The original post: /r/gaming by /u/SorrowOfIsshin on 2025-01-21 13:57:34.
Recently they added steam achievements to it, and I just thought why not. I remember 3 being a fun time, and I had nothing immediately interesting me.
““SPOILERS””
It’s just a very fun game. Ever since Elden Ring’s release (3rd year anniversary next month), I have been in a slump of no game would entice me to this level. I beat that game around 40 times, that’s how good it was and nothing else really compared these past years. Closest I felt were Metaphor and Titanfall 2. Far Cry 4 has me actively looking forward to it, and making time for it by rushing my other daily duties.
Gameplay:
It’s arcadey, no sim bullshit going on over here. But boy is that gameplay fun. Guns feel great to use, stealth is overpowered without being boring, vehicles are fun to drive and missions last just long enough without becoming tedious.
I spent a couple hours today hunting for crafting materials, and could not find a particular goat on the map. I was scouring the map for it, when all of a sudden an eagle rose in front of me, carrying an animal that looked liked the goat, flew high and dropped it to it’s death. I rushed to it, skinned it and completed my shit. But the moment felt so organic that you don’t really go expecting in an Ubisoft game.
Similarly, I marked an outpost to liberate, and started driving towards it. Died fucking 6 times before I reached it lol. Each death was different, one of them involving a fucking Tiger attack as I was reloading…
For a co-op achievement, I hit the steam discussions, got someone who wanted one same as me, we joined and drove aimlessly for something like 30 minutes trying to get that. Even an impromptu co-op with a random for achievement hunting was an incredible time honestly.
Setting:
It’s incredible. I love everything mountains, and if you have ever been to that Himalayan region, they nailed the village looks and feel. The scenery is just very striking and quite fun to traverse through. It is an incredible openworld they made here.
Story:
I’ll be honest, do not really care about it. I just wanted to have some silly fun. But in one choice of main mission, I had to choose between Sabal’s (burn the opium fields) and Amitha’s (protect and hijack them)
Now, Sabal’s argument was the land is more than it’s people, and the opium fields are actively poisoning it. This is very close to how I feel about the world today, and with the looming threat of climate change and loss of biodiversity, I really empathized with his view.
But Amitha’s reasoning was even if we won the civil war, there would be no economic future. Agriculture is destroyed, mines are empty, we need those fields at least temporarily.
As a grown man, I felt that to be significantly more logical and went with her view, protected the fields. But the entire time I hated what I was doing. I guess that’s a part of what’s growing up is all about, making decisions that you know are right, but not liking them. I play games to feel good, and did not even save the environment in a fictional setting. Hated that.
But post mission, Amitha told me she was set to be married at age 6. And suddenly you could feel she hated the closed, conservative setting that a man like Sabal would probably be indifferent or ignorant about. She simply wanted to move forward, and was ready for any drastic action. I do not agree with either of them, and still nodded sagely at the dichotomy of development and saving the environment. Incredibly immersive, that part, personally.
Fucking hell, to make someone care this much about a simple choice in a casual game like this. Brilliant.
All in all, I am now something like 30 hours in the game, and still look forward to my next session. These 30 hrs simply flew by.
What a great fucking game.