14 DAY TRIAL // Much of the pre-launch promotion for Far Cry 3 focused on Vaas, the mad but charismatic figure that the player has to defeat, but at one point in the actual game, the character disappears, something that has frustrated many players.
Lead writer Jeffrey Yohalem tells IGN in an interview that the shift in focus was inspired by the novel To The Lighthouse, which was written by Virginia Woolf and was published in 1927.
The developer states, “The main character dies in the middle, kind of parenthetically. The whole book is going and you get to these parentheses in this middle portion, and she’s dead. The rest of the book is about the absence of her. That is so daring. And we did it.”
The very fact that most Far Cry 3 players would like to spend more time talking to Vaas and stopping his schemes means that the development team at Ubisoft has created a great character and retired him at the right time.
Yohalem adds, “You also want that kind of a character to take a bow when everyone wants him the most. You never feel that in a game.”
Apparently, some inspiration was also drawn from Star Wars and the way the character of Darth Vader was introduced.
Ubisoft tried to generate the same sense of awe that Vader created when he first appeared in the movies, clad in his black armor and Force choking his underlings.
Vaas had a similar impact when he was first shown and Ubisoft wanted to make sure that the player always remembered that encounter.
Far Cry 3 was widely praised on launch for its solid shooter mechanics and for its willingness to give player freedom when it came to tackling challenges and developing his character.
The game is playable on the PC, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.