Christmas day has come and gone, and naturally that means millions of gamers have new titles to add to their collections. Christmas brought me Far Cry 4 and Dragon Age: Inquisition. However, I wanted to take some time to discuss the former. Far Cry 3 was one of my favorite games of 2012, and few experiences have come close to it's amount of pure fun since. Far Cry 4 uses the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality and pushes it to a whole new level. If you've played Far Cry 3, you'll feel right at home in 4. The core gameplay is very similar to that of Far Cry 3, but fine tuned and enhanced to a scientific level. I haven't played many games that are as addictive as Far Cry 4. As soon as you get into the open world, the game surrounds you with quests, collectibles, loot chests, and tons of other activities to engage in. Content is something this game definitely provides and once I pick up the controller, I struggle to put it down for at least 3 hours at a time. The game leads you from activity to activity flawlessly, always putting something irresistible in front of you.
I'm playing Far Cry 4 on my PS4 and this, hands down, is one of the best looking console games I've ever seen. I'd be surprised to see the PC version look any better. With the exception of better antialiasing and framerate. The game plays at a smooth 30 frames per second and 1080p on PS4, and it never hiccups. It's one of the most polished and immersive first persons shooters I've played in a long time, and my hats off to the guys at Ubisoft for this one. The Dunia Engine has been powering the franchise since Far Cry 2, but it's never looked better than in Far Cry 4.
My 12 hours spent in Kyrat up until now has mostly been awesome, however, I do have some gripes that I feel I should share. As I mentioned earlier, the game gives you tons of things to do, and the amount of activities could quickly overwhelm gamers who aren't used to open world games of this magnitude. So if you're a gamer who's used to linear adventures, it might be a little tough to get used to the sheer amount of things to do, and the way it's presented to you. The wildlife of Kyrat is also a lot more active than that of Far Cry 3's environment. Simply put, almost every species found in the game wants to kill you. You'll constantly be attacked by dogs, wolves, hawks, leopards, tigers, and the list goes on. Even though this does help contribute to the hostile atmosphere of Kyrat, it becomes annoying when you're just trying to get to your next objective, but can't due to the frequency of animal attacks resulting in your demise. There's also new events named "Karma" events. These events are random things that happen in the world while you play. You have the option to intervene or not, and most of them are fun, but they're way too frequent. They quickly become somewhat of a chore and an unwanted distraction when you already have your sights set on something. One last issue I have with the game is the AI. Usually after a victory, your comrades in the Golden Path see it appropriate to fire their weapons skyward in celebration. Normally, I would have no problem with this, but in a world as dangerous as Kyrat, I automatically associated the yelling and gunfire with violence and erratically looked around for the conflict. Only to realize it was my rebel friends wasting precious ammunition in the name of victory.
