Full disclosure; I played this series backwards after loving Far Cry back, disliking Far Cry 2 liking Far Cry 3 (really like the approach of challenging how video game protagonists put an average person in an unaverage situation to eventually come out a hero). After really enjoying Far Cry 5 I thought I would give this series a second chance and play through Far Cry 4.

Sadly, the repetitive requirements of killing and skinning hundreds of animals takes most of the enjoyment out of the game.
You’re introduced to the main “villain” in a wonderful cinematic opening, and then never see him again until the finale and a few scene peppering in as he talks to you over the radio. That’s probably why Far Cry 5 stopped you in your tracks to splice in part of the story before you continued on through the main quests. In FC4, I literally just spent the first 20 hours of the game, exploring areas, hunting so I could carry more weapons, ammo and health packs, and finding collectables. I’m not even sure why the bad guy is bad at this point of the game, 20 hours in, other than the game is telling me that he’s bad. In Far Cry 5, it’s made perfectly clear why the head cult leader is bad, and why you’re there to stop him (In the game’s defense, there’s a reason for this, but the payoff doesn’t work well).

This game consists of four types of things to do; saving people from animals, saving people from bad guys, climbing towers and liberating towns. Rinse, wash, repeat. You’ll die by animals more than you’ll die by bad guys. Since when can an eagle take away three quarters of your life? And seemly you can’t walk down a road without being mauled to death by bears, tigers, jaguars, roaming packs of wolves. A honey badger takes three arrows to kill where a bear takes four. There’s so much wildlife you can’t think straight. The only positive thing to say about animals in this game is the perk that allows you to ride an elephant and ram bad guys and flip over cars.

The vehicles are a mess. Everything drives like you’re on ice with no handling. The makeshift helicopter is probably the only vehicle worth piloting.

Something is off with this game’s graphics. I know we are talking about a four-year-old game at this point. I don’t think there is anything wrong with the models or environment, but everything looks like I’m looking through a screen door; Hazy, dull, not in focus and I’m running the game on ULTRA with motion blur turned off.

There’s nothing practically interesting about the story missions. Most of them are just defend this area as you learn more about the culture of your home nation Kyrat. You speak to the main villain over radio once in a while… but outside of the opening dialog there’s nothing very menacing about him.

The game does some interesting things with choices and who to back. And there are some missions that get quite psychedelic (just like Far Cry 3) but there’s nothing overly great about this game. Getting to the end was more of a chore than seeing it to the end and saving your friends in Far Cry 5. By far the least interesting game in the series thus far.

1. Far Cry 5
2. Far Cry 3/Blood Dragon
3. Far Cry
4. Far Cry 2
5. Far Cry 4

Sorry Ubisoft but "any ol' charismatic protagonist" wont recreate the magic of Vaas

I also have to say i fucking hate the mountains of Kyrat. This game isn't fun.

I came back and added a star because I remembered how fun the multiplayer was

Here’s an idea: no more videogame ‘playgrounds’ set in developing nations. No, not even fictional ones. What ever emerges but colonialist mayhem?

How many sandboxes do we need? What is detail and authenticity worth if it’s all just local color? If it’s all serving the gun-fucking, world-skimming, kitchen-sinking cynicism of a videogame sequel?

When I lived in China, I met so many Westerners with the playground attitude: this is my place to have fun, to chase pleasure, to escape. No one knows me here, and no one is real. I don’t give a fuck. And I don’t have to pretend.

first impressions :
story wise, its not strong and quite uninteresting.
but the game really starts to shine when it comes to gameplay.
this is a perfect example of a sandbox game.
this game emphasis gameplay strongly. even ubisoft realises nothing else matters except the gameplay when it comes to a far cry game. they polished the game aspects of the game so well and added the story on top of it.
this is a perfect example of companies understanding their own products and what customers use it for.
the only downside of the game is in my opinion vehicle control. i personally think that vehicles in this game are designed around a controller and not a keyboard.
the story is mediocre at best.
great game.
gotta replay it again before a full review.

"More of the same" as Far Cry 3, but I liked this better (noting that I loved 3 but I haven't played it again since back when it released). Some of the new shit is just too fun, such as the mini-copter Buzzers, grappling hook or the ability to ride elephants, plus I like the setting way more and the gameplay seems more geared towards action. Busting an outpost by riding an elephant and blasting fuckers with a grenade launcher is just too fun.

Same issues as other Ubisoft games of the time, with filler side ontent, specially collectibles and such, but I found a lot of them fun to get, with some requiring some fun platforming/geappling hook sections, made me realize that most mountains are climbable in some way (in the early game I thought they weren't because buzzers shut off, but you're just meant to find the geappling hook paths). Anyways, the filler side content is all optional and you get the most important rewards such as guns are unlocked without much effort save for a couple.

The story is nothing amazing but it's entertaining enough, which is what I expected. Pagan Min isn't quite as entertaining as Vaas BUT, and this is a slight incoming FC3 spoiler, he at least doesn't die halfway through the game. He's overall pretty good. I also liked that both of the Golden Path leaders were different kinds of assholes, but I easily side with Amita, fuck wack "traditions". Gotta say Hurk is the best character though but he's just the coop partner save for 4 (really fun) DLC missions. Ajay is nothing amazing as a protag, and also possibly less interesting than Jason in 3, but I thought Jason was an insufferable ass so I like Ajay better. The radio's DJ is the worst character and he never fucking shuts up, he starts talking as soon as you get on a car, which is a shame cuz the soundtrack's good (better than 3's overall).

Game looks and runs great on my PC (played at Ultra 1080p60fps). In fact, it's gorgeous. Shout out to the Shangri-La missions, which had an amazing aesthetic too, even if they were simple in gameplay. But man, they were some eye candy with the aesthetics and graphics. Only issue with visuals in this game for me is just that gore is extremely lacking, which makes things less impactful than they should be.

I didn't play the bonus campaigns things but they seemed pretty cool. Escape From Durgesh basically seems like Resident Evil Mercenaries mixed with Far Cry and The Valley of the Yetis seems weird and pretty cool. I might come back to them later on.

I didn't wanna write a long review but I still did.... so yeah, fun as fuck game to me but people that dislike FC3 or Ubisoft open world design should definitely stay away.