I believe this was the 4th time I have tried to play this game over the years. Each time I got a bit into it and just gave up but I was determined to finally get it off the backlog and finish it. Upon finishing I think its probably one of the most middle of the road games I have played in recent memory.
Following from Far Cry 3 was going to be a tough task and I think due to that Ubisoft made practically the same game again, beginning the stale gameplay format that Far Cry is now unfortunately known for.
The story is really quite bland, nothing that memorable really happens outside of a couple cool missions. The main thing that I want to talk about are the characters. Ajay is a massive downgrade from Jason Brody in terms of protagonists. Jason had real character development throughout Far Cry 3 with the island changing who he was as a person, while Ajay does pretty much nothing and is just your generic guy with a gun. His main goal is to scatter his mothers ashes, which is a nice way for the game to end but apart from that Ajay doesn't have a smidge of the character that Jason had. Unfortunately another downgrade is in the villain, obviously it is going to be very hard to live up to Vaas and Pagin Min does a good job to be memorable, but he is literally in the game 4 times. Vaas wasnt even the main villain in 3 and he appears more than Pagin does throughout the whole game. Despite that Pagin is your standard charismatic psychopath who does command the scenes he is present in, Troy baker does a good job as always and I really like his design. I think the problem is that they tired to hard to make another Vaas, but didnt bother to give him any memorable moments outside of him killing one of his own guard at the start so you know he is insane. Side characters are also a big dip from 3 where only 2 matter across the game and both of them are insufferable. Amita and Sabal are the two would be leaders of the golden path and the game strangely implements a choice system where you pick who to side with. Due to not particularly caring for either character I just went with who I thought made more sense at the time and ended up flip flopping between both of their missions. I ended with Amita as leader but after looking into both endings, probably would of been better off with Pagin.
Gameplay wise it plays very similarly to 3. Shooting feels a bit dated but the movement feels a bit better. I like the driving and the immersive healing animations are always cool. Im not a huge fan of crafting systems and having to hunt for resources is something that I normally wont do unless 100% necessary so I finished this game with barely any upgrades besides a few essential ones like extra weapon slots. I wasn't a fan of the stealth sections in this game as I found that the enemies would spot you from miles away and would hear suppressed bullets from miles away as well. Speaking on the enemies, they are all total bullet sponges with the shirtless enemies that run at you with knifes being able to take like 15 AR bullets to the chest before going down. I didn't touch much side content but I probably should have just to have unlocked some better guns.
Visually I do think this is a big upgrade from 3, the mountain landscapes look beautiful and im a fan of the setting in general. A lot of the ground stuff is similar to 3 but has been given appropriate upgrades. Score wise is nothing special, no tracks of note. Technically I had a few visual bugs, nothing game breaking but one cutscene in particular where you are watching Pagin give a speech on a tv, the tv just wasn't on, so I actually missed one of Pagin's 4 appearences.
I think that Far Cry 4 unfortunately began the trend of the repetitive gameplay loop that has become associated with this series now. I dont think it is a bad game by any means but it lacks anything major to set it apart from Far Cry 3. Out of the whole series it's probably my 3rd favourite behind 3 and 6. I might try 5 and new dawn again but that wont be for a while. Worth a play if you are a fan.
Following from Far Cry 3 was going to be a tough task and I think due to that Ubisoft made practically the same game again, beginning the stale gameplay format that Far Cry is now unfortunately known for.
The story is really quite bland, nothing that memorable really happens outside of a couple cool missions. The main thing that I want to talk about are the characters. Ajay is a massive downgrade from Jason Brody in terms of protagonists. Jason had real character development throughout Far Cry 3 with the island changing who he was as a person, while Ajay does pretty much nothing and is just your generic guy with a gun. His main goal is to scatter his mothers ashes, which is a nice way for the game to end but apart from that Ajay doesn't have a smidge of the character that Jason had. Unfortunately another downgrade is in the villain, obviously it is going to be very hard to live up to Vaas and Pagin Min does a good job to be memorable, but he is literally in the game 4 times. Vaas wasnt even the main villain in 3 and he appears more than Pagin does throughout the whole game. Despite that Pagin is your standard charismatic psychopath who does command the scenes he is present in, Troy baker does a good job as always and I really like his design. I think the problem is that they tired to hard to make another Vaas, but didnt bother to give him any memorable moments outside of him killing one of his own guard at the start so you know he is insane. Side characters are also a big dip from 3 where only 2 matter across the game and both of them are insufferable. Amita and Sabal are the two would be leaders of the golden path and the game strangely implements a choice system where you pick who to side with. Due to not particularly caring for either character I just went with who I thought made more sense at the time and ended up flip flopping between both of their missions. I ended with Amita as leader but after looking into both endings, probably would of been better off with Pagin.
Gameplay wise it plays very similarly to 3. Shooting feels a bit dated but the movement feels a bit better. I like the driving and the immersive healing animations are always cool. Im not a huge fan of crafting systems and having to hunt for resources is something that I normally wont do unless 100% necessary so I finished this game with barely any upgrades besides a few essential ones like extra weapon slots. I wasn't a fan of the stealth sections in this game as I found that the enemies would spot you from miles away and would hear suppressed bullets from miles away as well. Speaking on the enemies, they are all total bullet sponges with the shirtless enemies that run at you with knifes being able to take like 15 AR bullets to the chest before going down. I didn't touch much side content but I probably should have just to have unlocked some better guns.
Visually I do think this is a big upgrade from 3, the mountain landscapes look beautiful and im a fan of the setting in general. A lot of the ground stuff is similar to 3 but has been given appropriate upgrades. Score wise is nothing special, no tracks of note. Technically I had a few visual bugs, nothing game breaking but one cutscene in particular where you are watching Pagin give a speech on a tv, the tv just wasn't on, so I actually missed one of Pagin's 4 appearences.
I think that Far Cry 4 unfortunately began the trend of the repetitive gameplay loop that has become associated with this series now. I dont think it is a bad game by any means but it lacks anything major to set it apart from Far Cry 3. Out of the whole series it's probably my 3rd favourite behind 3 and 6. I might try 5 and new dawn again but that wont be for a while. Worth a play if you are a fan.