by RootSec
When it comes to players exploring a living, breathing open-world game, it’s hard to compare any company’s franchise to Rockstar’s. It’s even harder to compare to its latest release Red Dead Redemption 2 with the countless amount of small details and realistic animations sprinkled throughout a large landscape. Rockstar always seems to outdo itself by bringing even more of a realistic approach than its last release. Even still, that doesn’t mean other companies shouldn’t throw their cowboy hat into the ring.
Ubisoft isn’t unfamiliar with creating big open-world games, as it has made a lot of them. In the Far Cry series, players are put up against a multitude of challenging enemies. This comes in the form of antagonistic cults, armies, and sometimes the local fauna, so a variety of refreshing enemies is one Far Cry staple that is sure to be in Far Cry 6. With a franchise as big as the Far Cry series, how does the wildlife from Far Cry compare to that of Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2?
The Far Cry series has had many entries throughout its years, and being open-world titles, almost all of them have had wildlife in some form. Far Cry 2 was the first in the series to have animals the player could interact with. Though it had a diverse range of wildlife, they weren’t dangerous to the player except for perhaps revealing their location to the enemy. These were mainly grazing herbivores such as Gazelles, Impalas, and Zebras with a handful of domestic animals like Chickens and Goats. This would hardly make Far Cry 2’s wildlife compelling, though that wouldn’t stop Far Cry 2 from getting a remaster mod to bring the best of it out.
Far Cry 3 sees improvements in the wildlife category with a larger roster of animals. Many of these are dangerous and life-threatening to the player such as the Komodo Dragons, Tigers, Sharks, and Crocodiles to name a few. Players who would come across some of these animals might get themselves lunged at by Boars or entangled by a Moray Eel having to button mash their way out. The animals themselves weren’t very dynamic with their environmental interactions, and the extent was them simply attacking the player. It wasn’t the wildlife that made Far Cry 3 the special game that it was, but it certainly helped bring Rook Island to life.
Far Cry 4 had a more diverse range of wildlife from the Asian and Indian Rhinos to the Elephants and Honey Badgers, to name but a few. Animals like the Rhinos were friendly unless provoked, and they’d charge more than just the player as they would ram into vehicles when angered. Wolves could hunt in packs attacking the player, same with the Wild Dogs. Eagles were notorious for attacking the player relentlessly (and other NPCs as they would make it known every time).
Occasionally, players would see animals interact with each other, such as Tigers scrapping with each other over territory, a Snow Leopard taking down a Deer, or a Mugger Crocodile doing a death roll to a Yak. Eagles would try to pull Goats off of the high-terrain cliffs of Kyrat dropping them to their deaths which is true to their brutal real-life counterpart. These interactions in Far Cry 4’s world made it feel more real and alive. Far Cry 6 could be similar to Far Cry 4 in this regard, and it wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Far Cry 5 was arguably set in a less interesting open world compared to its predecessors, though it did have a wide range of wildlife to encounter. Grizzly Bears and Wolverines roam the forests, while Bulls and Skunks were more common around civilized areas. Much like in Far Cry 4, the hostile animals like the Bears or Cougars would attack the player lunging at them or pinning them down on the ground, while the more friendly animals like the Moose or Skunk would attack when provoked.
An increased number of animals fighting each other could be encountered by the player in the wild, such as a Wolf attacking a Boar, or a Bear intimidating smaller creatures. This was the extent the animals in Far Cry 5 would interact with the environment. Come New Dawn, the animals themselves would take on a new vision, but would operate largely the same.
Rockstar seems to go above and beyond when it releases a title, and that is very evident when it comes to Red Dead Redemption 2 (and its predecessor). The sheer amount of detail that can be found is staggering, to say the least, and that’s just with the wildlife alone. Red Dead Redemption 2 boasts a whopping 80 different species of animals, most having their own subspecies to boot (Horses alone having almost 20 different kinds alone). These can range from Alligators and Beavers to Parrots and Vultures, and everything in between. These aren’t even among the rarest encounters in Red Dead Redemption 2, however.
As players adventure through the world of Red Dead Redemption 2, they are sure to encounter their fair share of wildlife. This includes some of the most difficult legendary animals to hunt in Red Dead. It’s not just the vast amount of fauna one could encounter, but also how those creatures interact with the living world Rockstar handcrafted. It’s not uncommon in town to see a Dog begging the butcher for food or to be let inside when it rains after playing with another Dog. A Cat might take shelter from the rain and clean itself or may use a wooden beam as a scratching post. Pigs do as they do and eat literally anything, even corpses!
Players who venture outside of towns along the lake may see Fish come up and nab a surface-water insect, while at the very same time may see a Grizzly nabbing itself a fish and then eating it on a nearby rock. Bears are also seen sometimes scratching their backside on a tree, digging a hole, or even defending their feast from curious wolves. In the snow, players may come across a Fox diving into the snow attempting to catch its prey, or a Moose stuck on a frozen lakebed unable to gain its footing as it is too slippery. Deer can get their antlers caught on each other, with one deer dying to an obvious neck wound (shown with blood) and the other left to struggle to break free from the fresh corpse. Red Dead Redemption 2 players may be saved by an unlikely animal ally, in the form of a roaming Cougar. If it’s feeling up for it that is.
A Cougar may catch a Deer, and bite at its neck until the Deer stops screaming and dies from bleeding out. This is very evident as the player could then see the Cougar start to feast on the corpse, blood dripping from the Cougar’s snout. This adds a whole level of immersion that just isn’t seen in Far Cry games, with their rubbery corpse physics and lack of detail to this degree. The handful of examples laid out here is only scratching the surface of the living breathing world that Rockstar has created for players to immerse themselves in.
With how long Red Dead Redemption 2 was in development, the effort truly shines in the final product. The world of Red Dead Redemption 2 showcases that all the extra time put into the finer details really adds to the overall experience, and it is almost necessary to create a believable open world these days.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
