Far Cry 4 creative director Alex Hutchinson criticized the words of Noah Hawley, who is working on a series based on the Ubisoft franchise.
The reason was an interview where the showrunner stated that video games are not well suited for dramatic stories because many players skip cutscenes and do not follow the plot. Therefore, Hawley is not going to adapt a specific part of the series, but "to have a dialogue with the franchise" and rethink it.
Hutchinson disagreed with this approach. First, he wrote on LinkedIn that these words "annoyed him a bit," and then explained his position in more detail in an interview with IGN.
In his opinion, gamers expect adaptations to respect the source material, not devalue games. He noted that even skipping cutscenes does not indicate a lack of interest in the plot, as storytelling in games is made up of many elements.
"I think in certain genres, many players skip cutscenes. Certainly, the player's story is paramount, but the topic of storytelling in games is a complex issue. The theme, setting, characters — all these are key elements of the story and, undoubtedly, drivers of player engagement, so even if they skip some cutscenes, they are deeply immersed in the narrative, taking on a role and moving through a designed space."
Hutchinson also outlined his vision of the Far Cry series. He believes that its core is the story of a "stranger in an unfamiliar environment," where an ordinary person finds himself in extreme conditions and is forced to adapt. In this format, the plot works not separately from the gameplay, but together with it, reacting to the player's actions.
Separately, the developer criticized Hawley's past projects. He noted that the showrunner had already freely handled canon in his adaptations. In the case of "Fargo," this approach worked, but in "Alien: Earth," according to Hutchinson, Hawley turned the plot into "a strange story about Peter Pan who got a dog," losing the key features of the franchise.