Ubisoft roll out their yoga mat and stretch out for another few years of the franchise.
Set on the fictional island paradise of Yara, a bloody dictatorship is crushing its people and the environment. Voiced by Giancarlo Esposito, Anton Castillo is a remarkably measured villain as far as Far Cry goes. His part is delivered well if infrequently, as he drags his young son Diego around to show him the ropes. He is flanked by a bevy of commanders like Admiral Benitez who seems modelled on Mrs Trunchbull from Matilda, or Mr Mackay who is the stereotype of the evil corporate fat cat. There are many lesser demons as well and the whole cast comes together to feel like a very well-structured web of power to unpick. This approach is of course the formula of every Farcry, so it should not be a surprise that it works. There is a similar rainbow of Guerrilla friends from two-legged sausage dogs to enraged nerd warlords. The larger-than-life group you join is led by Clara Garcia, who much like Castillo is fairly calculated and one of the less wacky characters. It is the regional warlords who tend to provide most of the colour to the story, universally a pretty loose bunch of canons they are happy to chuck themselves at conflict with abandon. This approach unsurprisingly results in some casualties, which does leave you mourning some of the more colourful characters that spice up your existence on the Yara.
The story is straight out of the Farcry recipe book. It does not do anything remotely challenging but as you leaf through the story you can sense the pages missing, it would seem some aspiring writer at least tried to insert some depth. For example, the relationship with Castillo and his son is pretty dark but it feels like many times the script has been cut to keep it light. There is a particular part between the two of them where they share a drink at a significant moment and the cutscene ends faster than most of Casillo’s general dictator ramblings. There was clearly a very different game that could have come out if they decided to turn serious, given the polish of the gameplay it could even have been something outstanding… perhaps… maybe… in another universe.
Leading into graphics there is one story-related aspect which I have to mention, and if you play you will spot it, someone is shot in the throat and literally after you drop off a bag of meds they are bouncing around without a scratch! Clearly guerrillas employ the best sawbones in the universe! There are many other moments like this with visual discrepancies, like not being able to shoot out lights while in stealth, lack of visual bullet holes on environmental objects or the very basic destruction effects on vehicles. But… putting all the negatives aside, the island does looks beautiful. Watching the sun set over the beach with gorgeous water textures, the surround sound full of a chorus of birds, wind and the lapping tide. The clouds changing overhead as they mask the stars before the sun rises again, and it’s time to go to town with the trusty Boom Boom at my side and my bling array of weapons.
While the game is no revolution…. its gameplay and formula are as tight as it has ever been. It is a AAA demo for graphics and audio on a grand scale and nothing more. It is fun for the sake of fun and it really does not want to look too deeply at its subject matter. It gives a platform for some great music, voice acting and scenery that is not European or American, and that is probably all Ubisoft ever really aspires to.
Author: Joe, Bath store
