Subsequently, Ubisoft obtained the rights to the franchise and the bulk of the development is handled by Ubisoft Montreal with assistance from other Ubisoft satellite studios. Whereas the first Far Cry and its spin-offs/remakes were typical FPS with discrete levels, Far Cry 2 and the subsequent games...
Subsequently, Ubisoft obtained the rights to the franchise and the bulk of the development is handled by Ubisoft Montreal with assistance from other Ubisoft satellite studios. Whereas the first Far Cry and its spin-offs/remakes were typical FPS with discrete levels, Far Cry 2 and the subsequent games have adapted an open world-style of gameplay, with main story and side missions and optional quests to complete. There are minimal narrative elements or chronology between the games. Instead, the Far Cry games have generally shared the theme of taking the player to "a lawless frontier" where "values and laws of today are non-functional", along with elements of having to survive in the wilderness including hunting and crafting. Ubisoft Montreal, the principal developers of the series, do consider that all games share the same common fictional universe, and have reused some minor characters to maintain that, but otherwise anticipate each game can be enjoyed as a standalone title without knowledge of the other games. The first Far Cry game was developed by the German studio Crytek, and premiered their CryEngine software. The demo allowed the user to explore a virtual tropical island populated with dinosaurs, showcasing the size of the virtual world that the CryEngine could handle. With Crytek unable to work with them, Ubisoft assigned its studio Ubisoft Montreal to help port the title to the various game consoles through the Far Cry Instincts and Far Cry Vengeance titles. In March 2006, Ubisoft acquired all rights to the Far Cry series and a perpetual license for the CryEngine version used in the development of Far Cry. Ubisoft Montreal remained the principal studio developing all future Far Cry games. Far Cry 2 was announced by Ubisoft in July 2007, and featured two significant changes from the previous Far Cry games. First, it premiered the use of the Dunia Engine, a modified form of the licensed CryEngine by Ubisoft Montreal. Second, rather than continuing in the narrative of the first Far Cry, it created a more open-ended narrative, featuring nine playable characters and the means for the player to create their own stories with the other non-playable characters in the game with an advanced artificial intelligence system.