Hutchinson slams hawley's far cry series dismissal, citing gamer frustration
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Hawley's bold claim sparks outrage among far cry fans
Alex Hutchinson, creative director of Far Cry 4, isn’t letting Noah Hawley’s dismissive comments about adapting the open-world franchise slide. It all stems from Hawley’s recent declaration that his upcoming Far Cry TV series wouldn’t draw directly from any of Ubisoft’s established titles – a statement that’s ignited a furious backlash online.
Hawley, currently overseeing the second season of Alien: Earth and previously helming Fargo and X-Men: Legion, essentially argued that his approach to the series would be a fresh “dialogue” with the Far Cry brand, rather than a straightforward adaptation. He suggested the core drama of a Far Cry story simply doesn't translate effectively to television, citing the game’s unique structure – a focus on player agency and a “fish-out-of-water” narrative – as a significant hurdle.
“They just want to feel their loves are respected”
But Hutchinson’s response, delivered with a restrained, almost weary, precision via LinkedIn, was a forceful rebuke. “This is kinda pissing me off,” he wrote. “And I like Noah Hawley’s work.” More crucially, he dissected Hawley’s reasoning, arguing that gamers overwhelmingly crave respect for their investment – a sentiment long overlooked.
“I think in certain genres a lot of people skip cutscenes,” Hutchinson explained to IGN. “And certainly the player story takes primacy, but story is a complex topic in games. Theme, setting, character are all key to story and are certainly drivers of player engagement, so even if they’re skipping some cinematics, they are deeply engaged in narrative as they occupy a role and move through a designed space.” He emphasized that the core of Far Cry lies in the protagonist’s encounter with an unfamiliar and often hostile environment, a “fish-out-of-water” scenario – a narrative driver he considers paramount.
Beyond the cutscenes: a deeper engagement
Hutchinson dismissed Hawley’s argument about the irrelevance of drama in adapting games as a simplification. “My biggest problem is the dismissal of the game stories as pointless,” he stated. “His position isn’t without merit, and his adaptions of Alien and Fargo also basically threw away history. This worked well in Fargo but less well in Alien, which turned into a kind of weird Peter Pan gets a dog story instead of remaining true to the best elements of the brand.”
The core issue, Hutchinson contends, isn’t simply the existence of cutscenes, but the way players actively participate in shaping the narrative through their choices and actions. “I think gamers just want to feel their loves are respected not dismissed as they often were historically,” he concluded. And frankly, it’s a sentiment that feels acutely relevant in an industry often quick to devalue the player’s experience – a mistake, I suspect, that could prove costly for Hawley’s Far Cry adaptation.”