Far Cry 4

So Far Cry 3 was one of my favorite games of last year.  The open world, the beautiful landscape, the brutal combat, it was just a really well done game.  Well with Far Cry 4 you get all of that same amazing stuff but with more beauty and more ways to attack objectives.  Unfortunately it sometimes feels like you are treading familiar ground.  This normally wouldn't be an issue considering the game is amazing.  The issue is that this holiday season there was a ton of games launched at the same time and frankly my mind wanders more to my collection.  Ive spent pretty decent amounts of sitting time with FC4 and almost every time I eventually just want to stop and play something else.

First off the story is weak.  You are the chosen son returned to the land to free the people of the Kryat.  (all you wanted to do was spread your mothers ashes)  Kryat has been taken over by a leader known as Pagan.  He is by far the greatest part of the story and wildly underused.  You start working with freedom fighters that want to overthrow the current leadership and return the land to the righteous.  The problem is you end up doing missions based on guilt.  Your faction is spread between two leaders who have different mind sets.  It eventually turns into you fighting for mommy or daddy's approval.  Meh

The Open world is brimming with life.  I cant tell you how many times I came across a group of Yaks, or Deer, or Pig, or so on and so forth.  All ripe for the hunt,  Some may hunt you first.  On several occasions while planning how to take on the outpost I was attacked by an eagle only to draw attention to my position.  Very Frustrating.  None the less cool.

Just like Far Cry 3 the side missions are very plentiful and for the most part fun.  I'm personally not a fan of the driving missions but they can still be fun.  Missions like destroying a transport are fun and challenging.  As are the missions to protect convoys.  Like I said the entire game is very familiar territory.  It however remains one of my game of the year predictions.  Its a polished open world with a ton to do.  Its biggest flaw is that it was released during a very crowded time for gaming.