Far Cry 4: Beautiful world your oyster

Words cannot describe how addictive this game is. It's the gaming equivalent of a page-turner.

 

Far Cry 4

For: PS4, Xbox One, PC, PS3, Xbox360
From: Ubisoft
Five stars (out of five)

 

Upon starting the game, you are introduced to the main antagonist, a deceptively charming man by the name of Pagan Min.

His designer haircut and lavish pink suit belie the fact that he's your typical psychopathic dictator and madman.

Although that's to be expected with Far Cry's bad guys - take Vaas from the previous game, for example.

After you escape from Min's ''generous'' hospitality, you are set free on the mountainous and vast region of Kyrat, a world as beautiful as it is captivating, and the training wheels are removed.

The world is your oyster.

You can stick to doing missions (which does benefit you as it unlocks better gear) or you can also just go exploring.

The appeal of the Far Cry series of games is the way that the entire environment is filled with things that are interesting.

Most open world games just have vast space between its various areas; in Far Cry 4 there's stuff happening, or stuff to find, everywhere.

A typical gaming session with Far Cry 4 goes a little like this: you go off to capture a radio tower and while doing that you notice a cave.

On the way to the cave, you're leapt upon by a Bengal tiger.

After fighting off the tiger you notice an elephant, which you leap on to and ride straight into an enemy outpost, scattering foes like tenpins.

After you've captured the outpost you leap off a cliff using your wingsuit and notice a fortress in the distance ... and it just keeps going.

Everything is so dynamic and enjoyable, yet it's not staged in any way.

Most games have these sort of action sequences but you're gently nudged in the direction to get the most action possible.

Far Cry 4 lets you do whatever you want.

A lot of time in Far Cry 4 will be spent traversing the world and, once again, it knocks this aspect out of the park.

The aforementioned wingsuit is a blast (although I am prone to flying directly into cliffs, a problem I also had in Far Cry 3), there's a choice of vehicles, including ATVs, or you can just wander. It never feels laborious in any way.

Once you've had enough of exploring and decide to follow the main storyline, you'll meet the locals, a common theme to the previous game.

Ubisoft has made an attempt to make each character quirky. They succeeded but they also made the majority of them intensely irritating.

The way that they get in your character's face in cutscenes gets a bit tiresome, although it does show off the amazing detail work that's gone into the characters in this game.

If you don't want to keep replaying The Last of Us or GTA V, then look no further than Far Cry 4.

It's sensational.

- Simon Bishop 

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