Jun 18, 2015 06:56 PM
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N Far Cry, you are always a stranger. Every game in the series has placed players into the boots of a protagonist who is a foreigner in the wild and untamed land they find themselves in. The conceit helps ground participants in both the story and the action; when everything is as new to the player as it is to the character they control, they’re essentially on the same learning curve.
Far Cry 3 heaped the theme of madness on top of this rubric. There, players controlled a wide-eyed Western tourist on the run from bloodthirsty pirates on a tropical island and his only hope of survival was to become an efficient killing machine.
As the protagonist became the alpha male in ascendance, he also became more unhinged, the game hinting that becoming capably violent carries a psychological cost. Far Cry 4 takes this theme and runs with it; if Far Cry 3 saw players tumbling down the rabbit hole, Far Cry 4 sees them smack bang in the middle of Wonderland – and what a vast and hostile place it is.
It’s also achingly beautiful. The fictional country of Kyrat in Far Cry 4 is a mish-mash of Nepal, Thailand and Tibet in both its culture and visual representation. Snow capped mountains loom large behind rolling hills of untamed forests. Giant statues stare down into valleys pock-marked with villages, outposts and the ruins of Buddhist temples. Traders carrying their world on their backs wander dirt roads with hiking sticks, and the wilds are filled with fauna – most of it deadly to the casual intruder.
The world swarms with activities for players to get stuck into. Beyond radar towers, guarded outposts, story quests, races, hostage missions and the like, Kyrat is filled to bursting with animals to hunt, forts to attack, and plants to collect and craft into drug cocktails. You can even embark on the odd acid trip, courtesy of a pair of Western backpackers.
These pursuits continually crash into one another – one minute you’re on your way to unlock a radar tower and the next, a herd of animals – the source of pelts you need to craft an extra weapon slot – run into view and you’re off and running in a new direction. The player’s hardest task, really, is staying focused on the matter at hand – not that Far Cry 4’s developers offer any help in this department. The dynamics in the game’s environment make Kyrat feel like a living, breathing country and one that encourages and rewards exploration.
