Month: March 2015

To begin with, let me say that…..

Yessirree, I hereby certify that I’ve spent about 42 real life hours in the game, making Far Cry 4 one of the longest games I’ve played. Is the story worth nearly two days’ worth of gaming ? Nope. Did I masturbate to the main female characters ? Um welll…..nope, since there’s no Citra in here and all three female characters have been wasted.

So why did I spend so much time playing the game, and am spending a good Monday evening typing out this review ? We’ll never know for sure – was it the beautiful and extremely familiar scenery, the Hindi (and Bengali!) music, the profusion of options to take down an enemy or the sheer number of side-quests you could embark on ? Or was it Shangri-La ?

Speaking of Shangri-La (and Shangri Lager), let me mention one similarity between my review and that elusive place in distant mythology – they’re (almost) unique. I’m sick of reviewers giving a graphics-storyline-multiplayer review structure, and then pretending as if they’ve discovered the blood diamonds of Longinus (more on this later). Nope, my review will focus on Storyline (has to), characters ambience and realiasm – in short, the quality of immersion offered by the game.

So let’s begin….

Storyline

Far Cry 4 is quintessential Far Cry ordinary guy becomes superhero type of story, sans the survivalism of its predecessor. Honestly, for me at least, the fact that Jason had to run pell mell out of Vaas’ camp and then went back to eventually take him out on his island (saving his friends along the way), added a sense of vindication that made following the story uniquely fulfilling. With Ajay Ghale, a Nepali…sorry, Kyrati……who was taken by his mother to the US when he was a kid, and has returned to scatter her ashes at “Lakshmana” in picturesque Kyrat, this sense of revenge and urgency are not present. And as Ezio Auditore da Firenze will tell you, revenge is a great dish, whether served hot or cold.

The other problem of the story is the villain. Unlike Vaas and Hoyt, it is rather hard to feel that sort of visceral anger at Pagan Min, a Hong Kong born-drug peddler turned political adventurer who overthrew the Kyrati dynasty and became ruler. Yes, he turned the country into a drug farm and ruthlessly suppressed people and their religion. Yes, he allows men like Paul de Pleur Harmon to torture people and Noore Najjar to run a man vs animal vs man show at the cost of numerous human lives. Yes, his army is inflicting numerous abuses on the people of Kyrat.

BUT…at the end of the day, Ajay is in a weird way, insulated from all this. Right from the time he’s caught with the Golden Path rebels but is instead taken to a fine lunch at Harmon’s fortress, right down to when Min “gifts” Kyrat to him at the end (if the player doesn’t kill Min), one gets a sense that Ajay is the “chosen one”, both for the rebels and the royals.  I kept expecting a twist in the tale that would actually make me want to kill Min right till the moment when he closed the door behind me at Lakshmana, but it never came. Indeed, except for a brief period during the Durgesh Prison mission, you never feel that Min has done you any harm whatsoever. Why go on and kill him, then, if not to take over Kyrat for yourself ?

The Golden Path, the rebels fighting Min’s royal army, are a staple part of Far Cry lore (remember the rebels in Far Cry 3 howling “this is all me!” when you’ve done the hard work for them ?) and are neither better nor worse than their predecessors in the Pacific Islands. Sabal and Amita are less mysterious and more business like than that tatau-monger, but all in all the rebels are sufficiently tepid for them to form an intrinsic but not very interesting part of the game.

Coming to the pace of the storyline, I’d say it is mediocre. Granted that I played story missions at long intervals, but even then, the story takes meaningless twists and turns. For instance, out of nowhere are we asked to take down Noore. Surprises are few and far between, the only two notable exceptions being the first Yogi and Reggie mission, which lands you in Shanath Arena (and introduces us to the beautiful Noore) and the Yuma mission, which we learn was actually masterminded by Min himself.

The quality of the story is decent, and at some places, actually makes you pause and wonder about the results of your decisions in a Bioshock Infinite-esque style. For instance, the mission in which we’ve to dispose/spare either Sabal or Amita (for me it was Amita) is a simple but heart-wrenchingly painful mission. It becomes even more so because you’ve to take down four Golden Path rebel guards, each of whom take away 50 Karma Points from you in turn (more on this later). It’d have been even more heart-wrenching if Ubisoft had put something better than “You’re sparing me, but you’re killing Kyrat” in Amita’s mouth at the end of the cut-scene (again when you spare Amita’s life – hell, I spared everyone, angel ain’t I ?)

To spruce things up even more, there is a separate, unrelated set of quests situated in Shangri-La. You’re introduced to them when you inquire about the thangka (a painting) at Yogi and Reggie’s (really your own ancestral home). Long story short, a warrior called Kalinag was sent by an unnamed king to find the land of Shangri-La, but instead of coming back like a obedient explorer, he went ahead and deffeated the evil Rakshasa that was wreaking havoc in the idyllic place. With the aid of the time-slowing bow, the elephant (penultimate mission only) and the tiger, you are asked to take down different types of rakshasas who frankly resemble the Royal Army units a bit too much once you’ve seen past their colorful attire. There’s not much story here (despite Kalinag providing a shuddh Hindi-only narrative at the start of the missions), but it is entertaining nevertheless, and makes the acrobatics required to reach the later thangkas (in modern Kyrat) sufficiently remunerative.

These aside, there is hardly any storyline to the other missions, so we’ll discuss them in the gameplay section.

Gameplay

Gameplay is, and always will be, the strong point of Far Cry 4. Ubisoft realized that the demi-god-like powers of the player are what made Far Cry 3 such a hit, and they stayed true to their roots. As expected, you get a holster of four weapons, unlocking slots by skinning and crafting through the Crafting menu (now accessible through the M button shortcut). Crafting also lets you obtain larger ammo pouches, explosive belts, heavy ammo carriers and so on. An interesting addition is the bait bag, which lets you throw bait (pieces of flesh from previously killed animals) to attract predators. The predator generated is truly random, ranging from a massively hard to kill bear to a dhole (wild dog).

This randomness is vital, because the type of animal generated decides how effective the baiting will be. “Baiting” in this case means to attract predators to enemy clusters and cause confusion, allowing you to slip out, attack or simply watch the chaos unfold. To UBi’s credit, the system is made intentionally imperfect – if there is a guard dog in the cluster, it will consume the bait, while if there is a “Hunter” in the cluster, it can control any animal that is generated, and send it against you. Lastly, sometimes “No animals seem interested in the bait”. Why, because the government is giving out too much free man-meat to the animals ?

Apart from baiting, there are the standard distraction methods – break open animal cages, cause random explosions, throw rocks or simply position dead bodies in open spaces after you’ve disposed of the soldiers. These variations make assassination, eye for an eye and outpost missions endlessly enjoyable, and just in case you succeeded in a helter-skelter style, you can always replay it using the outpost master game mode (though assassinations and eye for an eye quests come only once0.

Speaking of game modes, there are a good number of them. Outpost capture is essentially unchanged. Supply drops now require you to collect supplies from many areas and only in the last section, where the delivery has to be made, does the timer start ticking. Eye for an eye quests are similar to FC 3’s quests, requiring you to take down a commander with a chosen weapon choice. Hunting missions are now part of the Kyrati Fashion Week series, requiring you to take down Golu with a Ripper. Sorry, I meant deadly honey badgers capable of killing yaks and bears with the best LMG in the game. Sorry again, I actually meant to say that rare animals had to be taken out with a specific weapon class. Golu, we will miss you, always.

These aside, there is an advanced difficulty outpost capture option called fortress capture. Sadly, in easy mode, all but one (Rajgad Gulag) are easy as hell. All you have to do is climb up to a nearby overlook or rocky outcrop, use a silenced sniper rifle and some mines to wipe out the lot. Considering how the game marks these fortresses (walled outposts really) as hard, it’s pleasantly and then worryingly easy to take one fortress after another. And oh yes, take them even when their owners are still alive and kicking.

Exception, as I’ve said, is the Rajgad Gulag, Min’s fortress. For starters, there is no outlook I could find, the entry instead being through a rocky underground tunnel, the lead up to which is mined. The moment I was in, I was discovered and what followed were the 20 most difficult minutes of fighting as the royal army threw no less than a dozen heavies, a range of snipers and 4 helicopters at me. The reward ? Ripper of course.

These aside, there are a number of short quests involving capturing various stuff/killing Yuma’s lieutenants in the Himalayas for either CIA agent Willis or Longinus, a gun dealer. The earliest missions, with their use of oxygen masks, gives a Metro 2033 feel to the game, which sadly is missing in the later missions. Longinus’ own later missions make you feel like an undercover cop chasing and taking down blood diamond dealers and retrieving the diamonds.

Lastly, there are two series of quests – Hurk’s quests and Noore’s quests. Hurk’s quests are interesting, but not exactly novel. Noore’s are far more poignant, and one wishes they’d lasted longer. Essentially they ask you to find the whereabouts of Noore’s family, whom de Pleur is holding hostage.

To finish off this section, let’s talk about enemies. There is the standard foot-soldier who can be taken down in a coupled of knife attacks (or a takedown, obviously), the heavies, who are flamethrowers or LMG-carriers, the Molotov and knife throwers and of course, snipers. An interesting addition are hunters, who are hard to spot, impossible to permanently mark on the camera and capable of controlling animals. While they are extremely vulnerable to gunfire and themselves fire arrows instead of bullets, their stealthy nature makes it insanely pleasurable to perform stealth takedowns on them.

Talking of takedowns, apart from the standard “Death from above”, “death from below”, knife, grenade, gun and chain takedowns, you now have cover takedown. Sadly, it is impossible to tell when a takedown from a corner will give you a normal takedown or a cover takedown.

Ambience

“Namaste”

Yep, Kyrat is as Hindi as it gets, though you do catch strands of actual Nepali at Shanath and other areas. The game was developed after extensive research into Nepal’s culture by the developers, and this shows. Everything from “Bhaar me ja…” in the opening cutscene to the music blaring from Rabbi Ray Rana’s radio (he has his own quests too, but never mind) give off an Indian feel.

Nepal/Kyrat or not, the game provides an unique ambience that anyone who has travelled in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh or Arunachal Pradesh in India would be familiar with. Amidst the varied vegetation, you have a landscape full of lofty mountains, ravines, beautiful valleys and picturesque roads, all seemingly coming out of a Ruskin Bond book. There is also the quintessential Sherpa, who acts as a moving trading post, and can be extremely useful when you realize that you’ve chosen the wrong set of weapons for a mission and need to change them quickly without aborting the mission.

Along with this, Kyrat accurately reproduces the architecture of the region and of northern India at large. Where Indian architecture really blooms, however, is in Shangri-La, where entire temples – fully navigable if you have the desire to do so – have been designed with mind-numbing detail. Statues of yakshis bending on one knee, providing offerings, huge statues of deities carved into stone and of course, the magnificent metallic statue of Kyra (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Tara, an actual Tantric goddess worshiped in Tibet, Bengal  and Nepal) are marvelous in the level of detail they offer. In an era when games only too often portray post-apocalyptic or collapsing worlds full of rubble and debris, the carefully designed temples, complete with rose petals to add a serene ambiance, have to be admired.

If the endless sojourns on the hilly roads and the temple darshans in Shangri-La weren’t enough, the game provides a number of Hindi and one Bengali song (Raat Gyarah 59) by Indian band Bombay Royale. These add a lovely retro-Indian feel to the missions, and make the Maruti 800/Alto cars, the large trucks and autos – yes autorickshaws – seem so much more like what is actually found in these parts of the world.

Far Cry 4 truly is, Tomb Raider and Call of Duty’s Indian missions aside, the first game with a truly subcontinental ambiance, and it creates this in such a way that you’d probably want to skip that trip to Darjeeling in favour of playing this game.

Characters

As much as the developers tried to create an Indian ambiance, they took it away by giving all the major characters (save perhaps Noore) an English accent that is completely removed from the feel of the game. From Min’s “Aaa-jeh” to the weird mix of Indian and Western accents in Sabal and Amita’s speech, one is often left wondering just why the huge budget of the game could not afford some decent Indian voice actors. The only ones who truly come across as authentic are Hurk, Willis and Longinus, the latter’s accent being quite close to his dark looks and the weird torn canvas shirt that he wears at all times.

Beyond speech, the main “heroes” lack depth. Ajay has more depth than Jason, it is true, and occasionally blurts out lines like “I guess I’m the gunman around here”, or “I’ll decide what happens to Noore”. While it is harder to relate to Ajay’s privileged position under all circumstances (compared to Jason’s hardship) one does agree that Ajay has some character.

The other heroes, Sabal and Amita, are well fleshed- out but after a point, become increasingly predictable. Sabal harps on about the ideals of Mohan Ghale, while Amita tries to win you over with a “it’s not easy being a female fighter” and “this was what Ishwari actually wanted” banter. After the first couple of times, this virtually precludes the possibility of the player actually being swayed by either character’s talk during the Balance of Power missions.

Enemies, as in all Far Cry episodes, are extremely well produced. Min himself is beautifully made, with his pink coat, his blond hair and his body language producing a stark yet lovely contrast with the poverty stricken country he rules. Instead of taking his anger out on you (unlike Vaas), he is almost always beating, killing or maiming one of his own soldiers, which actually makes him a more interesting character than Hoyt and in some aspects, more interesting than Vaas. As mentioned above though, such interest is almost totally devoid of dislike or hatred of the character, given that Min almost seems to be apologetically clearing the path for you to become the ruler (even getting you to remove Yuma).

Paul de Pleur Harmon is the epitome of the double-life ruthless but civilized character. He spends half his time in the US with his family, composed of a nondescript wife and a sinister daughter with a knack for producing literature dripping with false empathy. The remainder of his time is spent in Kyrat, torturing dissidents of the regime using all kinds of tools and animals. The player only interacts with him when he is safely locked in the cargo hold of the player’s car and is being transported to Golden Path holdout for interrogation, and he shows himself to be the mastermind behind keeping Noore tied to Shanath. A typical bad guy, and not much more.

Noore Najjar is a totally different person. When she is not throwing men and animals into deadly combat against each other in the 18th Century Shanath arena, she is desperately seeking to release her family from Pleur’s clutches. After throwing Ajay into the arena (and providing you helpfully with a knife to start the slaughter), she shows herself to be a woman desperate and ready to go to any lengths (including running a heroin production ring on the side) to ensure her family’s safety.

Interactions with Noore are completely through cut-scenes, but reveal her to be another well fleshed out character. Fleshed out did we say again ? Yep, wide hips, a lovely waist, heavy breasts, flowing hair and a fair, Indian face make Noore a truly well-fleshed out character. In fact, while Yuma shows more skin (coming up!) it is Noore who sports a truly attractive body, albeit one that is always covered.

Despite these omens, the fact that her assistants are topless AK-47 wielding beauties, did arouse (ah, I can’t seem to escape these double meaning words) hope that she would participate in at least some physical action (wink wink). Sadly, we’re suddenly asked to get rid of Noore. We spare her a bullet to the back of that lovely, long-haired head, but what do we get ? She curses the crowd for its blood-thirstiness, slits her own hand and jumps into the arena to become bear/tiger food. Such a lovely face on an exquisite body, and animal food ? Seriously, Ubisoft ?

Our second female villain is Yuma, and honestly, she was the only one I disliked right from the start. After the “mindfucking” in Durgesh prison, we meet her again as she tries to take you on a psychedelic ride, explaining the ulterior motives of Amita (I’d chosen Amita at that point),. As you persevere using a bow and arrow (in modern Kyrat), you are eventually asked to take down Kalinag. Kalinag, of course, is Yuma herself and she only shifts to her female form after we’ve thoroughly perforated Kalinag’s manly chest. A female character being put into combat as a guy for the player to kill. No, I did not expect and did not want a sex scene with Yuma, but for Banashur’s sake, whoever turns female characters into males in the only actual interaction the player has with her ? SERIOUSLY, UBISOFT ?

The most interesting of the male ensemble are Yogi and Reggie, two drug-addicts who are occupying Ghale home and introduce Ajay to the arena, to Shangri-La and their own drug testing missions. The riot of colours involved in the latter two make Y missions worth it, even though the duo are as insufferable as a persistent honey badger.

Finally, there are some minor male characters – Longinus, Hurk, Rabbi Ray Rana, Mumu Chiffon and a single female character, the owner of Kyrati films. Apart from the latter, who appears in stockings and then asks you to risk your life and reputation in wild races, the rest are interesting, but only in fits and starts. Longinus is on a personal quest for redemption, and will give you a truck load of Bible quotes as he sends you on his kill and capture missions. RRR (as I call him) isn’t a very interesting character either, while Hurk is just good ol’ Hurk. They’re good enough, but only as side characters.

To wrap it up

Far Cry 4 is a great game, and not because of the story or the characters. It builds on Far Cry 3’s legacy and does so admirably. Gameplay is more varied, and the ambiance – waah, Kyrat! With enough side quests, a good choice of customizations and battle tactics and some interesting side-stories (Shangri-La for instance) this visually stunning game easily puts other open world first person shooters to shame.

Namaste, indeed, to a whole new gaming experience!