“Far Cry 4” is far from mediocre

Josie Krome, Staff Reporter

The fourth installment of the “Far Cry” series, by Ubisoft, is set for release this Nov. 18. And any fan of the “Far Cry” series should be super excited about this title.

Full disclosure: I haven’t played any “Far Cry” games myself, however, I have watched them played. Compared to “Far Cry 3,” this title has a lot that you may expect and some major features that may surprise you.

The game takes place in Kyrat in the Himalayas, which reminds me of the locations shown on “Ice Road Truckers: Dangerous Roads”—I’m embarrassed about making this reference, but I hope it can give you a visual. As with the general theme of “Far Cry,” the area is very secluded and picturesque with tiny sparse villages.

The story of the game surrounds a young man who is returning to his home, only to discover that a violent dictator has taken over his country in his absence. As with past “Far Cry” titles, you conquer enemy outposts and solve puzzles to disable towers. Of course, there is significant environment interaction and crafting, and many side missions in the open world format, with the same combat and survival skills leveling.

Going off of gameplay videos, the most noticeable feature for me is the camera movement, and it is not a good thing when the camera movement is in the forefront of your mind in a game. The camera moves and bounces to simulate the actual view of the character, which would be cool and realistic if it weren’t so disorienting. Most games have a little of that to keep things real, but “Far Cry 4” does it to a point where it hurt my eyes and made me slightly nauseated from just the gameplay trailer.

That being said, this feature and beautiful graphics (in 1080p for Xbox One and PS4) make the game highly immersive. The most disorienting experience was when the player was riding in the gyrocopter, a new flying vehicle. On top of the gyrocopter, the game features the tut tut, a three-wheeled small car, and elephants.

Perhaps most interesting is “Far Cry 4’s” new multiplayer format. I’m particularly excited about Ubisoft’s promise to make co-op possible with a friend who doesn’t own the game. This is a great step for gaming, since nine times out of 10 this would never happen due to the developer trying to milk as much money out of you as possible.

In this case, a person like me, who has a PS4, can play with my friends who may have Xbox or even friends who are “computer-games-master-race-whatever.”

Also notable is the asymmetric multiplayer format. This means that there will be multiplayer modes in which the teams have different abilities, who need to play differently working towards different goals.

In any case, the game looks great and I’m excited to experience Kyrat and play with my friends.