Far Cry 4 Review

Title: Far Cry 4

Platform(s) Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC

Release Date:  November 18, 2014

ESRB: M

Far Cry 4 is a firm believer of, “if it isn't broke, don't fix it.” Almost all of the mechanics from 2012's Far Cry 3 are here, they just have been turned up to eleven and put into a new location. Far Cry 4 is an over-the-top ride full of huge explosions and gratuitous gun battles that emphasizes different play styles to make almost every mission accessible in any manner the player wishes. The game gives you an incredible open world, full of activities and danger, but often doesn't know when to let you be or give you a strong story that makes you feel a real need to be fighting a fight you were inexplicably thrust into. Despite some slight bumps in the terrain, Far Cry 4 is incredible and messy ride that knows how to create an excessively fun experience.

Set in the fictional Himalayan country of Kyrat, Far Cry 4 puts players in the shoes of Ajay Ghale. A native who spent most of his life stateside, Ajay only returns to Kyrat to fulfill his mother's dying wish of having her ashes spread in her homeland. Right off the bat, Ajay learns that Kyrat is torn by a civil war, as the people revolt against dictator Pagan Min, who has divided the country and stripped its peoples of their freedoms and heritage. Without much thought, Ajay joins the militia group, “The Golden Path,” and is tasked with bringing down Pagan's regime. But the story is poor in giving the player any real motivation to do so. It is explained that Ajay's parent's founded The Golden Path, giving a slight emotional appeal as to why he should be fighting this war, and it is interesting to speculate whether or not his mother had ulterior motives for sending Ajay to Kyrat. But Ajay is a fairly lifeless and silent character. He is never really developed or given much of a voice on the mass murders he's committing. If anything, he feels like a glorified errand boy being told, “go here and kill this,” by the quarreling leaders of the Golden Path, Amita and Sabal. Players are given the choice as to which of these two they see fit to lead the Golden Path, but once again poor development leaves them just giving you missions with vague explanations as to their motives. On the other hand, Pagan Min is a wonderful villain and when first introduced is portrayed as a terrifying and tyrannical dictator. Video game DiCaprio, Troy Baker, gives a stunning performance of Pagan as being both influenced by his own personal grievances and completely malicious in his dictatorship over Kyrat. The only problem is that after the opening cinematic, Pagan disappears from the game almost entirely. Despite calling you occasionally via your in-game radio, Pagan rarely shows up in any cinematics and it feels as though the game robs itself of its strongest character. It's unfortunate that the story doesn't become more fleshed out, because at its core it is an interesting plot and has the potential to make the player feel a real need to fight for the Golden Path and try to take down Pagan Min. But poor character development and the game's denial of its strongest character ultimately make the story fall flat before it can fully get off the ground.

Far Cry 4 is utterly beautiful. Traveling through the mountains and valleys of Kyrat never feels stale as each individual place you visit feels unique to itself and the region of the map you are in. Bushes rustle as you walk through them, scuff marks show up on walls during firefights, individual blades of grass catch on fire if affected by an explosion, all making you feel like you are in a world that actually exists and it's a world that makes you want to be in it. I often found myself drifting far from the campaign just to explore every inch of a cave I just happened to see from the corner of my eye. When I stood from a vantage point and saw something way off in the distance, I couldn't stop myself from trying to reach it to see what was there. The draw distances of this game allow you to see almost clear across the map and take in how much is truly packed in there. A handful of missions also have you traveling to the mythical world, Shangri-La or to the top of the Himalayan mountains and offer up new areas of exploration that feel unique and as fully realized as Kyrat itself. There were a few texture pop-ins and I noticed a handful of dips in the frame rate, but these can hardly be considered complaints due to how rare they were and just how big this game truly is.

Far Cry 4 is an incredibly dense game with an endless amount of things to do and see and an equal amount of threats trying to hinder you from reaching them. At the end of my nearly twenty hours within the game's main campaign, I had only beaten 29.67% of everything it had to offer, which is staggering. Kyrat is full of dynamic events that may have you hunting Honey Badgers one moment and freeing members of the Golden Path who have been kidnapped the next. Countless collectibles, side missions, and hidden areas to explore litter the map with opportunities for more gun play, racing, hunting, collecting, and even an arena that pits man against beast in a fight for bragging rights over the food chain. The game tries really hard to not give the player even one moment to be bored with what it has to offer, and it does a good job of this. I never found myself having to look very hard for something to do or blow up, but unfortunately sometimes the game doesn't know when to let up and let the player experience things at their own pace. Or just get from point A to point B without being mauled, shot up, or blown to kingdom come. I found immense frustration when I was simply trying to drive to my mission objective, but had to engage in an intense fight when a car full of enemies happened to drive by leaving me out of ammo and low on health by the end of it. What's worse is that several times after I had turned around and restocked on the items I needed, on my way back to the objective the exact same thing would happen again. Similarly, numerous times while trying to stake out an area and get a grasp on where enemies were, an animal would sneak up behind me and start attacking me, which in turn would startle me and cause me to start shooting aimlessly, inevitably alerting my enemies of my position. The dynamic world keeps the game interesting and does a good job of keeping players on their toes but it seems to not know a proper time or place for when they should occur. It would have been nice to not have to constantly worry about the threats of the game's outside spontaneity while trying to engage in the campaign, leaving the game's missions own breed of insanity to speak for themselves.

Many games promote the player freedom of, “Go in silently or guns blazing. The choice is yours.” Far Cry 4 offers the same thing, but it is more of a, “go in silently and kill no one but your target, or unleash a tiger that you have set on fire upon your enemies, zip-line into the battlefield, blow up a truck of guys with your rocket launcher, go find an elephant and bring him into the mix to flatten your foes, and then use a mortar to bring that pesky helicopter out of the sky that's been shooting at you this whole time in a flashy mix of gunpowder and viscera,” kind of game. Nearly every mission offers this freedom and I never got tired of the insanity that ensued when my initial stealthy approach didn't pan out and my next best option was a grenade launcher and C4. Returning from Far Cry 3 are enemy outposts that can be liberated to decrease your adversary's control of Kyrat. These outposts are a highlight of the game and trying a new way of liberating each one before the soldiers can call for reinforcements never gets old. On top of those are enemy fortresses, controlled by the main antagonists of the game. Conquering these fortresses takes a lot more planning than the outposts as they are much larger and feature far more enemies, but offer a lot more opportunities for mayhem. Luckily, if you're in a bind the game offers “guns for hire” that you can call in to help you fight as well as the opportunity for co-op play that allows another person to join your game and aid you in your time of need. There's never a guarantee in this game that your plan will ever go perfectly and trying to think on your feet in a hail of bullets is a rush that keeps me excited to fire up the game far beyond the story's completion.

Far Cry 4 never lets the player feel unequipped for the insane amount of enemies it likes to throw at you at a given time. Weapon options are as varied and numerous as one could hope from a Far Cry game offering everything from silent bows for sneak attacks to RPGs for full-on assaults. Numerous vehicles litter the map to make traversing Kyrat by road, water, and air easier and feel goofy and fun to maneuver. As long as you can tolerate the in-game radio DJ that spouts off horribly unfunny material about defecation and genitals ad nauseam. Controls are tied to the left analog stick and never fully leave you in precise control, making each time you get behind the wheel a messy journey of running things over and narrowly avoiding driving off or into a mountain. This isn't a complaint as it might be with other games that put more of an emphasis on driving. Rather it just adds to the insanity of Far Cry 4's habit of never letting you feel exactly in control of what's going on. The game's upgrade system makes noticeable differences to Ajay's killing abilities, allowing him to perform new takedowns, hold his breath longer while lining up a sniper shot, and ride elephants amongst numerous other things. Upgrades make Ajay feel considerably more powerful, but the game doesn't make players work very hard for them. Experience points are thrown out all over the place and acquiring numerous upgrades can happen fairly early on in the game. It never felt like I had to work hard in the game to become more powerful, and instead I had numerous upgrade shopping sprees I could go on early in the game which detracted from the over-all satisfaction of working hard for a single upgrade.

Far Cry 4 is a sequel done right. Everything that made Far Cry 3 enjoyable is here, but expanded upon tenfold and made great. It's an insanely fun and crazy ride that never gives an opportunity for boredom, even if that means throwing too much at the player at once. Kyrat is a world I want to be in and I keep finding myself putting the disk back in to see more of what it has to offer. It's just unfortunate that the story doesn't fully develop itself to make me feel that I had a real reason to be there other than for my own exploits. Far Cry 4 is an insane journey that allows players to make there own way and accomplishes being one of the most fun experiences to come out this year.

4 out of 5

Blake Hester