough to get people curious about what would happen when the clock hit zero. Nor is there anything wrong with using YouTube for you reveal; Ubisoft did that pretty effectively earlier this year with Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. All they did just show the hands of Jacob Frye and letting them draw conclusions about what it ultimately would end up being. More importantly, there was an actual timer so people knew when the reveal was going to be taking place. It didn’t go on for a full day with the speed of a one legged tortoise doing a marathon, it was a fairly short wait, followed by the actual footage.

But Primal’s reveal process isn’t that. You’d think the cave painting full reveal would’ve finally blown the lid on the game and there’d be a trailer, but you would be all wrong and a bag of chips. Instead, all that does is just lead to short animations of the cave paintings–an elephant losing its cool here, a guy about to get jumped by a saber toothed tiger there. If it was just the cave animations from the start, or the paintings with a faster pan time, that would be one thing. As time went on, people went from being intrigued to just flat out annoyed that it was taking so long. And to make things even better, the stream reset early this morning and started back at the original single caveman painting. Outstanding, Ubisoft.

Dear god, Ubisoft. Really? You restarted the live stream? Just fucking announce Far Cry Primal already! IGN ALREADY BEAT YOU TO IT

— Chris Davis (@Slackerchan) October 6, 2015

Dearest diary, it is day 2 of the Ubisoft announcement stream and I fear I may never see daylight again, so envoloping is this dark cavern.

— Duckols (@Duckols) October 6, 2015

https://twitter.com/jiminsidious/status/651401800982007808

Far Cry Primal sounds great but I just want Ubisoft to officially announce it. The stream is getting old

— Johnathon (@Jackhunt2000) October 6, 2015

https://twitter.com/JHNMCHLTNR/status/651361390880522240

As it is, Far Cry Primal’s reveal is undermined not just by the early leak from IGN Turkey, but by the wait for it just taking so long. You remember earlier this year when Deus Ex got leaked during their livestream tease and Square Enix just announced it? Primal is like that if Square decided to just pretend the leak didn’t even happen.  

How’d you feel about waiting for Far Cry Primal’s formal reveal? Let us know in the comments below.