Great game without question. If you loved Far Cry 3, you will love this. Most of the complaints about this game centre around the lack of innovations and it being too similar to Far Cry 3. I will have to agree with these and was a bit let down but, the game is still very much fun and you can easily milk around 40+ hours of gameplay with this game. I bought mine for the Xbox One and faced some problems with game bugs. The game suddenly quits and takes you back to the main menu or the game suddenly stalls during the loading screens and a restart is required. This doesn't happen very often and faced only 6-7 times during my entire 40+ hours of gameplay. It largely occured during replaying outputs missions. Not a deal breaker but definitely irritating considering the backlash Ubisoft faced for the bugs and glitches one had to bear while playing Assassin's Creed Unity. This might have been tackled in the update Ubisoft released for Far Cry 4 2 days ago [Update: The game still crashes once in a while whilst doing secondary missions such as bomb Diffusion or replaying outposts]
My problems with the game include the similarity and lack of innovation that this game offers over its predecessors regarding gameplay. I was hoping for substantial changes to the gameplay like AC: Unity minus the bugs and glitches. If you played Far Cry 3, you should be right at home in this game. The Skills and weapons are in every way identical compared to its predecessor and this was a let down for me as I was hoping for a completely new and varied system of weapons. All of the signature weapons from the previous game make an appearance here with no changes. The biggest change are the choices that the game presents during its main missions which changes the types of missions and the ending of the game. Letting some one you are supposed to kill changes the mission and story structure in future missions. This is great when going for a second run of the game and offers great replay value. There are a few changes to the types of secondary missions available and they are great. There are new additions to the vehicles and it includes the great "Gyro-copter" which is a blessing for people like me who by the 10th Radio-Tower just do it find the climbing and grappling a chore. With the Gyro-copter, its no longer a chore. Find one, land on the roof, free it and move onto the next one all in a matter of minutes. I managed to unlock all the radio towers in the South of the region with a single Gyro-copter in under an hour. This could serve people who find the outpost missions a drag by simply getting on a gyro-copter, equip a grenade launcher, hover over an outpost at a height where the enemies bullets can't reach you and carpet bomb the entire place.
The story is good and choice system offers a new narrative during the second run of the game. It is great to walk around a find temples littered with Indian/Tibetian/Nepalese names, artwork and sculptures. Nothing is as exciting as hearing your enemies scream "Ajay, Saalae Behanchode" or "Ghale, Madharchode" when engaging them in a firefight. One thing that was a huge let down was the pandering to the western audience of the game. Very often the main characters who were unquestionably Indian/Nepalese, address the main protagonist as "Ay-Jay" when it is clearly just "Ajay". Another problem with the game was the obvious american accents that the Main characters "Amita" and "Sabal" use while the radio host used an overtly exaggerated Indian accent for the comic value. This was the same problem that Ubisoft faced for the obvious British Accents in AC:Unity for the main characters when the entire game takes place in France. I think it is a shame considering the amount of time spent on research and the wonderful conception of a game world similar to its real life counterpart only to mess up the accents. However, Ubisoft must be congratulated for its excellent work for its research of the culture and for the unbiased and respectful way in which it portrays the local cultures of the region without resorting to cliched stereotypes of South Asian countries usually portrayed by Hollywood.
The main antagonist "Pagan Min" is simply a bad ass and his voice over by Troy Baker is simply amazing. Every time his voice crackled over the radio, I simply stopped what I was doing and listened to it as it was very funny and insane at the same time . His performance and design is even better than that of "Vaas" from Far Cry 3. Ubisoft really knows their stuff when it comes to character conception and voice acting. However, Pagan Min has very little screen time throughout the entire game and this was a bit of let down considering how great his character was. The game is littered with interesting characters with excellent voice acting through out the game. I was a bit let down by the Hindi voice actor doing the voice over for "Kalinag" when doing the "Shangri-La" misson as it wasn't really great when compared to Pagan Min or Amita or Sabal.
The graphics was top notch on the Xbox one and the visuals were simply breath taking. Being a avid photographer myself, I would often time just pop out my camera and compose pictures of the breathtaking landscapes from time to time. It was quite a treat composing a huge Buddha face smeared with blue colours with the magnificent Himalayan peaks in the background illuminated with morning light. If you are a nature aficionado such as myself, you could lose yourself in the brilliant and ever changing atmosphere of the game world and wish you were there shooting pictures.
Overall, this is a very good game that you could lose yourself for hours doing nothing but exploring and shooting random bad guys who happen to pass by you. The enemies are very similar to Far Cry 3 with the exception of the language of choice when they are screaming obscenities at you. The inclusion of heavily guarded fortresses with increased difficulty levels are a welcome treat. The gladiatorial-esque "Shananth" arena where you can get to survive endless waves of enemies and animals is a welcome choice. The animals in Kyrat are a lot varied, tougher and aggressive than anything from Far Cry 3. Going up against a Rhino with a 1911, a bow or an assault rifle is nothing short of suicide and hiding in a car or truck is not going to stop the 3 ton nature's version of a Panzer Tank flip you along with your vehicle. However, it is a valuable ally when you find one in an enemy encampment and nothing get the job done easier than freeing an Elephant or a Rhino and watch as it gores 10+ enemies in a matter of minutes. This is very fun game with an ever fluctuating environment. One minute you could be shooting at a couple of enemies on the main road only to hear the dreaded word "Rhino" or "Leopard" come from somewhere and watch as a couple of Rhino's flip enemies and Allies truck alike or watch a tiger maul you and your enemies without mercy.
The soundtrack for the game is excellent with a good dash of Soothing Classical Instrumental Music, Bhangra, Bollywood-esque songs and Tamil Soundtracks. I was quite surprised hearing a Tamil song over the Radio when it was clear that the entire story takes place in a fictional country resembling Nepal. Overall, the soundtrack fits the game very well and there is nothing like watching the moon rise over the mountain range with a soothing instrumental accompanying it. Other times, when on Hallucinogenic trip with Yogi & Reggie, watching Buddha faces rise out of the water while the whole game environment pulses with a kaleidoscope of colours with the beat of Bhangra music in the background really sets the tone for the game.
Overall, a very enjoyable game albeit very similar to Far Cry 3. I had a whole lot of fun with this game and have clocked in 40+ hours for the first walk-through and close to another 20 hours during my second run with different choices which resulted in a completely different narrative and story.
The most frustrating thing with Ubisoft is the lack of New game Plus in almost all of its games. Watch Dogs, Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4 all suffer from the same problem. In order to play the game again one must reset all skills, weapons and collectibles which is a major pain in the ***. This is a huge downside given the replay value of Far Cry 4 due to the choice system. I really don't find the need to spent 2 - 3 hours finding 20+ masks of Yalung to unlock a signature weapon given that I have already collected all of the 50+ masks during the first run which becomes a chore given the inaccessible terrains in which some of the masks are hidden. This needs to be addressed by Ubisoft given the huge amounts of request for New Game Plus one can find in the Ubisoft forums.
Given all its faults, I still enjoyed Far Cry 4 enough that I am willing to overlook its faults. This is a definite buy if you enjoyed Far Cry 3.
Pros:
Pagan Min
Beautiful environment
Top notch voice acting
Top Notch characters
Good story
Beautiful Graphics
Fluctuating and chaotic environments
Choice system
Solid gameplay
Cons:
Gameplay very similar to Far Cry 3
Same Weapons as Far Cry 3
Same Skill Sets as Far Cry 3
Same enemies as Far Cry 3
Some Bugs & Glitches
Not much of Pagan Min
American Accents in Kyrat
Lack of New Game Plus
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