What’s the one thing Far Cry, Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, The Elder Scrolls, Assassin?s Creed, and Fallout all have in common" You know, besides their sprawling open worlds, RPG/action mechanics, and impassioned followings.
Now granted, there are a number of common themes and video game conventions underpinning each franchise, but for the purpose of this discussion, we?re going to narrow the focus down to one trope in particular: how each series is able to relocate to a brand new setting with each passing instalment.
For some, that involves falling back on a blank canvas. With the exception of X-2, XIV and the XIII subseries, the creative minds at Square Enix regularly dream up vast new worlds replete with eccentric characters, warring kingdoms, and retooled battle systems when crafting the latest entry in the Final Fantasy franchise. The Blank Canvas
Far Cry, on the other hand, is a series that situates its robust single-player campaign within a sprawling, chaotic wilderness, one in which the player, often an intrepid explorer/stranger, is thrust into a wild and untamed land to fight against unruly dictators (see: Pagan Min), heavily-armed militia, and the local wildlife in order to survive. Themes of religion and even colonialism are often threaded through each Far Cry narrative, but this relatively flexible template allows Ubisoft to whisk players off to a location that is as radically different and unique as the next. For all of the gameplay similaritie...