Ubisoft's Far Cry 3 is an open-world first-person shooter that takes gamers on a a visual zip line through tropical jungles and a demonic scenario of a lawless world ruled by unhinged blood-thirsty hooligans.
Although the game has received mostly positive reviews, a few critics have lambasted the game's narrative and its plot points and going as far as to call the story cliché.
In a recent interview with Penny Arcade, Jeffrey Yohalem, lead writer of Far Cry 3, says that gamers and critics have only uncovered the first pieces of larger puzzle when it comes to the game's narrative.
"The story is itself something that can be solved, like a riddle," Yohalem said. "What makes me sad is that people don't engage with playing the riddle, trying to solve the riddle. It's like a scavenger hunt where people aren't collecting the first clue."
The article notes that the first words seen in the video game are from Lewis Carroll's 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.' The quote reads: "In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again." Yohalem says that the quote is a clue and it is there to be analyzed by the player.
"The Alice in Wonderland quotes are there to clue people in. You analyze them like you would any other text and they let you know what's going on," Yohalem told Penny Arcade.
There are other more subtle clues in the game including the name of the island chain where Far Cry 3 takes place.
"Rook means to steal from, or be a fraud, as well as the piece from chess. So it's like a game that is a fraud," Yohalem said. "'Through The Looking Glass' is a chessboard. The landscape that Alice is moving through is a chessboard, and she can only move according to the rules of chess, and the characters she meets are on the chessboard."
He says that he expected players to discover the framework of the game on their own, but that his expectations have been challenged by the lack of discussion from players and critics. But Yohalem said, he wouldn't change his approach to writing video games in future projects.
"What I'm hoping is that through talking about this game and the Internet talking about this game, is that all this stuff will come to light, and the audience will say next time, 'We want more of this,'" Yohalem said. "This all comes from my sense that players shouldn't be talked down to. For me, there's a kind of caustic relationship that's developed between players and developers."
He added that the relationship between players and developers is an abusive one, where gamers and studios are caught in a cycle of criticism and disrespect.
"It's really a bad, abusive relationship, because developers say 'Players won't get it anyway, so we're just going to do something that holds their hand,'" Yohalem said. "It doesn't respect them, and then players say 'I hate this,' or 'I hate that,' or 'This game sucks,' and that hurts developers. So it's like a cycle. It also feels like critics aren't looking for meaning in the game, either. So it's like all sides have just stopped listening to each other."
Far Cry 3 is now available worldwide for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. You can check out our review round up for the game here and our list of the game's five best trailers here. Learn more about Far Cry 3' multiplayer and co-op modes here.