David Hollingworth takes on the frozen and not so frozen reaches of Nepal, in a preview session with Ubisoft’s openworld shooter, Far Cry 4.
I’m happy to admit, I’m bit of a pinko leftie, type, all worried about animal conservation and keeping endangered species safe and sound. So, when I first saw the trailers for Far Cry 4, I was a little... bemused to see elephants being used as giant living battering rams and bullet magnets. Yeah, I’m that guy.
But you know what? When you manage to clear out a teeming fortress in Far Cry 4 with the help of a trusty, stampeding elephant, it really is a thing of rare, gaming beauty. I’m not proud – but I am entertained.
SKYRIM WITH GUNS – IN A GOOD WAY!
That was another of our thoughts from Far Cry 4’s initial reveal; the towering, snow-clad peaks and rolling mountain pines of the game’s rather epic open world do look more than little like Skyrim. But having now played through a selection of the game’s rather impressively broad locales, calling Far Cry 4 ‘Skyrim with guns’ can also be some pretty high praise.
This really is a stunning looking setting, rich in a cultural texture, natural grandeur, and a refreshingly different colour palette. But the most striking thing is
the sheer scale of it. Epic mountains rise up into the misty heights, and to far larger heights than anything in Skyrim, for that matter, while paths twist around and over them. There’s also an amazing diversity of environment on offer in this little corner of the world – jagged, snow-swept landscapes spring up within wingsuit distance of lush, half-tamed farm-land.
As you’d typically expect, this is anything but empty land, too. There’s a whole new ecology to interact with, from water buffalo to yaks, deer, and even the odd large predator. And, of course, those amazingly destructive elephants.
With the game’s greater use of the vertical comes new ways to get around, and one welcome addition to the game is grappling hook. It’s not as freeform as we’d like – which would be tough, letting players get everywhere – but at certain points you can spot a weathered rope, which is the sign that a hooking point is somewhere above you. Target it, pop your grapple, and you can climb up. It’s an active process, and one where you easily look around while climbing or lowering yourself down, and clever use of the game’s PoV makes it feel very different to simply mantling over a ledge or climbing a normal ladder.
Far Cry has always done a wonderful job of making players feel a part of something bigger, through the use of open spaces, rich mechanics and side-quests, and of course lots of different things to hunt and shoot and stab in the face. But perhaps its biggest trump is the it makes movement so smooth. It’s no wonder – this is the company that made gaming parkour what it is today – but it’s still one of the series big selling points; the sense of motion feedback from every step, every crouch or leap, is really quite impressive.
KICKING DOWN DOORS
The first part of our hands-on session was with a Fortress. These are the FC4 equivalent of the outposts dotted all over previous games, and a much tougher nut to crack, at times. With thick, stone walls, lots of vantage points for snipers, and twisty little alleys – not to mention xed weapons like machines guns and even mortars (more on that later), they’re a very different proposition.
I found it quite possible to run and gun through outposts in FC3, or simply hang back and pick off targets one by one. Those are still possible, but both you and your enemies have some funky new tools to play with.
For those who like to sneak their way through combat, you can take advantage of the quiet, close-in certainty of the crossbow pistol. This packs two over-and-under weapons on a single frame – for one, the other reloads. With a dot-sight – and the game does feature a range of weapon upgrades – it’s great for pinpoint shots into unsuspecting guards.
It’s a little louder, but the semiautomatic sniper ri e is a real joy to kill with. From the sharp crack of its report, to the one-shot-kills you’ll get even from winging someone, it’s already looking like one of our favourite weapons of the game. Used in tandem, the pair of weapons are great, though when things do go loud the lack of punch is particularly felt.
But that’s where the xed weapons of your enemies come into play. In one of our stealth play-throughs, nearly every guard in the fortress was packed into one corner – I couldn’t get an angle with my ri e, and nor could I take them all out with the crossbow. Thankfully, I had already killed the guard manning the mortar – when you use that, you lock into a top-down view of your target area. Pressing fire drops you out of that view, back into first person, where you then load the weapon, and fire it. It’s very powerful, but very slow to use, and getting attacked while loading is a one-way trip to dead land, but when it works... well, that town-meeting was cancelled quicksmart.
Not quick enough, though – one guard got the alarm going, and reinforcements rolled up. And not just only by road – two chopper-loads came in to airdrop into the fray, and the extra boots on the ground, plus airmobile repower, put paid to my sneaking.
So let’s try going a little louder... like, ELEPHANT LOUD.
The demo was set up with three ways to tackle the fortress, with three different options of gear. We didn’t have time for the ying option, mainly because the elephant option was just too much fun.
Basically, you mount up on the friendly – for now – pachyderm, and sprint it into the wooden gate, which duly splinters under the impact, cuing screaming, running around, and general panic from the guards. It’s not a precise method, especially with the weapons on offer – a sawn off shotgun and antique MG42 – but what it lacked in pinpoint accuracy it more than made up for in pure carnage.
That said, there’s still some tricks you need to learn – like not sticking with the elephant. Our best success in this method came from running only so far into the fortress, and then dismounting. Bad guys shoot the elephant, elephant tramples badguys, you run off to a safe distance where you can watch and giggle as badguys literally get tossed through the air, and the elephant demolishes speeding jeeps of mooks.
The elephants, tough as they are, are not bullet-proof however, and I guarantee that you will feel pretty bad when one of them gets gunned down. But you’ll also be looking for the next elephant ride minutes after.
Like I said, I’m not proud.
The weather also plays a far larger role in the game, as we discovered in a level where we had to wingsuit our way to mountain-top lair and stab a guy for some yet to be revealed plot contrivance. At one elevation, the weather was clear, but we ended up ying to a lower height, which was wracked by a snowstorm.
For this, we had a full range of weapons – MGs, ri fles, knives, even pointed sticks (well, arrows). Still, given the weather, it seemed a perfect chance to use the quiet crossbow pistol, and using the storm for cover to get around the ruins, tents, and more modern buildings.
The weather greatly reduces to ability of the enemy to spot you, which is handy, because it is a far more aggressive enemy AI this time around, while still being cautious enough not to do anything stupid. In the snowstorm, I could get much closer to guards, and time shots so they’d be taken down out of sight, and stay that way. It really felt like I was some wraith in the mist.
WHAT’S FAR CRY WITHOUT A TRIP OR TWO?
As far as we can see, it ain’t Far Cry at all, and those who love to get off their face in first person will not be disappointed by Far Cry 4.
Another of the levels we got to explore was set in the mythical realm of Shangri La. Here, it’s all red petals, red rocks, and... well, you get the idea. There are floating temples, and you have a pet, armoured tiger that you can use to attack the weird priest-type people who appear and disappear in a swirl of blue smoke. Yes, you are tripping balls, and yes, it did come across as a little annoying, but it also appeared to be good and brief.
Again, though, it reinforced Ubisoft’s drive to make this Far Cry a separate and new experience. Yes, it’s all kind of tribal and you have a bow, but the look and feel of the game is radically different to that of previous titles, in the same way that this new villain is quite different too – though still a barely socialised psychopath.
He wears a suit!
It has to be said that there’s really nothing revolutionary in the game – it’s more your classic evolution of a now proven formula. There are vehicles to zip about in, fun ways to interact with the environment, and lots of animals to hunt, treasure to track down, and sidequests aplenty. There are guns, there are badguys, you point one at the other, and mayhem happens. But this is now a formula that Ubisoft is perfecting more and more, and the idea of a yearly Far Cry entry that offers up an island adventure one year, and a new locale the next, is actually kind of comforting. But will they all have elephants...