To tell you the truth, the only reason I decided to play this game was because I just could not get into The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt no matter how hard I tried, and believe me I tried. So, I decided to play this game which has been sitting on the shelf since release. This is what happened to the games that came out the same day as Dragon Age: Inquisition, but I finally got a chance to play it and here’s what I thought.
In Far Cry 4 you play American Ajay Ghale in a foreign land. Sound familiar? I’m starting to think that this is what the whole Far Cry franchise is about, but anyway, Ajay’s main goal is to scatter his mothers ashes with Lakshama. What is Lakshama though? Only one man knows and he’s the ruler of Kyrat. Good news right? Not really, bad news is he’s also the bad guy. Like any king, Pagan is a tyrant causing many woes throughout Kyrat as well as some opposition from The Golden Path. Catchy name right? Turns our Ajay’s father was the leader of The Golden Path, that is until he was murdered. The two new leaders of The Golden Path, Sabal and Amita, will need your help to take down Pagan once and for all and make Kyrat into something else. It’s up to you who you help lead The Golden Path to victory. There will be some twists and turns along the way along with a surprise ending that even I didn’t see coming.
This game, story wise and everything else wise, is very similar to Far Cry 3. There are main quests, side quests, twists, turns, and a lot of freaky stuff. While it was fun to experience in Far Cry 3, it just seems like Ubisoft was milking it in this game. Sure the story was different, but was it really? An American comes to a foreign not really heard of land and then makes some major changes throughout the land and along the way becomes a murdering lunatic. Although the scenery is different, I did enjoy the new forms of wildlife along with the introduction of new characters that were a little cliché, what I enjoyed the most was the introduction of Pagan. Pagan was by far the shining star in this newest edition of the Far Cry franchise. Is he the bad guy? It depends how you look at it. He’s one of those villain types that I love in games. He was started off trying to do the right thing but then got twisted along the way into doing some really shitty things and becoming corrupt just like everyone else who gets into power. There are a ton of things to do, but around the 20 hour mark I started to get bored and just wanted the game to end. It also seems like Ubisoft has a serious problem with the whole story telling aspect of games. It’s like they really don’t know when to end a story and think that they need to make the story longer. Child of Light although good, also had this problem. Sometimes a story just needs to end and not be dragged on for hours upon hours.
Although I’m not a huge fan of FPS games, I usually prefer third person games, I have to say that Ubisoft does a really good job making FPS games. Gunplay was pretty damn accurate and the mechanics of the game are simple and easy to work with and learn quickly. I liked the use of the PS4 controller touch pad in order to quickly change weapons and change from grenades to moltov’s to bait, and then to throwing knives. The swipe of a finger to quickly change weapons saved me a lot of times instead of bringing up the whole menu and switching like that. The only thing that bothered me about this game was the driving. Yes there was an auto drive so you really didn’t have to drive if you didn’t want to, all you had to do was set a way point, but the point is FPS driving is just weird and disorientating at times. It would have been nice if Far Cry took the Borderlands approach to driving and when you entered a vehicle you were thrown into third person mode just to drive.
The graphics for this game were top notch, I have to really give Ubisoft credit in that department. The graphics really do the PS4 justice and make it look like it should be on the PS4. The people looked real, the animals looked real, and the scenery was just gorgeous. I have no complaints what so ever in the graphics department and thought everything was spot on and how it should be on the PS4.
There are a total of 58 trophies for this game. 51 are for the main game while there are an extra 7 if you want to purchase the DLC for the game. Basically there are trophies for everything. Trophies for completing the story, trophies for collecting collectibles, trophies for doing random things, trophies for co-op play, and trophies for multiplayer. The trophies aren’t hard to get at all, but they do require some time and patience especially the co-op ones and the multiplayer ones. A big thank you to my co-op partner for helping me with my last co-op trophy so that I could get this platinum and be done for the game. I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but PSNProfiles.com is a great site to set up gaming sessions so that you can get the trophies that you need to finish your game. Without setting up a game session I would still be trying to get that last trophy today. I mean seriously, within hours of setting up the session, I had my co-op partner and my platinum trophy. If you haven’t already joined, then what are you waiting for.
Now for the multiplayer. I didn’t think that a game, a game that was created when multiplayer is such a huge thing, could have such horrible horrible multiplayer. Not only are the servers bad and have disconnect after disconnect and problem after problem, but it’s just horrible. The games make no sense and really have nothing to do with the main game itself, and for a still pretty new game the amount of people playing is really really low. From what I seen, I’m not even sure it’s wise for the servers to stay open at this point. Morning, noon, and night it’s a struggle to get in a game with anyone. Not to mention that the same problems that plague the multiplayer also plague the co-op mode making this a lose lose situation especially since there are trophies for each different mode.
Overall I give this game a 3 out of 5
What’s Great:
+ Nice game setting that is new yet familiar.
+ Nice graphics that enhance gameplay.
+ Memorable villain and a nice twist at the end.
What’s Not So Great:
– The majority of the story was copy and pasted from Far Cry 3.
– After a certain point the story drags.
– Horrible multiplayer and co-op that are both tacked on in order to sell more games. Neither enhance the story in any way.
This isn’t the best game that was released last year, but it’s not the worst either. I’ll also be skipping the DLC since at this point I’m just done with the game and ready to move on to something else. What this game is though is a solid game and a good game for someone who is in between games and needs a filler game. If you’re a Far Cry 3 fan, then I would say not to have your expectations to high and expect a lot of things from that game copied into Far Cry 4, but not really in a good way. While I wouldn’t spend $60 on this game, that was a mistake that I made that I won’t be making again, I would pick this game up either used or at a discounted price just for the experience.
1 Broke Gamer Girl 