Far Cry 4 is a bigger, badder and
better Far Cry 3. Bigger guns, bigger animals and bigger violence. You
are Ajay Ghale, son of the founder of the “Golden Path”, Mohan Ghale. Set in a
luscious, open world “Kyrat”, Far Cry 4 is filled with tall, green-grass
mountains and even snowy mountains in the Himalayas. The world is huge and
there is certainly plenty to do. You originally come to Kyrat to scatter your
mother’s ashes, but you are interrupted by an eccentric, but absolutely insane
warlord, Pagan Min (voiced by Troy Baker). Pagan kidnaps you and invites you to
dinner. Like I said, insane warlord. You manage to escape and meet up with the “Golden
Path.” They explain to you that there is a war going on and that they could
really use your help to stop it.
That’s about all there is to the opening
of “Far Cry” and then you are thrust into the open-world of Kyrat. You don’t
start out with much, but it won’t take long before you are a gun-wielding
badass. Money is easily obtainable making Far Cry’s weapons and other things
quickly purchasable. Available for purchase are the game’s regular weapons,
signature weapons (weapons that come with attachments and better stats), and
maps that reveal collectibles and unknown locations on your map. Collectibles don’t
really offer much and I lacked any motivation to really go after them. Far
Cry 4 is violent as all hell. Each time you are injured and you heal
yourself, Ajay will most likely pick a bullet out of his arm with a twig or
snap his hand back into place, etc. It’s brutal takedowns and fierce weaponry
really bring the game to life. From stabbing someone through their chest from
behind or slitting their throat from behind to blowing someone up with C4; Far
Cry’s violence is absolutely beautiful.
While killing everything that stands in
your way is half of Far Cry 4¸the other half is hunting dangerous
wildlife. There are rhinos, tigers, leopards, honey badgers (yes, honey
badgers), yaks, bears, wolves, etc. Each is either easy to kill, kind of hard
to kill, or damn near impossible to kill. If you’re going hunting, I would
strongly advise you to use a bow and arrow, as it allows for a “clean kill”
giving you two animal skins per kill making crafting much easier. Just a real
quick side note here; YOU CAN RIDE AN ELEPHANT AND SHOOT WHILE RIDING IT. The
most majestic creature of the game; you can walk right up to one and climb on.
Elephants are one of your best options if you’re looking to take on a multitude
of enemies. They’re even good for hunting if you are hunting something much
bigger than you, say, a rhino. Elephants are able to charge at enemies and hit
or pick them up with their trunks, followed by slamming them into the ground
violently. Anyway, there are ten items to craft allowing increased capacity for
each.
There are two leaders of the Golden Path,
Amita and Sabal. Both have different visions for Kyrat. Sabal wants to marry a
young princess, Bhadra, and seize complete control of Kyrat. Amita wants to
fund Kyrat using it’s drug trade. Throughout the story, Far Cry gives you the
option to either side with Amita or Sabal. Each decision you make will put one
of them ahead of the other on the path to become the Golden Path’s true leader.
The game does a great job of testing your morals as you decide who to side
with. Trust me; it’s a hard choice to make. Both Amita and Sabal offer compelling
reasons behind their causes and it will often be hard for you to choose. Far
Cry 4’s voice acting is solid for the most part, despite Ajay’s voice actor’s
droll performance. Troy Baker as Pagan Min is great, but highly underutilized
as he only makes a few appearances throughout the game otherwise taunting you
via radio.
Side missions consist of liberating
outposts by taking out a select number of enemies, liberating belltowers by
climbing to the top, assassinations, hostage rescues, stopping truck convoys,
etc. There is also an arena in that offers weapon challenges, an endless mode,
and your basic round by round mode. Ajay has a skill tree featuring two
sections, “The Tiger” and “The Elephant.” “The Tiger” section consists of skill
upgrades for combat while “The Elephant” section consists of skill upgrades to
health and syringes. Syringes are crafted using plants littered throughout the
environment and give temporary skills like tagging all animals and or enemies
in the area or allowing you to deal double damage, but take double damage as
well.
Graphically, Far Cry 4’s environments
are breathtaking. Tall trees and even taller mountains make for a wonderful
sense of verticality to the game’s world. Far Cry’s mountains can be traversed
a multitude of ways. Most mountains can be driven up using vehicles. Another
quick side note here, driving is very awkward at first. It is done using the
left stick to accelerate and reverse while the back triggers are used to aim
and shoot. At first, I hated it, but I grew accustomed to it and came to
appreciate the change of controls. However, if you’re not a fan though, you can
change the controls to the usual setup via the start menu. There is also a
small helicopter, (gyrocopter), and a grappling hook at your disposal to make
your way up mountains. Character models look decent, nothing amazing.
Oops, I almost forgot, one of Far Cry 4’s
most “trippy” aspects are its multiple journeys available to you by
participating in some side missions provided to you by Yogi and Reggie. They
hand you a joint, followed by a surprise-syringe and off you go to the land of
bright colors and evil creatures. These drug-induced adventures give a nice
touch to the game adding a different bit of scenery. Far Cry’s campaign took me
about twenty hours, a moderate amount of time and I enjoyed all of it. The game
also features a co-op mode and the ability to create your own levels and share
them with the rest of the Far Cry 4 community. Unfortunately, I have not
had any experience with co-op mode as I spent the bulk of my time with the
campaign. By the end of the game, you start to think to yourself, “was it
really all worth it?” As you mowed down countless lives all in the name of
what? The “Golden Path?” You are practically just a senseless killing machine;
Ajay barely has any humanity portrayed through his few lines throughout the
story. He’s just a shell, and a violent one at that. You never really even see
your face besides a barely visible glimpse from a phone screen which just adds
to your lack of humanity.
In conclusion, Far Cry 4 is
essentially “Far Cry 3 2.0.” It’s a new entry in the Far Cry series with
new additions. It is not a brand new game. Most character models look similar
to Far Cry 3, while the animals and environments have improved greatly.
Also, comparing Far Cry 4’s framerate to Far Cry’s 3’s atrocious
framerate, there is a huge improvement and I never encountered any bad
framerate drops. It might not be an entirely brand new game, but the additions
made to it make it a worthwhile entry in the “Far Cry” series.
PROS:
-
Huge
open-world
-
Brutal
violence
-
Improved
hunting experience
-
Testing
your morals
-
RIDING
AN ELEPHANT
CONS:
-
Pointless
collectibles
-
Mostly droll voice-acting
- Inhumane protagonist
Final Score:
8.5/10
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