I'm not being critical; I'm just curious.

Did you ever play Far Cry 1? It's a rather linear FPS game about escaping an island full of mutants. Far Cry 2 took the series in a very different direction with its open world, sandbox gameplay, and lack of genetic experiments gone horribly wrong. The subsequent games further developed this gameplay formula.

I'm just wondering, how did the Far Cry series become what it is today? I can't really see any thematic links between the modern iterations and the original game. Like, why didn't they create a new IP for Far Cry 2 and beyond?

It doesn't really matter at this point, but I'm just curious.