"How fucking sad is it that people actually thought this would never get made?" asks Far Cry 3 game director Dean Evans. The comment isn't directed at fans; given that the outlandish stand alone spin-off was revealed around April fool's day, their scepticism was understandable.
But the disbelief lingered, even as Ubisoft continued to promote Blood Dragon. In light of that, it was more of a commentary on the current state of the industry, where a shooter that doesn't take itself seriously and isn't a drab mesh of greys and browns seems so far from the realm of possibility. For those still in doubt, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is getting made, and Ubisoft Montreal is very happy about that.
Post Post Apocalypse
Blood Dragon jumps to a distant future, where the apocalypse has had an apocalypse and from the ashes of Vietnam ll a new breed of soldier has risen. Part man, part machine, all commando, Sgt. Rex Colt must take on a maniac leading cyborg army to ... well, we're not exactly sure to do what, but we presume it's to save the world.
"It's bullshit," says Evans. "It's fun. Things don't have to be serious. Things don't have to make sense."
Blood Dragon is what you get when you give a bunch of devs that love movies, music, games and pop culture from the 80s and 90s free reign on making DLC. The 30 odd minutes of Blood Dragon we played were ridiculous and over-the-top in every conceivable way.
It started with an introductory cutscene styled and written to evoke SNES/Mega Drive action games, transitioned to a f**k yeah turret sequence completely mismatched with a 60s feel good bluesy/jivey soundtrack, and ended with commanding a giant dinosaur thing to fire its eye-lasers at an enemy base.
"We looked at it at the point where an action movie franchise really jumps the shark and goes ballistic," continues Evans. "The game is really stupid, and that's not a bad thing. Games can be pretty stupid and awesome.
"Metal Gear Revengeance is one of the stupidest games ever made but it's absolutely spectacular and so much fun. That's the approach we wanted to take, just go over-the-top and not take ourselves seriously."
One close up shot on bulging biceps, a helicopter explosion, and a late title card sequence later and we find ourselves on solid ground. Spider, our prankster bro-in-arms, manages to remotely start a "military navigation for idiots" program in our suit, auto-holstering guns and activating helpful tooltips including 'press A to demonstrate your ability to read', 'crouch to go lower' and 'press B to activate your quadriceps and challenge your sense of balance.'
The tongue-in-cheek mockery of modern game design nicely compliments the quality irreverent nature of the game's writing. By design, the story is farcical and the characters one-note, as most action movies and games from the the source era were.
"We're proud the script is pretty bad. We're trying to make a really bad action movie, so there's a lot of tropes and cliches in there. We had a lot of fun writing it."
"Our characters are pretty one-dimensional, but they're also pretty fun. We just really wanted to encapsulate that time period. In a time when polygons equal emotions, we don't really have a story about loss, friendship or anything like that. It's ultimately a game about murdering cyborgs."
Comments
35 comments so far...
billybouffant on 11 Apr '13 said:
I'm very torn with this, on the one hand, I loved Far Cry 3 and any excuse to play more should be a no brainer, but I just don't like the overly neon look. From what I've seen, there doesnt appear to be even a shred of blue skies and green grass, I don't know if it's too over the top for me
Manjushri on 11 Apr '13 said:
I want it.
And I want it now.
*Wets pants*
HotRabbit on 11 Apr '13 said:
Absolutely no link to Far Cry 3 then. Very misleading. And what's the deal with all this desperate use of expletives to make it sound the height of awesomenessl? Don't get it at all...
paperywhiteboy on 11 Apr '13 said:
Looks bloody awesome. Love the aesthetic. Looking forward to some Snake Pliskin-style ridiculousness.
paperywhiteboy on 11 Apr '13 said:
You're not an 80s lad, I take it? Expletives were vowels in the B-movie action genre!
Ertan Ertigan on 11 Apr '13 said:
i don't care for the duke nukem meets vice city angle, but the gameplay is definitely calling me...
HotRabbit on 11 Apr '13 said:
I can understand that, it's the game director's use of B-movie action genre speech I was refering to.
Looks great and a whole heap of fun. But just find the 'Far Cry 3' strap line pointless. Just bring out the game under its own banner?
cult on 11 Apr '13 said:
I didn't know what to expect and so what's left of my mind went into 80's mode overdrive.
Minutes later.
Sam Spandex takes on linear red barrel strewn trope ridden banned in Germany censored in the UK green blooded erect penis visible shooter.
Watched the video.
In neon!
Nimron Tang on 11 Apr '13 said:
Now this is looking like my kind of silly.
Loving the B-movie vibe they have gone for, it would be even better if it had Steven Seagal in it.
paperywhiteboy on 11 Apr '13 said:
Michael Biehn's a pretty good second, I reckon.
Nimron Tang on 11 Apr '13 said:
Good point, beggars can't be choosers.
Moribundman on 11 Apr '13 said:
People complaining that this isn't more of the same Far Cry 3 need to get a f**king life. I love Far Cry 3 but that route is the route of shovelware DLC. This is something fresh and imaginative while not requiring a completely new game budget from scratch. Marketed at an XBLA/PSN game is a great idea too.
Who knows, the franchise could break out in the same way Portal did from being a "gamette" HL2 mod in the Orange Box...
Manjushri on 11 Apr '13 said:
I'd take Biehn over Seagal any day.
Moribundman on 11 Apr '13 said:
And I think its not being brought out under its own banner because if it was, the self-same people whinging that it shouldn't be called "Far Cry" would be saying "what the f**k? These f**kers have just stolen the engine from Far Cry and modded it. Make your own game you lazy f**kers!". Look at the Youtube vids - it plays basically the same way as Far Cry albeit with more emphasis on balls out action than stealth.
It acknowledges it is built upon the (somewhat more) po-faced Far Cry action game while being a silly 80s themed action game. It seems to be having some fun with it, mocking conventions of FPS games in the same way it is mocking the sci fi movies on which it is based.
You could even argue it takes the themes of madness and confinement on an island from Far Cry 3 and turns them up to 11.
Moribundman on 11 Apr '13 said:
Seagal's voice acting would sound like a constipated person trapped in a toilet anyway.
TheLastDodo on 11 Apr '13 said:
This sounds like the best game ever.
TheLastNinja on 11 Apr '13 said:
this looks so awesome im f**king sold on that promo video alone felt like i was watching saturday morning cartoons back in 84 as a very young lad does anybody remember JEM....that singing rock star chick cartoon i would of banged her lookin back
Nimron Tang on 11 Apr '13 said:
That's why he would be perfect.
Michael Biehn is cool, but Steven Seagal > Michael Biehn.
rubblemaker on 11 Apr '13 said:
Where does it say its only available on XBLA or PSN? have you read somewhere thats there's no PC version? I can't find any mention of either in this article.
symon12345 on 11 Apr '13 said:
It is most definitely on PC, I can assure you of this!
badgerpog on 11 Apr '13 said:
I've just pre-ordered on Steam. £11.99 - Out May 1st.
fustacluck on 11 Apr '13 said:
And then people would complain that it's just a lazy retread of Far Cry 3 gameplay instead of its own game.
Personally, I need it to be 1st May as soon as possible. The marriage of Far Cry with 80s movie and game themes sounds like perfection.
fustacluck on 11 Apr '13 said:
I'd love Michael Pare. He starred in some terrible 80s movies.
rubblemaker on 11 Apr '13 said:
Sweet joy
I can almost see the dust trail behind the money leaving my bank account. All I need now is to get myself into cryogenic hibernation a la 'Eric Cartman and the Wii' until May 1st.
Moribundman on 11 Apr '13 said:
Where did I say only? I've read everywhere about the PC version, I was referring to the console version being downloadable as opposed to disc based. Aren't all credible PC games downloaded these days anyway?
If you read the news stories, the whole scandal about this game is that Uplay got hacked and some Russian chaps have been merrily playing the PC version of Blood Dragon before Ubisoft even announced it officially...
Kezwar on 11 Apr '13 said:
When this was announced I was like, Dafuq. But after watching this vid I want this more than anything right now. It's clearly made for kids of the 80's/early 90's. That era of movies were good and bad at the same time. The cheese made them awesome in a way. And it has dinosaurs. f**king, DINOSAURS.
HotRabbit on 11 Apr '13 said:
Nope, not me. If it was labelled as BLOOD DRAGON - A FAR CRY FROM THE EIGHTIES, I'd be expecting something different but done using the Far Cry engine or similar. Great. Lets get it and enjoy. It's that '3' that's in there, it's misleading and suggests more of vanilla gameplay from the recent blockbuster.
Could've been titled better for the casual audience who may be duped into expecting something else.
Just an opinion.
MrPirtniw on 11 Apr '13 said:
Looks like Serious Sam and Cyberpunk had a baby. Looks more fun than FarCry- and best of all it's great to see lasers make a come back. Bullets are so boring!
Nimron Tang on 11 Apr '13 said:
I'll be honest, I actually had to look him up. I have seen him before though, possibly in "Komodo vs. Cobra".
My B-movie (particularly martial arts B-movies) holy trinity would be Gary Daniels, Billy Blanks and the chap I mentioned earlier who I like to call Steven the Seagull.
Fr33Kye on 11 Apr '13 said:
Love the david cage dig. And i think it's really sad that the wrong FPS will have trouble getting made even thiugh it's based on one of the few successful series left. We are in a really sad state.
On the brightside you loser 80s amd late 70s kids get to enjoy your B-movie action and dialogue
I'll pick this up once i catch up on games haha.
jodders on 11 Apr '13 said:
Will there be Thatcher Zombies Mode? Probably set down an abandoned mine.
It's the 80's after all...
Antideluvian on 11 Apr '13 said:
Farcry 3 should have been this from the start.
baxterbeats on 12 Apr '13 said:
This is the most anticipated game of my whole god damn life! Escape from New York with lasers + dinosaurs!
CatfishMurphy on 13 Apr '13 said:
I concur. The mechanics were excellent in Far Cry 3 but the setting, story and characters got boring very quickly. This, however, could well have solved those issues.
Mr Manipulation on 13 Apr '13 said:
Just finished playing the PC version and can confirm that it's short (about four hours) but very sweet. Like Far Cry 3 you can return to the island to capture garrisons and complete side missions after you finish. Blood Dragon has possibly the greatest soundtrack in gaming and a fun action packed campaign full of 80's references. It wouldn't suprise me to see a full fledged series come out of this, it really is that good.