Far Cry 4 review
Welcome to roughly forty hours of my life. Far Cry 4 is a colossal sandbox adventure in the fictional kingdom of Kyrat – which is basically a fictional Nepal or Tibet. There are Himalayan mountains and jungles and generally a ton of gorgeous scenery. And Shangri La.
You play a fellow called Ajay Gale and as the game starts, you learn that you are an American but you have some kind of major connection to the Kyrat. In fact by the end of the opening scene (see below), also seem to have some connection to the nutcase who is in charge of the place. As the game progresses, you slowly learn more about yourself. What is most important to know, however, is that you go from a bumbling tourist to a one man, highly be-weaponed killing machine in about half an hour. Your/Ajay’s parents were highly skilled terrorists, so maybe familiarity with weapons and ridiculous levels of murder are genetic.
Far Cry 4’s story is actually pretty good but the most important question is – is it fun? Obviously the answer is yes, or I would have to have been a pretty bored individual to play it for forty hours. As well as the main story, which can actually be done in probably 10 hours or less, there are a million other side missions and quests and sub plots and so on. You can go hunting, ride an elephant into an army base goring enemy soldiers as you go along. You can hand glide through stunning scenery then drop down into a lake to find hidden treasure. You can even go into an arena and take part in gladiator-style battles armed with a machine gun and fighting psychopaths and tigers. There are also weird adventures in Shangri-La, sub-plots featuring a serial killer who leaves possessed masks around. Also, and these are a lot of fun, there are missions where you try out various drug cocktails and go on insane drug-induced escapades. Oh, and there are also yetis.
So there is a shitload to do and you can do it all online with a friend to help you out, if you want.
If you have played Far Cry games before, or any sandbox game really, you will know what to expect. What sets titles like Far Cry, Skyrim, Fallout 4 and GTA apart are that they are fun, inventive and damned well made. They are also colossal and look gorgeous, which is a bonus. I have seen a photography exhibition based on photos taken purely within games and I imagine quite a few masterpieces will come out of Far Cry 4.
I could go on but I can’t be bothered. I have some writing targets to hit and some wasteland to explore in Fallout 4. Here is the intro to Far Cry 4 and If you look below that there is a spoiler as to how you can finish the game in 15 minutes – and it is absolutely genius and a masterful bit game writing.
Enjoy:
SPOILER:
Ok, so if you sat through all that you will know that the crazy mad guy, Pagan Min, said to wait. In the game, you don’t. You get up and wander about and then get caught up in a mad adventure. At the end of 40-50 hours of killing, you battle your way back to the fortress and confront Pagan Min. He tells you about your past and his relationship with your mum, and shows you a shrine before handing the kingdom over and flying off in a helicopter. BUT, if you had just waited at the opening section like he told you, the same thing happens. Obviously you don’t then get to play the whole game, so it is probably only of interest to those who have finished already. Anyway, I thought it was a cool Easter egg and thought I’d share.
