Far Cry 4 (2014): The Review
Overview
Far Cry 4 thrives on variety and freedom, using its diverse world and endless side content to outshine a mostly forgettable story. The game’s visual richness, dense open world, and steady stream of side-quests constantly pull you toward something new, while its balanced economy system makes completing every task feel genuinely rewarding. Though it plays things a bit safe, leaning heavily on familiar elements from Far Cry 3, the leap to a vibrant new setting and the inclusion of a surprisingly successful competitive multiplayer make it an empowering and deeply satisfying adventure from start to finish.
Score: 8.5 out of 10
The Positives ✅
Few open-world games can rival the sheer wonder and density of Far Cry 4’s Himalayan playground. Kyrat is breathtaking, a living, breathing fusion of myth and bloodshed, beauty and brutality. Whether you’re scaling icy cliffs, creeping through misty jungles, or gliding across golden valleys, every corner feels crafted, not just rendered. This is Ubisoft at its best, a world so layered and tactile that you can practically feel the wind off the mountains and smell the gunpowder after a fight. Kyrat doesn’t just exist; it lives, filled with wildlife, temples, hidden treasures, and long-forgotten stories that quietly pull you into its history.
What truly elevates Far Cry 4, though, is how it turns exploration into storytelling. The design constantly rewards curiosity, every peak hides a secret, every ruin a mystery, every animal a potential disaster. You can lose hours climbing towers, freeing outposts, or simply watching a tiger ruin an enemy camp you were about to infiltrate. The variety of tools and systems at play, stealth, explosives, environmental traps, vehicles, and wildlife, give you full creative control over chaos. You can snipe from a mountaintop, drop grenades from a helicopter, or charge through gates on an elephant like a warlord. It’s glorious, unrestrained, and often hilarious.
And the best part? The chaos doubles in co-op. When another player joins, Kyrat transforms into a sandbox of unpredictable fun. One second you’re coordinating stealth, the next your friend crashes a gyrocopter into an enemy camp and turns the entire valley into a warzone. The cooperative design thrives on improvisation, offering some of the most memorable “did that just happen?” moments in the franchise. Even competitive multiplayer, surprisingly, captures that sense of scale and mayhem, the Rakshasa’s supernatural powers and animal summoning mechanics are a clever twist that make every match feel uniquely Far Cry.
Then there’s Shangri-La, a mythic detour that might just be the highlight of the whole game. These surreal missions, all crimson skies, slow-motion arrows, and spirit tigers, feel like stepping into a fever dream. They’re short, self-contained, and wildly imaginative, breaking up the standard gunfights with something ethereal and haunting. It’s these kinds of creative risks that keep Far Cry 4 exciting, a game that constantly finds new ways to surprise you, even hours in.
The Negatives ⚠️
For all of Kyrat’s majesty, its characters fall painfully flat. Ajay Ghale is a protagonist who never feels like the hero of his own story, more a tourist stumbling into greatness than a revolutionary shaping it. The premise of returning home to scatter his mother’s ashes has emotional potential, but Ajay’s muted personality makes it hard to care. He’s not awful, just hollow, an observer in a world bursting with personality. When the land itself feels more alive than its lead, that’s a problem.
This extends to much of the supporting cast. While Pagan Min should be one of gaming’s great villains, and Troy Baker’s gleefully psychotic performance certainly tries, the story wastes him. After his electrifying introduction, Min all but disappears, popping in for the occasional taunt before fading into the background. The same goes for his lieutenants, who die as quickly as they’re introduced, never leaving a lasting impression. Even the Golden Path’s leaders, Amita and Sabal, though intriguing at first, eventually fall into repetitive moral debates that lose steam. Their ideological conflict, liberation versus tradition, could have been rich, but it’s undercut by uneven pacing and inconsistent writing.
It’s frustrating because the story’s ideas are strong. There’s a real attempt to explore the ethics of rebellion, nationalism, and faith, but Far Cry 4 rarely knows what to do with its themes. Missions often feel disconnected from the emotional core they’re meant to serve. You’ll be liberating outposts one minute, burning opium fields the next, but it never quite builds into something cohesive. The result is a game where the world tells better stories than the narrative ever does.
The Experience 🎮
At its best, Far Cry 4 feels like freedom distilled into pixels. It’s the kind of game that constantly tempts you off the beaten path, whispering, “What if you just climb that mountain?” And when you do, it rewards you, with a hidden shrine, a breathtaking vista, or a violent ambush that somehow ends in laughter. The unpredictable, emergent storytelling that happens when you’re not following the main quest is what makes the experience unforgettable. It’s not about Ajay’s revolution, it’s about your stories: the accidental explosions, the failed stealth runs, the panicked elephant charges. Kyrat becomes a playground for your chaos, and that’s where Far Cry 4 truly shines.
The combat loop remains one of the most satisfying in open-world gaming. Every encounter feels unscripted, part strategy, part improvisation, part raw instinct. You’re constantly adapting, constantly reacting, and every win feels earned. The ecosystem ties it all together: animals, enemies, and environments all interacting in wild, unpredictable ways. Whether you’re crafting new gear, experimenting with skills, or taking down strongholds, the game gives you the tools to shape your own adventure.
When the dust settles and the gunfire fades, Kyrat lingers. You’ll find yourself wandering its valleys long after the credits roll, revisiting outposts, hunting for relics, chasing that perfect explosion. It’s a world that begs to be revisited not because of its protagonist, but despite him. Far Cry 4 may stumble narratively, but as an experience, it soars. It’s a playground of chaos, myth, and discovery, one of the most immersive and unpredictable open worlds ever built.
It’s flawed, yes, but it’s also unforgettable. Far Cry 4 proves that when Ubisoft lets its worlds breathe, they can still feel like living legends. Kyrat isn’t just a setting; it’s a story you write yourself.
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