Ubisoft recycled Far Cry 4 map making Far Cry Primal

Literally a retread

When it comes to saving the environment, Ubisoft has taken a unique approach. The publisher has been caught red-handed recycling map layouts and topography in the Far Cry games.

As spotted by Gamepressure.com (pictured below) the settings of Far Cry 4 and Far Cry Primal are virtually identical from a bird’s-eye view, despite the former taking place in the modern-day Himmalayas and the latter being set in Eastern Europe during the Stone Age.

According to an anonymous source speaking with Kotaku, the Far Cry Primal development team used Far Cry 4‘s heightmaps as a skeleton for the new game, rather than start from scratch. And this wasn’t the first time this has happened, either, as Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon borrowed the general locale design from its predecessor as well.

While I certainly didn’t notice this pattern during my playthroughs of these games and recognize it’s a relatively simple way to reduce development costs for these stopgap games between numbered entries, this sort of blatant rehash in a full retail game isn’t a good look for Ubisoft.

As with Blood Dragon, the practice seems more understandable in a budget-price expansion, rather than something being passed off as unique and new. While I enjoyed my time with Far Cry Primal, there is a dissonance between its refreshing qualities and how rote the series has become at its core — something that surely isn’t helped by literally retreading the same ground.

Turns out Ubisoft used Far Cry 4’s map to make Far Cry Primal [Kotaku]