If it wasn’t for Child of Light, I’d be utterly convinced that Ubisoft can no longer make a good game after this past year. Watch_Dogs was disappointing, Assassin’s Creed Unity clearly wasn’t ready for launch and The Crew looks about as interesting as porridge. But Far Cry 3 and it’s standalone expansion Blood Dragon were both brilliant games, so I was willing to give Ubisoft the benefit of the doubt on this one and assume they were still actually capable of making a triple A game that didn’t reek of mediocrity.

When I first dived into Far Cry 4, I really wasn’t feeling it. It was all so familiar, so samey. It felt like Far Cry 3 again, but in a different setting. Sadly this was a feeling that sadly never dissipated fully.

It’s not entirely the same though, as some new mechanics and features made it into Far Cry 4, such as the much-loved pointless house upgrading system which has made the jump from the Assassin’s Creed games. Seriously Ubisoft, get this into your thick skulls. Nobody is playing your open-world bloodbaths to upgrade a house. If I wanted to upgrade my house, I’d play The Sims. I came here for ass kicking, not interior design.

Other fan favourites from other Ubisoft games make the trip over too. Tailing missions? Check. Climbing towers to reveal areas of the map? Check. Pointless and insurmountably numerous collectibles? Check. Ubisoft really do just make one game and change its skin. Stop it. Homogenisation is bad. Ubisoftification is bad.

I can feel my membership into the social justice warrior camp coming into being as I type up this next complaint, but I feel I really must give Ubsioft some crap for this regardless. After complaints about Far Cry 3 and how it was basically just a white saviour power fantasy, they made the main character of Far Cry 4 a native of Kyrat, even gave him a name to suit that. But then they go and give him an American accent. Why? It smacks of the developers trying to have their cake and eat it. They get to avoid controversy, but keep their character lovely and familiar because obviously people couldn’t identify with the character if he didn’t sound like he loved freedom, right?
Oh and another minor gripe, before you can get into the mediocre, tacked on PvP mode you have to watch an unskippable, tedious and long ass cutscene explaining the vague backstory of the multiplayer. Why on earth would you do this?

The plot is pants, there really isn’t much else to say about it. Ajay arrives in Kyrat to spread his mother’s ashes. He meets Pagan Min, the psychopath running the place and decides to help the resistance bring down the oppressive regime because he’s just a nice guy like that. The only redemption for the story comes in the form of its antagonist, one Pagan Min. Pagan Min is a bond villain, but he knows it and he plays it very well. His rants over the radio are especially amusing. One about candles had me genuinely laughing to myself.

Multiplayer is poor and pretty much only there to fill the checkbox. Nothing much else to say, a few game modes, you either play as the rebels or the army but you won’t play as either because it’s crap and the singleplayer is better. If you really get lonely, you can play the main game in co-op

Ending is multiple choice, but well done. Spoilers ahead, but nothing major and like I said the story sucks anyway. You can side with Sabal, Anita or, interestingly, Pagan. It basically tests you to see which ‘lie’ you believed. Will the old story of family values, traditions and respecting your heritage convince you? Or will the promise of change, modernisation and moving forward sway you? Pagan offers a different argument. You’re a psychopath, you didn’t do it to save Kyrat, you did it because it was fun. His choice speaks to the player, not the character you are controlling.

Riding elephants into army bases and flipping over trucks is awesome. The Wingsuit is awesome. There is so much great emergent gameplay. Blowing up helicopters and having them crash into a load of dudes on the ground. Sneaking into a base preparing to stealth kill everyone only to have a severely pissed off Rhino charge through and do the job for you. Wingsuit gliding into a tree at 100 mph. It’s all great “oh my god did you see that” action. Ignore the story (I stopped listening to mission descriptions) and just have fun in you big murder sandbox.