My Thoughts on Far Cry 4 [PC Version]

 Down with Pagan!

[Originally written on 10th June 2020]

There are 5 games in the Far Cry series as of 10^th June 2020. Obviously the latest is the best looking, and from what I hear, the first two have good stories and bring a variety to the table; the next 3 are way too similar in terms of gameplay. So  why did I specifically choose the fourth instalment?

Because it’s set in a fictional country called Kyrat which is supposed to be situated to the north-east of India, and shares much of its culture with north-east India and the countries around the region – Bhutan, Tibet, Nepal; to name a few.

I believed that it was set in India, but Kyrat is equally good.  Up until now, barring a handful of levels in Hitman 2, and maybe a bunch of other games, India has not been a dominant setting in any video game. When I got wind of Far Cry 4 and its supposedly Indian setting, I jumped at the chance to give it a play. Even after knowing that it’s not India and Kyrat that the game is built around, I wasn’t disappointed in the least. The environs, the scenery and the locale can easily make you believe that you are in north-east India. People speak Hindi, you are surrounded by the high peaks of Himalayas and can drive an auto-rickshaw. It doesn’t get any more subcontinental than this.

The plus point of this game is its design. Scenes are created beautifully. Since you are in the wilderness surrounded by mountains, there’s a certain expectation that the view around you would be beautiful, and Far Cry 4 doesn’t let you down. It even enables you to admire the scenery as much as you want from a height. You can ride a gyrocopter called ‘Buzzer’ and fly over the green hillocks, cool waterfalls and dense forests while gazing down at your beautiful surroundings. The real thing to admire here is that even from such a height the textures of the game do not fade away so much as to make the whole environment look like an assortment of blurred, two dimensional sheets layered on top of each other. We can thank CryEngine for this, I suppose, as it was built specifically to render huge, detailed worlds without compromising on quality, no matter how far the eye looked.

The land, houses, people, animals, shrubbery, vehicles – everything is a sight to behold. I was especially pleased to spot many subcontinental themes creeping up here and there in the decorations and embellishments – like patterns on walls or temples following the trademark architectural style of monasteries found in Bhutan or Tibet. The signboards, however, did disappoint me. At first glance, the messages on them seemed to be written in Hindi, but upon closer inspection, it turned out that it was merely some random words written in the Devanagri script. Ubisoft could have put some more efforts to have some actual Hindi written on the boards. After such tedious research into the north-eastern subcontinent culture, picking out a few messages in Hindi wouldn’t have been too burdensome, I suppose.

The voice acting was commendable, too. Especially the voice-over in all the Shangri-La levels. Barring a few pronunciation mistakes here and there (the voice actor actually pronounced Vikalpa (meaning choice or alternative) as Vilaap (meaning the sound of crying) at one point, which made me wonder where the narrative was going), the whole narration of the Shangri-La myth was quite impressive.

Ah, the myths. Now I haven’t researched if the myths surrounding Kyrat and Shangri-La are indeed real, but if they’re not, I must admit they are quite richly created. The legend of Banashur, the god revered by the Kyratis, and his daughter goddess Kyra, after whom the country is named, and the whole backstory almost sounds like it might be a real myth pervading in one of the actual north-eastern coutries in the subcontinent. Building on these myths are locations in the vast map of Far Cry 4, which are named after these gods and goddesses, and there’s a whole side quest dedicated to Yalung, Banashur’s adversary. Roaming around the country, you can easily spot statues of Kyrati gods, small shrines beautifully lighted by burning earthern lamps or ‘diyas’ and scented using incense sticks. You will also come across funeral pyres on the banks of some river or pond. ‘Ghats’ as they are called in these parts, are quite accurate in terms of their location in the game and the activities that are shown going on here.

Full marks to the designing team who created and developed the world. Meticulously crafted with an eye for details.

Not much needs to be said about the gameplay mechanics. It’s the usual, shines in some places, frustrates you in others. But overall it’s quite normal.

The story impressed me next. I don’t know how much of it is borrowed from the other entries in the franchise, but if I observe it as a stand alone entry, it will be one of the topmost points of the game. I think what made the story so good was how it was revealed to the player. There’s an underlying mystery about something or someone named Lakshmana right from the outset. The first message displayed when the player begins a new game is “Ajay, my son, take me back to Lakshmana.” Followed by an image of an urn bearing the name Ishwari Ghale, whose ashes it contains. We are introduced to Ajay Ghale, who is in Kyrat to scatter his mother’s ashes in Lakshmana, without having the faintest idea of what it is. We are spared this information through a flashback voice over of a US Visa official who is talking to Ajay while issuing his Visa to Kyrat.

The game is really creative in how it chooses to reveal information to you. You can always pick up interesting snippets and facts about the land and the state it is in from the chit chats of its inhabitants and its sole RJ – Rabi Ray Rana who runs an indie radio station called Radio Free Kyrat. If you are willing to invest some more time, you can also pick up clues as to what else happened in this mystical country, along with discovering more about Ajay’s own past.

There are entries from Mohan Ghale’s journal scattered all across the country. This is Ajay’s father, by the way, and if you manage to pick up all of these, you gain significant insight into Ajay’s backstory, how Kyrat came to be in its present state, why Ajay was in the US, and, most important of all, Lakshmana. This last bit is revealed, quite appropriately, en route to the very last journal entry.

There are also a bunch of lost letters in Kyrat, which narrate the correspondence between one Robert F. Barclay, a lieutenant who is sent to Kyrat by the East India Company to train the troops posted here; and his pregnant wife, Charlotte. It begins in a normal fashion, with both the husband and wife craving each other’s company, but eventually the letters reveal how Robert loses himself in the mysticism of Kyrat and abandons his wife and their newly born child. This effect, this ‘losing oneself in Kyrat’s mysticism’ can also be experienced firsthand if Kyrat is explored fully and thoroughly. The lost letters become more relatable to read after this.

Far Cry 4 has multiple endings, and offers important choices at certain points. It also hides quite a few easter eggs in its belly and, right at the start, itself reveals how to get to the very last without moving a single muscle. These small quirks almost drape the game with some sort of “cloak of intelligence”.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing it, and I’m also glad that midway through the campaign decided to turn into a completionist and collect every single artifact and letter and journal entry. It helped me absorb the essence of Kyrat and of Far Cry 4. I now know what it feels like to have lived a game.