Saints Row writer Drew Holmes, who was recruited to Ubisoft Montreal seven years ago, is now the IP director of Far Cry.
Holmes shared the news on LinkedIn, promising that there are “big things in store” for the first-person shooter series. Over the course of his time at the Canadian studios, he has worked on Far Cry 5 as its lead writer and then on its downloadable expansion Lost On Mars. After that, Holmes was the lead scriptwriter of Far Cry: New Dawn, the spin-off that was set following the nuclear detonation at the end of the 2018 game.
Starting as a member of the quality assurance team and a writing intern for Deep Silver Volition in 2006, Holmes then worked his way up onto the writing team less than a year later. Per PC Gamer, he wrote the ambient NPC dialogue, scripts for radio stations and main and miscellaneous mission dialogue on Saints Row 2.
In 2011, he co-wrote Saints Row: The Third alongside Jeffrey Bielawski, Luke Blaize and Jessica Thorn, under the leadership of Steve Jaros. This entry was lauded for its core campaign as well as the characterisation of the rest of Steelport’s citizens, with particular praise for its awareness and emphasis of video game tropes.
Holmes has credits on the Red Faction series, BioShock Infinite and its expansion Burial At Sea, and the cancelled Saints Row 4. In NME‘s four-star review of Far Cry 6, Jake Tucker criticised the game for sidestepping the opportunity to tell a fully realised political tale.
“If you wanted your big action game of 2021 to go light on storyline and include both an alligator in a waistcoat and a punk rock rooster with no chill whatsoever, you’re in the right place,” explained Jake.
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