The game’s memorable storyline is told over the course of thirty-odd campaign missions – a varied list that offers a wealth of different experiences and never becomes boring or stale. That said, there’s so much more to the game than its campaign alone, meaning that you may find yourself spending hours in-between each story mission.
Outside of the narrative there’s an almost overwhelming amount of things to do, ranging from traditional races and outpost takeovers, to drug-induced dreams and stealthy bomb defusing challenges. Then, there’s Shangri-la — an exotic land that harkens back to yesteryear — which can be travelled to through discovered pieces of tapestry. There, you’ll get to experience altered perception, unique gameplay mechanics and even the aid of a ferocious ghost tiger.
Honestly, if I was to take the time to list every different type of side mission found in Far Cry 4, I’d bore you to sleep. Not because the engagements themselves are boring, but because there are so many of them. It truly seems as if there’s an almost endless assortment of things to do in this game, which is one of its best selling points. Additionally, it’s all a heck of a lot of fun and nothing stands out as being boring or half-assed, which is a rarity these days.
Mechanically, Ubisoft’s latest exotic shooter is both sound and impressive. From the gunplay and the driving, to the swimming and flying, it’s hard to really find a fault. Sure, the vehicles can be a bit floaty and the default driving scheme is a pain in the ass to use, but you get used to the handling and can easily change the controls in the options menu.
My favourite thing to do — outside of riding elephants, of course — was to hop in little buzzer copters and fly around Kyrat, while looking for opportunities to cause chaos. Sometimes I’d land the thing before engaging in a gunfight, but not always. It was usually a lot more fun to lob grenades from above, or, best of all, to skydive out of the taped-together mini-copter using Ajay’s unlockable wingsuit. That thing was a phenomenal asset, and a blast to use. It also controlled like a dream, which made it even more fun.
From start to finish, I likely invested thirty or more hours into this game. There was simply so much to do and so much to explore that I couldn’t stop playing. Even after I finished it, I continued playing and completed some side missions that I’d overlooked my first time through.
Although the title’s campaign content would, in itself, be enough to warrant a purchase, Far Cry 4 doesn’t end there. There’s open-world co-op, a challenging arena, player-versus-player multiplayer (which isn’t anything to write home about), and even a map editor. And, surprisingly, it’s the latter list item that adds the most replay value, because it presents so many different possibilities. Even though the game is new, there are quite a few different maps to download and play through, many of which were made by Ubisoft themselves.
While Far Cry 2‘s map creation suite was aimed at competitive multiplayer, this one works differently. When I’d go to download a map, I would do so by browsing a gallery of sorts, which listed each type by its core mechanic, such as assault. Then, once I’d chosen one, it would download and drop me into a user-created mission, as opposed to PVP or bot-based combat. I completed a couple and tried my hand at making my own (which was disastrous), before walking away feeling impressed. It’s a welcome feature and one that most people will likely get a lot of use out of.
As you’ve surely gathered from the embedded screenshots, Far Cry 4 is a looker. In actuality, it’s one of the best-looking games on the market, offering a ton of varied geography to gawk at, in addition to some great-looking character models and animals. The world of Kyrat is not only a character, but also one of gaming’s most beautiful settings, although its beauty is used as a mask to cover up the evil that lurks underneath. The game runs like a dream most of the time, too, although I did experience one loading glitch of sorts, which made a large, black vector shape sprout out of the ground in front of an outpost I’d taken over. The thing changed its shape and size as I moved around, and also caused some stuttering to occur. A quick fast travel to a different location got rid of it, though, and I never saw another one.
Audio plays a major role here as well, much more-so than in your average shooter. There’s fully-voiced and impressively well-written dialogue to enjoy, and the moral choices that come with it (some of which alter the way the game plays out), but music is also integral to the experience. Don’t go into things expecting to have licensed tunes to listen to while driving, or anything like that, but do expect some great music. It’s used sparingly during missions and fits perfectly. Whoever was in charge of pairing the tone of each music-inclusive mission with its song deserves a raise.
We’ve come all this way and I still haven’t even mentioned hunting. It’s yet another major part of Far Cry 4, and one that I decided not to focus on because there was so much else to talk about. That’s the thing with this game: it’s so content-packed that it’ll take you many hours to fully complete it. Even then, you may find yourself wanting to jump right back into its beautiful world just to see what else you’ll experience. I know that’s how I felt after watching the credits roll.
All of this boils down to one fact, which is that Far Cry 4 is yet another masterful outing in one of gaming’s best series. It’s undoubtedly the team’s best offering thus far, and is honestly the most entertaining game I’ve played in a long time. It does adhere to the same formula that its predecessor did, but that’s not a bad thing. What Ubisoft has done here is incredibly impressive, and I wouldn’t be shocked if Far Cry 4 finds itself with numerous Game of the Year awards next month.
This review is based on the Xbox One version of the game, which we were provided with.
