At first glance, Ubisoft’s seminal Far Cry 4 with its storyline and hella fun outpost and fortress side missions might seem like a typical open world filled with lush graphics, but it’s also a well designed brilliantly made shooter. We’ve been here before with Far Cry 3, being a story of a spoiled rich kid left to his own devices to become a man, whereas Far Cry 4 tells a more engrossing story of a lost tourist rising to free a whole country from a nefarious despotic ruler. The side missions are a blast, sneakily sniping your way into army controlled outposts or going guns ablaze with powerful weapons that are weighty and invite experimentation.

Its wildlife, the wonderful muted color environments, and especially the two main NPCs, Amita and Sabal (wonderfully voiced by Lost’s own Naveen Andrews) you ultimately have to pick sides with, assisting one’s efforts and alienating the other. I genuinely sympathized with the cause each entity sided on, and it made my decision making difficult. I love books and movies, but the intensity of this predicament can only unfold through the magic of a PC game in which you are taking part as a player-character. And the game’s archvillain, Pagan Min, who has an unctuous intriguing charm any Bond villain would be proud to acquire even tugged at my heart strings when I was given the choice to end his life, despite the heinous things he did in-game.

There was a lot of repetition in the game, but I never lost my way. Kyrat was a compelling place I felt I was given a ticket to visit each time I clicked the icon button. It became a game I thought a lot about when I was away from the PC. I finished the game in 117 hours which is a heady time investment. Yet, I was actually saddened at the game’s end when I realized the experience was going to be over with. I completed most tasks and collectibles. I abandoned the Shangri-La missions when scaling mountain sides to find appropriate grappling strongpoints became an exercise in frustration. (I hate when game developers use such augmented difficulty devices to artificially lengthen a game.)

Cliff Martinez was commissioned to do the spectacular soundtrack which is a mix of Nepalese instruments and Hendrix style guitar music. The game’s ambient sounds were amazing through my Steelseries Arctis Pro Hi-Res headset. It’s not often a game has me removing my headset because I thought an in-game sound was a RL sound causing me to glance out the window next to my PC. And I’ve always maintained 1440p is the current sweet spot for PC gaming. The 1440p settings on this game betrays its 2014 roots. The game looks fantastic.

At first glance, Ubisoft’s seminal [b][i]Far Cry 4[/i][/b] with its storyline and hella fun outpost and fortress side missions might seem like a typical open world filled with lush graphics, but it’s also a well designed brilliantly made shooter. We’ve been here before with [b][i]Far Cry 3,[/i][/b] being a story of a spoiled rich kid left to his own devices to become a man, whereas [b][i]Far Cry 4[/i][/b] tells a more engrossing story of a lost tourist rising to free a whole country from a nefarious despotic ruler. The side missions are a blast, sneakily sniping your way into army controlled outposts or going guns ablaze with powerful weapons that are weighty and invite experimentation. Its wildlife, the wonderful muted color environments, and especially the two main NPCs, Amita and Sabal (wonderfully voiced by [b][i]Lost[/i][/b]’s own Naveen Andrews) you ultimately have to pick sides with, assisting one’s efforts and alienating the other. I genuinely sympathized with the cause each entity sided on, and it made my decision making difficult. I love books and movies, but the intensity of this predicament can only unfold through the magic of a PC game in which you are taking part as a player-character. [spoiler]And the game’s archvillain, Pagan Min, who has an unctuous intriguing charm any Bond villain would be proud to acquire even tugged at my heart strings when I was given the choice to end his life, despite the heinous things he did in-game.[/spoiler] There was a lot of repetition in the game, but I never lost my way. Kyrat was a compelling place I felt I was given a ticket to visit each time I clicked the icon button. It became a game I thought a lot about when I was away from the PC. I finished the game in 117 hours which is a heady time investment. Yet, I was actually saddened at the game’s end when I realized the experience was going to be over with. I completed most tasks and collectibles. I abandoned the Shangri-La missions when scaling mountain sides to find appropriate grappling strongpoints became an exercise in frustration. (I hate when game developers use such augmented difficulty devices to artificially lengthen a game.) Cliff Martinez was commissioned to do the spectacular soundtrack which is a mix of Nepalese instruments and Hendrix style guitar music. The game’s ambient sounds were amazing through my Steelseries Arctis Pro Hi-Res headset. It’s not often a game has me removing my headset because I thought an in-game sound was a RL sound causing me to glance out the window next to my PC. And I’ve always maintained 1440p is the current sweet spot for PC gaming. The 1440p settings on this game betrays its 2014 roots. The game looks fantastic.