Far Cry 4: Early gripes
I'm probably going to end up sounding overly negative about this and a lot of the reason for that is the fact that the very first Far Cry game I ever played for more than a few minutes was Far Cry 5, which I thought was a damn-near perfect game and a pure masterpiece. I had a few complaints about that game as well but it was such an excellent game overall that I was able to look past the few shortcomings.
Going back in time to play a game that was released years before was probably not the best idea, but it was the only choice I had since I didn't want to go back as far as 3 and 6 isn't available for me on the PS-Plus account yet. I hope that changes because I have heard good things about 6.
Far Cry 4 is not a bad game at all but especially when compared to 5 it has a lot of shortcomings.
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It isn't fair to compare older games to newer ones but before anyone accuses me of being time-centric I want you to understand that none of my gripes have anything to do with graphics or frames per second or anything like that. I am a huge advocate in the belief that gameplay is FAR more important than graphics and this is why I tend to not enjoy almost anything that Square-Enix makes since they seem extremely preoccupied with graphics and kind of worry about whether gameplay is actually fun as an afterthought.
In Far Cry 4 the game is pretty sound, and functions just like you would expect a Far Cry game would. In most ways the controls are practically identical and honestly, they should be. The layout of buttons is pretty standard and they just work. So I am not complaining about that at all either.
Here are 3 gripes I have about the game after playing it for a mere 4 hours or so.
Too much grappling over obstacles
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The grappling in Far Cry 5 was an optional thing to unlock and none of the required content in the game actually necessitated having the "add on." In 4 you have this equipment almost from the very start of the game and it becomes a major part of gameplay right from the onset.
I realize that you are in the Himalayas and this of course is a very mountainous area. The fictional country of Kyrat was probably created in order to not offend anyone but that doesn't really matter. Since there is so much mountainous terrain, getting around to your next objective can be a royal pain in the ass because it isn't always evident where the grappling point actually is. You'll just be wandering around an entire mountain range looking for that one grapple point that will allow you to head skyward.
This might have seemed cool back in 2014 but it isn't now. Now it just seems like a lot of unnecessary time wasting that I could do without. In FC5 using the grappling hook could give you an advantageous position behind enemy lines but in 4 it is often the ONLY way that you can get there at all. It doesn't make sense from a stronghold perspective either. What group of enemies is going to build a keep on top of a mountain that has zero road access? It's just stupid and frustrating.
Animals are often your worst enemy
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I don't have a problem with wildlife being a part of a game and it was also a factor in FC5. However, in Far Cry 4 this is much more of a problem early on than human enemies are. I don't know how many times I have been scouting an enemy position somewhere and then all of a sudden I am getting my face ripped off by a tiger or cheetah or something. It isn't important what the actual animal was, it is the fact that they are friggin everywhere and has resulted in my death far more times than enemy gunfire has.
The constant threat of eagle attacks has to be the most annoying. Why are these eagles so pissed off? They are even constantly attacking the NPC's and while that would be fun every now and then, it's mostly just really annoying and unnecessary IMO.
Small font and too much written dialogue
I have probably missed out on a lot of the game's story because of this. There are a plethora of notes and letters that you will discover as you wander along but the font that is displayed on the screen is seriously small and while this wouldn't be an issue for someone playing on PC sitting 12 inches from their monitor, it is a real problem for me and I would say most users who play on a TV sitting 8 feet away from the tele.
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This obviously has something to do with my own eyesight but at the same time they could have at least made it an option for the font size to be made bigger. If you are reading this on your computer, and I presume most people will be, go ahead and take a few steps back from your monitor and try to read it. That is what it is like for me every time that I encounter a note and because of this frustration and the fact that I don't actually want to have to stand up every time I encounter a clue, I end up skipping a great deal of the words that I encounter that are written down.
A lot of games make this "mistake" in RPG's and honestly, they really should have something in the options to change this. It's not like I am playing on a small TV on the other side of a basketball gymnasium either. I have a 50 inch + TV and I am 6 feet away from it.
So these are really my only beefs with the game up to this point. There are others such as the crafting system involving supplies that exist in very small numbers at the indicated points on the map and this results in a ton of time spent wandering around senselessly wasting time looking for them for example.
I still think that this game is worth playing though and I will trudge on. It's just a shame that it isn't as good as Far Cry 5 is but I honestly didn't expect that it would be.
Far Cry 4 as well as many other games in the same Ubisoft franchise are available for free with a PS-Plus Extra account at the moment.