On the occasion of Far Cry 5’s fifth anniversary, they played the game live on Ubisoft’s Twitch channel. The stream was hosted by Chris Watters and featured Drew Holmes, the lead writer, as a special guest to talk about the game and answer a few questions. Here is a summary of what they said.
Drew Holmes explained he started working on Far Cry 5 around January or February 2016. He had played the previous Far Cry games but it was his first time working on one. He’s never been to Montana, but a large portion of the team visited the state before he joined Ubisoft. When asked what his feelings were, five years ago, when they were about to release Far Cry 5, he said launching a game is always weird because you work on it for years and, when it’s finally “out in the wild”, you suddenly have no control over it anymore. As a developer, you hope players will like it, but you are never sure… Thankfully, in this case, the reception was great, and it was even the best launch for a Far Cry game at the time.
As the lead writer, his job was to write, of course (mostly the cutscenes), but he was also involved in the casting process, supervised the performance capture shoots, and worked closely with the writing staff (which was “huge”) as well as all the other teams to make sure everything was “cohesive”. Each region had its own main writer so communication was essential, especially on a game as big as this one.
It was important for them that the story wasn’t just told in main missions and cutscenes; the world had to feel alive and believable. Information can be gathered through talking with NPCs, playing side missions, and reading documents, so everything moves the story forward. They also wanted the characters’ personalities to feel real and made sure each of them was clearly part of the game’s world, even the Seeds, whose impact on that county they’ve been living in for years had to be tangible. When they created the Guns for Hire, they wanted them to have strong personalities and unique abilities. These characters have all grown up in Hope County, know each other “to varying degrees”, and have a history with the locations, so everything they say had to reflect this.
They recruited Sharky during the live stream so they talked a bit more about him. Drew Holmes said they imagined this character before they got the idea of bringing “long-time Far Cry superstar” Hurk back in Far Cry 5. When they decided that they were cousins and what their relationship was like (Sharky admires his older cousin, the “world traveler”), it became easier for them to write him and for Dylan Taylor, who plays both characters, to get inspired. He ended up improvising about 75% of Hurk’s lines… which was great but would sometimes become a problem because missions are written and designed a certain way.
As he had already revealed recently, Drew Holmes had “no idea” all the Guns for Hire could hang out at the 8-Bit Pizza Bar. He even initially wondered if people on social media were “lying” about this because, although the team did want to create a place for these characters to meet and talk to each other (because many conversations were written and recorded), they had been told including that in the game wouldn’t be possible. But it turns out one of the devs did it in secret anyway, much to everyone’s surprise and delight.
Drew Holmes particularly enjoys the Prepper Stashes because they all have “a great puzzle design” thanks to “smart level designers”, and because they also give information about the world. They are an opportunity for players to “breathe” and experience “contemplative exploration”.
In Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4, he thought the story was more linear, while in Far Cry 5, they needed to have “a 360 approach” and think about all the ways players could play the missions. In previous games, he also thought the cutscenes were mostly people talking and that players were just spectators, and he said that’s one of the limits of first-person games. In Far Cry 5, the goal was to make players feel like they were part of the action and not just the camera. This is why we carry crates to help Mary May after liberating Fall’s End, for example, or fly with Faith the first time we visit the Bliss.
Speaking of this scene, Drew Holmes said they wanted Jenessa Grant to actually “fly” so the cutscene would have a “weird ethereal quality” to it. To achieve this, they didn’t tie her to a rope… but hired ballet dancers to carry her around! This scene, which he remembers writing at 3 am one night, took about half a day to rehearse, but it was worth it.
There were other stunts in the game that forced the team to think of creative ways to shoot the scenes in performance capture and achieve the results they wanted. They built a fake helicopter for the opening mission and flipped it over with everyone inside, including “the Randycam” (Randy Yuen, camera specialist, who “played” the Deputy), so they really were upside down. And when the Marshal swims out of the car at the end of the prologue, they made a stuntman “swim through the air on a rig”. Drew Holmes gave a shout-out to David Footman, cinematic director, for all his “crazy ideas”.
When Chris talked about how cool he thought the opening cinematic was because learning about Eden’s Gate through interviews and from other characters’ points of view was a great idea, Drew Holmes explained that what they say is inspired by how real-life cults operate. Usually, at first, a few people move in, buy some land to “get a foothold”, and are joined by more and more people until they can be “the majority on the city council” and start passing laws. Then, they basically own the town, and other people either join them or go live elsewhere, but those who want to leave can’t sell their properties because the cult has driven the prices down… That’s basically the stories the team heard when they did research and worked with cult advisors.
Chris also asked about the Seed family and why they are always so close to the camera (and the player). Drew Holmes said there are several reasons. First, because they wanted the game to be immersive, they needed other characters (not just the Seeds) to have this proximity with the Deputy, to engage the player as a person and make them feel involved. Second, they had a very talented cast, so the closer the camera is, the better you can appreciate the “strong performances” they all delivered. And finally, when villains invade your personal space, you “tense up” and it’s “uncomfortable”, and the dev team wanted this too. In video games, he said it’s important to think about “what you want, emotionally, from the players”.
When asked who he thought the “most twisted” Herald was, he initially answered it was “a tie” between John and Jacob because the former tortures people and the latter “ate his friend” (which “sets you on a weird path” in life). At first, he said that, compared to her brothers, Faith was “more of a victim of Joseph”, but on second thought, since she’s “taken and run with it”, and because of the way she used the Deputy’s friends and killed “poor Virgil” as well as Burke, he concluded she was, in fact, as twisted as the other two. In the end, he thinks they are “all pretty bad”.
He was also asked about the Deputy and who they were as an individual. He sees them as someone who would always do whatever they can to help the people around them but who suddenly finds themselves “thrust into this insane situation”. They are a young, normal person in “a crazy context”, but also the only one who can truly do something about it and make a difference. But because they are a silent protagonist, making them feel like a real person was challenging, and this is why the rest of the cast had to be “very fleshed out”. Other characters had to be able to give some perception of what the Deputy would say if they had a voice.
It’s hard for Drew Holmes to pick a favorite mission or storyline in Far Cry 5, but he would probably choose one of Hurk Drubman Senior’s missions… even though he admits he’s a “very divisive character” and even a “piece of crap”. He also thinks Kim Rye is great, and the “Butch and Sundance” joke is one of his favorites.
Fun fact: they used the same animation for when the Deputy is on fire and when they are attacked by bees. He humorously called it “efficiency” and said that, when you tell people to act like they’re “putting out fire” or “swatting bees”, they do the same thing anyway.
