Far Cry 4's "Play Without the Game" Multiplayer? Think of it Like a Demo

Back at E3 during the PlayStation conference this year, there was a distinct moment of "ooo" and "ahh" amongst the crowd during the Far Cry 4 gameplay reveal. It was there that they announced that friends would be able to hop into your Far Cry 4 game without actually owning a copy themselves.

Pretty cool, right? We all imagined it would be similar to Nintendo's download and play system on the DS and 3DS.

This past week at San Diego Comic-Con, Director Alex Hutchinson talked about how the "play without the game" mechanics would work.

"The inspiration came from the Super Nintendo days, and the way you tried out games then was to go to a buddy's house and sit on his couch and play…How long you got to play depended on how long his mom let you sit there and keep playing, and when she said go home, that was it.

…So now, when you (the buyer) have decided you've had enough, (your friends) either have to buy it or log off."

That was all transcribed by the folks at Polygon. Hutchinson went on to talk about why players will fly in as Hurk, the character,

"Basically, the guy who comes in to help you is a friend who has agreed to just blow shit up…Who in our universe is the guy who would put his life at risk to blow shit up? It's Hurk."

Back at E3, Kotaku received word of how we'd go about sharing our game with others. It actually comes down to code distribution.

The "sender" will receive ten "Keys to Kyrat" which he can send to ten PSN "friends" of his choice. The "friend" will receive a single unique key allowing him to download a PSN exclusive trial version of the game allowing co-op play in the open world with the "sender" for a limited amount of time. XP, loot, etc that the "friend" earns will then carry over if they buy the game.

There seems to be a little internal confusion about exactly how long the recipient of the code will be able to play. Hutchinson has it that it will last as long as the owner plays, while the comment from Ubisoft officially during E3 suggests that the time is more limited.

It's an interesting idea, nevertheless. This, in my mind, turns the play into a demo session with friends, when the game is arguably going to be at one of its more fun moments.

That's probably the best time for it to ask us to drop money, right?

Far Cry 4 will hit the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC platforms on Nov. 18, 2014.

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