Stop Repeating Gameplay Mechanics
Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series is the best example of abusing a successful series to its very limit. What once seemed like a very innovative and amazing kind of game was eventually turned into a heartless series of reiterations. What happened in between? Well, Ubisoft’s commercial practices kicked in.
Of course there are differences between Assassin’s Creed games, but when looking at them from a distance, anyone can notice they have neither progressed into something else, nor developed everything it was that made them seem appealing. A big part of this lack of charm comes from the seemingly mindless release of titles without taking time to plan ahead. Assassin’s Creed Unity appeared suddenly when players were still enjoying Black Flag, while Assassin’s Creed Rogue came straight out of nowhere. This yells money all over the place and Assassin’s Creed releases have become even more frequent than yearly sports games.
As if this wasn’t enough, when Ubisoft isn’t repeating the assassin theme, it’s abusing the open world formula. Now, there are many ways in which open world games can be turned and twisted in order to achieve a sense of novelty; take Watchdogs’ hacking mechanics, for instance. Nonetheless, the Far Cry series seems to be going over the board with its open-worldness. Even if Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was a really unexpected jewel, the basic gameplay experience is still Far Cry 3, repeated almost exactly in Far Cry 4.
Now, this doesn’t mean Far Cry 4 isn’t a fun game. The raw fact is that the latest game in the series is kind of a new skin for Far Cry 3, in which almost the same things are seen and done. Take a few new weapons and vehicles, different skills, crank the visuals up a bit and that’s that. Would this franchise’s success actually survive yet one additional repetition? Probably not. As further proof, Dying Light, a game that has many Far Cry features, stands as a valid and pretty much fresh option even without having a good story. The solution was to add something new, a huge sense of freedom generated by the parkour feature.
