I haven't played much in the series, as my first introduction was Blood Dragon and then the fifth in the series. If this were my first Far Cry game, I would have been ecstatic to put about 40 hours into this game, but even without completing most of the collectables and achievements, it's a real drag. It's a very pretty and well-made drag, though.
Most of Ubisoft's games contribute to a sense of open-world fatigue. Far Cry 4's map is huge, pretty and well-designed, but traversing it over and over again can be a chore. That space is filled with repetitive side quests or unscripted events that redirect the player's attention (or interrupt what they were doing), and that's if you're ignoring the collectibles. Not only that, but to span the massive map, you'll probably have to drive and listen to the same radio DJ set from the start over and over again - with some pretty decent music scattered in there.
It's so oddly paced too. I didn't even attempt to grind, but rather simply unlock guns by collecting and finishing some quests. About 60% into the game, I had maxed out my XP, money and karma. Alongside a few minor bugs, those are the technical problems I have with this game.
Then there's the story, and what an "apolitical" Ubisoft tends to do is tell the most middling political stories with an undertone of authoritarian capitalism as the default human condition. If they're not poorly explaining the horrors of fascism, they're writing in nihilistic defeatism, and that there are no hope for revolutionary struggles. While it's not only ahistorical and inaccurate, they're playing in a space of highly budgeted storytelling with potentially hundreds of designers and writers, but end up rehashing Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan - or status quo centrism in lieu of creative and speculative fiction.
Then again, Ubisoft has been run by abusers and probably fascists, which could explain this kind of narrative in their games.
Most of Ubisoft's games contribute to a sense of open-world fatigue. Far Cry 4's map is huge, pretty and well-designed, but traversing it over and over again can be a chore. That space is filled with repetitive side quests or unscripted events that redirect the player's attention (or interrupt what they were doing), and that's if you're ignoring the collectibles. Not only that, but to span the massive map, you'll probably have to drive and listen to the same radio DJ set from the start over and over again - with some pretty decent music scattered in there.
It's so oddly paced too. I didn't even attempt to grind, but rather simply unlock guns by collecting and finishing some quests. About 60% into the game, I had maxed out my XP, money and karma. Alongside a few minor bugs, those are the technical problems I have with this game.
Then there's the story, and what an "apolitical" Ubisoft tends to do is tell the most middling political stories with an undertone of authoritarian capitalism as the default human condition. If they're not poorly explaining the horrors of fascism, they're writing in nihilistic defeatism, and that there are no hope for revolutionary struggles. While it's not only ahistorical and inaccurate, they're playing in a space of highly budgeted storytelling with potentially hundreds of designers and writers, but end up rehashing Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan - or status quo centrism in lieu of creative and speculative fiction.
Then again, Ubisoft has been run by abusers and probably fascists, which could explain this kind of narrative in their games.