Far Cry 4 Review
Some modern franchises, including Ubisoft’s own Assassin’s Creed, are often criticized for their familiarity and yearly iterations. Far Cry has managed to avoid the yearly release schedule, thus allowing for more time to innovate and present a notably different experience with each iteration. Far Cry 4, however, is a game that features many very familiar elements for those that played the great Far Cry 3 two years ago. To say that this is the same experience with a new coat of paint may be harsh, but it will ring true for some players. Even so, it’s more of the same great gameplay, so what’s wrong with that?
You are Ajay Ghale, a young man who finds himself in his homeland nation of Kyrat. His goal seems simple, to fulfill his mother’s dying wish by spreading her ashes in the mountains. But alas, upon arriving he is tangled up with the maniacal ruler Pagan Min, and his civil war against the local rebellion called The Golden Path. The game’s plot remains a relative afterthought compared to the gameplay, but we’d still hoped that Ubisoft would do better. Min has all the traits of a proper sociopath, not unlike Vaas from Far Cry 3. But like Vaas, the box cover villain barely spends any time in our company to truly appreciate the madness behind his ways. He at least holds more of a presence via occasional radio chatter.
The rest of the plot unravels in a predictable fashion, with sometimes basic dialog and Ajay’s personality being blander than Jason Brody’s. The developers did try to mix things up by offering an occasional choice to make between what missions to undertake, but overall the campaign is relatively short and moves at a quick pace, pushing out deeper into Kyrat quickly. Aside from the main game world, players will also get to visit Shangri-La via drug-induced trips, where you and a friendly tiger must fight mythological beings on a path to enlightenment. There’s also an arena mode, where you’ll be facing off against waves of human and animal enemies.
But it’s the open world setting of Kyrat that is the main attraction of Far Cry 4. This fictional region is based on the Himalayan regions in Nepal, with beautiful greenery at the foothills, deep caverns and steep cliffs, all the way to the snowy peaks. It’s definitely an impressive natural environment with unique architecture and soundtrack, that will sometimes remind players of Uncharted 2. The core concepts of exploration, combat, and crafting are carried over from Far Cry 3 in almost identical fashion. You’ll still be climbing radio towers to reveal the surrounding area map and get rewarded with free guns for your efforts. You’ll free camps from enemy occupation, and these will become your safe heavens and fast travel points. And of course, you’ll hunt animals for their materials to upgrade your inventory, and collect various flowers to craft syringes for temporary ability boosts.
If this all sounds familiar, it should. But that doesn’t make the game world any less enticing or the gameplay any less exhilarating. Far Cry 4 evokes the feelings of being a deadly predator – both to humans and animals – like no other, and it’s a fantastic thrill. Infiltrating enemy camps by stealth, picking off hostiles and moving their bodies before anyone notices, and performing clean operations without raising an alarm is exciting every time. Or, you ride into the camp atop an elephant, guns blazing. The freedom of choice for approach and tactics means that few open-world activities ever play out the same, and the thrill never seems to fade. And of course, you could just have Mother Nature do the work for you – using the new bait inventory item to lure predators to an area, and letting them clear the camp for you. The interaction with animals remains a unique aspect of Far Cry, and it’s just as excellent here as it was two years ago.
Mimicking Far Cry 3’s crafting system, you’ll need to collect the pelts of Kyrat’s thriving animal population in order to create better items, including weapon holsters, loot bags, ammo pouches and other useful items. The animals you come across will behave randomly and unpredictably, so caution is always advised, especially against predators. There are still some annoyances – such as animal packs not spawning when you need them for your next crafting item, or the randomly attacking eagles, or the impossibly tough badgers. But on the whole, interacting with the wildlife is usually exciting and always beneficial. It should be noted that animal lovers will definitely want to proceed with caution, as you’ll be skinning a lot of helpless creatures to increase your capabilities.
There are a few new elements that streamline or add to the overall experience. For example, collecting green herbs will now auto-craft health syringes. A new auto-pilot feature will keep your vehicle on the road and travelling to the set destination on the map, while you can now shoot foes while driving. You still earn experience, this time split into two different paths, and with a sequential progression for each range of abilities. A grappling hook has been added to give the game have more verticality, yet it is only usable in specific locations, thus still keeping your paths linear. Finally, there’s now a Karma system that rewards you with points for completing random open world activities, and unlocking new items to buy in the shop.
When you aren’t undertaking story missions, or giving in to your ADD and hunting for animals, collectibles, clearing camps and so forth, there are plenty of bite-sized activities to undertake. The open world itself will have random events, such as firefights between Min’s forces and rebels, delivery trucks to hijack and return to the people, and armed convoys to take out. Side quests fall into a number of categories, from hunting rare animals, performing target assassinations, or rescuing hostages. Most of these activities are a more focused way to experience what the open world of Kyrat has to offer, and still reward you for your efforts. Despite their similarity to Far Cry 3 and indeed each other, the side quests are still usually engaging and entertaining due to their short length and focused objectives.
To take on all that the game has to offer, there is an impressive arsenal of weapons at your disposal. The classic bow will be your go-to toy for animal hunting, as clean kills yield better loot, however humans are susceptible to it as well. But if you prefer standard weaponry, there’s a large assortment of handguns, rifles, machine guns, and now specialist weapons. That last category contains guns that are only unlocked via completing certain side quests, but the reward is usually well worth it. Standard guns can be outfitted with attachments, such as scopes and silencers, as well as custom paint. All of the weapons handle excellently and with some real weight, so firefights are usually very satisfying.
All this equipment will cost you in local cash; however the game is extremely generous with its finances. Coming from the very restrictive AC: Unity, I found Far Cry 4 to be a heaven for buying almost any high-end gun without needing to save up. You can also purchase body armor, improve C4 and grenades, and upgrade your reinforcements (as long as you reached a high enough Karma rank). This new reinforcement feature, available whenever you use your camera to tag enemies, calls in a group of friendly fighters to help you in combat. It also plays into the game’s new cooperative mode.
If you’ve ever wanted to explore Far Cry with another person, now is your chance. Via drop-in/out cooperative play, users can request help from others, who will join the game world and assist with whatever activity you are doing. It should be noted that such activities are limited to free roaming, or taking over outposts or the new fortresses. The latter are designed for two players, so tackling a fortress on your own is a challenging task. Playing cooperatively is fun, and performing perfectly stealthy takeovers is satisfying and thrilling. It’s just unfortunate that more activities aren’t open to cooperative play, and we also had significant connectivity problems when joining games.
On the other hand, we had no problems connecting and playing the competitive multiplayer. In Battles of Kyrat, the two competing teams represent the Golden Path and the Rakshasa. The former team has access to a few standard weapons, rifles and grenades, while the latter team is more in-tune with nature. The Rakshasa can only use the bow and various arrow tips, but their true power comes from the ability to call upon one of three animals to fight for you. After putting a point or kill streak together, you’ll be able to call in either an eagle, then a bear, and finally a tiger. It’s an interesting offering, but needed better balancing because unless you and the whole Rakshasa team plays with care, the game usually skews towards the guys with real guns.
Both teams will be able to unlock new weapons and items by earning experience and unlock tokens. Refreshingly, all items in multiplayer, from rifles to attachments, cost the same – one token. After playing just a few matches, we were able to unlock a decent arsenal for both factions. Players also get two skill slots, where you have a choice to equip one of the available passive skills – from faster movement speed to greater resistance against damage.
There are three gameplay modes on offer. Demon Mask is like capture the flag, where both teams race to find a mask within an area and then take it to one of the predetermined locations. Outpost sees The Golden Path players defend a base from Rakshasa, who must stand in the area to capture it. Finally, Propaganda tasks The Golden Path with destroying three objectives on the map, while the other team must defend and defuse the bomb as necessary. This game mode is the least dynamic, as players usually camp whatever objective they are closest to and defend it from incoming foes. On the whole, objectives on all three modes are usually undermined by the fight over the tower. Controlling the tower allows The Golden Path team to see all Rakshasa on the minimap, thus throwing the match even further out of balance. But when we say fight, we don’t mean an epic encounter of multiple players. Because the maps are large, and the teams are only 5 players a side, Far Cry 4’s competitive modes are mostly dull affairs. It’s an okay addition to the overall Far Cry 4 package, but we can’t see much staying power in Battles of Kyrat.
Similarly to some of the gameplay aspects, the visual and audio presentation of the game will be familiar to players of Far Cry 3. Many of the animations are almost directly brought over, as are many of the sound effects. It’s also easy to see that the game’s last-gen versions continue to hold back the experience, from the subdued facial animations and lackluster cloth effects. But the environments can still look striking, thanks to great draw distances and impressive lighting effects during the day/night cycle. The sound design is impressive; hearing growls behind you, the rustling in the bushes, or chirps in the distance really immerses players in the game world. On the other hand, the game seems obsessed with random gunfire, to the point that it becomes very annoying. Sure, it could be a karma event breaking out just around the hill, but most of the time it’s unnecessary. It could be from farmers defending themselves from wild animals, or Golden Path simply wasting ammo by shooting into the air in celebration.
Far Cry 4 is a great game, but it isn’t vastly different as a sequel. Whilst the past entries of this long running franchise have always made significant leaps forward, FC4 is more like a cautious step sideways. Some players may feel that there aren’t enough changes here, despite two years having gone by, to warrant a purchase if they’ve squeezed every last drop out of Far Cry 3. But for the rest of us, the world of Far Cry 4 is filled with excitement. Exploration is always enticing, the game is packed to the brink with structured content, and interaction with wildlife is always entertaining. So go ahead, ride an elephant while you shoot down an eagle as it was trying to carry away a goat for dinner. Far Cry 4 is a game of moments, and almost all of those moments are fun. And isn’t that what video games are all about?