‘Far Cry Primal’ and the Compromise Between Sequels and New IPs

Announced yesterday, Far Cry Primal seems, on the face of it, something of a dare. It’s a Far Cry without the characterizing guns or all-terrain vehicles, and their oftentimes jocular collaboration; a first-person shooter where one’s bullet is a spear, and one’s gun is…well, oneself. Its Mesolithic backdrop – in which, for humans, marrow was as instrumental and elemental as water and fire – is one seldom seen in the medium, and it may be estranging enough that the question becomes why this is a Far Cry game at all.