I also meet, and have a great deal of fun murdering, many of Min's soldiers, representing the Royal Army. I don't meet Min in the flesh during a decent preview of Far Cry 4's solo campaign, but I certainly do get acquainted with the game's wildlife – being charged by a rhino is, one assumes, only marginally less pants-wetting here than in real life. What are you gonna do about it? Well, that rocket launcher's just lying there, so…
"You" are Ajay Ghale, a native of Kyrat who's returned home from overseas to find it all gone to shit. The guy leading another Far Cry civil war is Pagan Min, a blonde-locked alpha antagonist voiced by Troy Baker – who turned in an award-winning performance as Joel in 2013's The Last of Us.
Now, Far Cry 4 follows that series high with, basically, more of the same. Pirates, tigers, drugs, government agents, a whole bunch of mystical shit, some brotherly torture and fucking sharks – brilliant. Next up, 2012's Far Cry 3 was better still: a tropical paradise of nightmarish possibilities, which came unstuck a few times plot-wise but was a complete joy to actually play. Plants would be razed, only to grow back in time, and the game's fire was unsettling in its realism, spreading with the wind to chase your shadow as you fled its lethal embrace. The breaking weapons and refilling enemy outposts were ball-aches, but the game felt alive. Far Cry 2 was flawed, but bloody hell it was different: a Central African-set adventure of civil war, malaria and more guns than you could throw a Gears of War at. Vengeance took a proud game and painted it every shade of ugly, turned aggressive enemies into target-practice dummies and was about as much fun as an execution chamber showing Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie while you wait for the sweet release of 2,000 volts to the brain.īut Far Cry refused to die. Keeping up? Doesn't really matter: all you need to know is that the Far Cry series had its face forced down into the dirt until its legs stopped kicking.
Specifically, then came Far Cry: Vengeance, a Wii-only remake of Far Cry Instincts: Evolution, a sequel to Far Cry Instincts, itself an Xbox remake of the PC original. But then came the ports, where things did go wrong.