By Dene Benham
Set beneath the towering Himalayan Mountains, Ubisoft's Far Cry 4 is spectacular.
The first thing you should do, once you get through the opening where Ajay Ghale arrives in the fictional country of Kyrat, is hunt down a single-seater gyrocopter and take a tour. It's an enormous map packed with temples and towers, all kinds of birds and beasts, towering snow covered mountains and dense forests.
It's beautiful - even with a bit of pop-up filling in the peaks as you fly by. Of course the second thing you should do is activate your 'elephant rider' ability and go find an elephant.
If you find the rest of the game good, bad, or indifferent, if you love it or hate it, riding an elephant may be the most awesome thing you can do in this, or any other video game. Everyone, from Naughty Dog to Rockstar to EA Sports should all have elephant riding in their games.
No discussion. They should all do it now.
But, before Ajay can ride an elephant, he has to get past Kyrat's despotic ruler Pagan Min.
In keeping with past Far Cry antagonists, Pagan Min is completely and utterly crazy. Swinging from false friendliness, to effete philosophising, and rage-filled psycho-killer - Min captures Ajay and drags him into a civil war between the government forces and freedom fighters, The Golden Path.
It's a relatively complex set-up, but handled quickly and efficiently. Before too long you're stabbing bad guys in the throat, avoiding a rampaging bear, picking up a discarded AK, and heading for the nearest ammo cache.
Ubisoft have taken some criticism for racist elements in past Far Cry games and basing Far Cry 4 on the Nepalese civil war leaves them open for the same accusations. As well as Nepal, the game evokes conflicts in Burma/Myanmar and continental India.
Is it racist? Does setting a fictional story in a specific geographical area make it racist?
Who knows. But add to the setting a tendency to bounce between sombre spiritualism and boobs out, drug-induced random acts of violence, and you have to concede there is a case for criticism. In the end, the most important thing to remember is that the bad guys have red sashes and the good guys wear gold.
The two leaders of the golden sash wearing Golden Path are Amita and Sabal. Both have their own agendas, unfortunately their different aims are always at odds. Early in the game you have the choice to help Sabal defend a village or collect some intel for Amita.
Both argue their cause, but you can only choose one. If you choose to help Amita, the next time you see Sabal he is distraught, blaming you for the deaths of his men. But, if you fail to follow Amita's orders, she is just as angry. Throughout the game the balance of power shifts between the two leaders, leading to different missions and multiple endings.
Despite the impressive visuals, freedom of choice, and epic elephant riding, almost everything else in Far Cry 4 is straight out of Far Cry 3. For those who missed Far Cry 3, and the stand-alone Blood Dragon, Far Cry 4 is a big, open world first-person stealth/shooter.
You can use your bow and knife to sneak around silently taking down enemy soldiers. Or you can storm in all guns, grenades, and bazookas blazing, burning and blowing-up everything in your path.
You hunt animals; rhinos, tigers, monkeys, and bears, taking their skins to craft kit bags to hold health syringes and extra munitions. Or you can throw chunks of meat at enemies, attracting leopards or wolves to take them out.
Whichever Golden Path leader you choose to support, if your next mission is a few kilometres away you can take a quad-bike, boat, or hang-glider to get there quicker. Or, if your hang-glider is too slow you can bail and fly the rest of the way in your wingsuit.
Or you can just walk, hunting as you go, scaling cliffs with your grappling hook and climbing bell towers to break government radios and reveal sections of the map previously covered with clouds.
While there is the typical 20 odd hours of story to play through, there are a lot of side missions and collectables. You can spend hours rescuing prisoners, competing in races, and fighting in arenas. You can take out government couriers and convoys, storm strongholds, and even experience Shangri-La.
Everything gets you cash and experience while specific missions add to your Karma, reducing prices at stores and letting you call for backup. Alternatively you can spend skill points to progress through your ability tree.
Or, to be more accurate, to progress through your two ability trees.
One is the Tiger, the other is the Elephant. The Tiger side has all your takedown and weapon handling upgrades, while the Elephant side enhances your health and crafting as well as the legendary 'elephant rider' ability.
What isn't legendary, at least in the beginning, is Far Cry 4's online mode. Ubisoft's Uplay had been experiencing connectivity issues, but with the issues sorted you can now play in 5v5 battles between the Golden Path and Pagan Min's ninja-like Rakshasa.
The Rakshasa only use bows and arrows, can turn invisible, can't be tagged for more than a few seconds, and can send animals to attack enemies. Even with all these abilities it might sound like they are at a disadvantage against the Golden Path, with their vehicles, explosives, and automatic weapons, but the two sides are very well matched.
There are three familiar online modes where you defend an outpost, destroying propaganda installations, or fight over a demon mask. You gain experience points as you play and unlock buffs, like extra speed and enhanced hearing, to equip in your load-out.
Add to this two player co-op in the campaign, a map editor, and the option to give the Keys to Kyrat to ten friends who don't own the game, so they can download a version to play online, and Far Cry 4 is an enjoyable, if not an extensive or innovative, online experience.
Ubisoft have shown over the last ten years, with Assassin's Creed and the Far Cry franchise, that if they come up with a good idea they don't mind running with it. Far Cry 4 sticks very closely to the successful formula set out by Far Cry 3.
So, if you loved Far Cry 3 you'll love Far Cry 4. However, if you found Far Cry 3 got repetitive, you might get the same feeling with this version.
While it looks stunning, you can spend a couple of hours clearing temples, outposts and villages, just to get to a bell tower to reveal a new area filled with the same temples, outposts, and villages.
But it's a unique location, especially for a familiar stealth/shooter, and has its share of likeable characters and outright crazies. And there really is nothing like riding an elephant into an enemy outpost, charging into jeeps and tossing screaming enemy soldiers into the air.
Four stars.
NZGamer.com
Far Cry 4
:: Publisher: Ubisoft
:: Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
:: Format: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
:: Rating: R16
source: newshub archive
