Years ago, long before any of you were even thought of, it was the early 2004s. Times were tough. Stuff was happening, that guy was doing things, music was happening, it was a different time.
Taco Bell was still on point though.
Crytek made a delightful game called Far Cry 1. It was your standard FPS in the jungle. Sold just fine, made lots of people happy, helped Crytek get noticed. No biggie smalls right?
So naturally they came out with Far Cry 2 four years later. They took what people liked from the first, added some fire elements, some super smart AI, some tricks they'd learned from their super successful Crysis series, and made another solid FPS. There were some spin-offs and some tie-in games released under the Far Cry series between FC1 and FC2. Look, it was the 200000s, it's what we did back then.
Good on ya boys.
Then came Far Cry 3, take everything you've learned from the last handful of games, and make a much more solid and enjoyable open-world FPS. Far Cry 2 was open world too, but different, still felt linear.
Far Cry 3 was enjoyable, had decent (but essentially worthless) replayability, and was a perfect game for people who had that Fallout 3 explore and shoot-itch. You played a young man on a vacation with some friends, when events turns unfortunate for the group. Disaster, heartbreak, fear and adventure ensue. In the end you make some decisions that decide things, and come to some conclusions that conclude things. Why do I even summarize these things when I can have wikipedia use my words for me.
Far Cry 3 is set on a tropical Asian-Pacific archipelago called the Rook Islands. The game's protagonist is a young American man named Jason Brody who is trying to save his imprisoned friends and escape the hostile islands after a vacation gone wrong. He gets involved with the Rakyat, the native people of the island, and in return for their assistance, sets out to help them reclaim the island from its pirate invaders. (THEIR PIRATE LORD IS NAMED VAAS)
Thanks wikipedia!! All caught up? Wonderful.
Now here's the summary for Far Cry 4 from wikipedia.
Ajay Ghale, After the death of his mother Ishwari, returns to his home country of Kyrat to carry out her final wish by scattering her ashes. Shortly after arriving in the region, the bus he was on gets stopped by Royal Army and after their passports were denied they started to shoot at the bus and killing most of Ajay's companions. Pagan Min arrives in his helicopter and takes Ajay and Darpan, an old man who acts as his guide, to Paul ''DePleur'' Harmon's fortress. The country's eccentric and violent king Pagan Min talks to Ajay and indicates that he knew Ajay's mother and was romantically involved with her. Pagan leaves Ajay alone for a few minutes, and Ajay flees the fortress with his mother's ashes (you can stay at the table until Pagan comes back to finish the game).
So. If I'm reading this right. Some guy goes to a foreign place, some shit goes down, and he ends up fighting to save the place. Far Cry 2 you're a mercenary sent to kill someone. Far Cry 1 you're a boat captain who ends up getting tossed into some crazy shit in the jungles. (OK KIDDING, YOU'RE A FORMER SUPER SOLDIER WHO IS HIRED TO TAKE A REPORTER SOMEWHERE, BUT YOU GET THE GIST).
What I'm getting at here is the plots are always somewhat vague. Which usually isn't a big problem in FPS games. There have been sketchier plots.
A cyberattack that cripples the Chinese Stock Exchange; in response, the Chinese government bans the export of rare earth elements which the entire infrastructure of the US Army runs and relies on, fermenting the start of the Second Cold War between the United States and NATO, against the Chinese-led Strategic Defense Coalition.
That's one of the actual plots from COD:Black Ops II.
I think my biggest problem with the plots of Far Cry is how hard they try to write them. In 3 and 4 you have this massive character decision, sometimes sprinkled throughout the game. There's a line of decision making I enjoy in my video games. Mass Effect, for example, approaches the issue with a wide selection of choices, each one deliberately thought out and with consequences. In that you can choose how you want your character to play out, and then deal with the storyline to your preference.
Far Cry.... you don't give me that option. You write your characters in a specific fashion, one that any normal person might disagree with, and then hand me back the controls.
Yikes, fucked this up for you did i?
Far Cry, I didn't even want to do that, isn't my character supposed to be a badass?
Yeah, except not here, here he totally flips the script bro.
Nope. No. There will be no script flippage here.
It's an essential element of any good story. You have a main character who has a motivation, he comes across a conflict, addresses the conflict in accordance with his motivation, then deals with the result. The falling action (or denouement if you're nasty).
It's a big reason why I have such trouble reading James Ellroy books. You have a main character you understand and feel like you can see through, then halfway through the story, he completely fucks it up. (Read Clandestine, Brown's Requiem, Blood On The Moon, it's Ellroy's early work, but it shows this perfectly. Also, don't read those books, they're really long and frustrating and books).
You simply can't have the main character that I play make decisions in the game that I don't agree with. Sorry bub, doesn't work like that. Because, and I'll tell you why, once he makes that decision, I don't want to control him anymore. You've forced your story onto my shooty/stabby adventure, and you've made it a key element.
Far Cry 3 did this in spades. The main character makes a decision near the end of the game that doesn't fit any reasonable expectation for the character. He makes a number of smaller decisions throughout the game that damage his reputation as an actual hero. Sure, you're trying to save a tribe of people, but at the cost of your friends well being? Ahuh.
So.. what's this gotta do with Far Cry 4? Does nearly the same thing. I don't understand the character's motivation, I don't understand how he can quickly take up arms against something, but at other times ignore huge motivating factors completely. I don't want to ruin too much, but he does some weird shit.
BUT THIS IS A SHOOTER, SO WHY IN THE HELL IS THERE SO MUCH STORYLINE?
Exactly. You can have an overall plot, even main protagonist involvement emotionally, but when it changes the flow of the game... come on son. That's really my big gripe with the game, FC3 and FC4. You're trying too hard to make it a cinematic storyline-driven game when people want to play it for the mechanics and gameplay style.
YOU'VE SKINNED A BILLION ANIMALS, BUT MONTHS LATER, EVERY SINGLE ANIMAL YOU SKIN STILL COMES WITH A VOCAL "UGGHHH" FROM YOU? NO.
No. Same thing happens in FC3 too. You have such hesitation about skinning an animal, but a few days later you're skinning everything in sight. Sure, it's just a sound effect. BUT IF YOU WRITE THE GAME TO SHOW EMOTIONAL IMPACT FROM YOUR MAIN CHARACTER ABOUT CERTAIN ACTIONS, THOSE EMOTIONAL HINDRANCES SHOULDN'T REMAIN THROUGHOUT THE GAME.
So you end up with this horribly mis-balanced character, who is motivated by who the fuck knows, and is trying to save something that he clearly had no ties to previous to this adventure. Why would I want to control that? What would keep me from skipping the cut scenes?
oh you. You'd keep me from skipping the cut scenes. I see. The game doesn't allow it. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY TO ME GAME? WE'RE FIGHTING FOR THE FREEDOM OF OUR VILLAGE??
Not only that, but there are two different leaders of the tribe, and I have to pick whom to listen to and do missions for. So... I can choose between two good people? What sort of fucking outcome do I get from that?
And finally..... Far Cry 4..... Pagan Min, the evil dictator ruling your country is actually the least of your concerns. It's obvious you're just a fictional version of Tibet. Very obvious. Nothing wrong with that, but GOOD LORD IF IT'S TIBET YOU HAVE A BIGGER ISSUE THAN PAGAN MIN, YOU HAVE CHINA.
But that's all neither here nor there. I read the ending for the game. Two screens worth of explaining. Needless to say, your character makes all sorts of weird decisions, mostly for no reason whatsoever. No underlying motivation, mostly just a "choose A or B, congratulations, you choose this one because of nothing"
I just want to shoot. I want to drive fast cars, and shoot stuff, and explore. The plot could be non-existent for all I care. But when the game is hindered by plot, that gets old.
Aside from the ambitious writers, the game does have a ton of high points. It's a solid shooter with everything we've come to expect from the Far Cry series. I just found myself skipping most of the cutscenes and ignoring most of the storyline. Because at the end of the day, I have games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age who, frankly, do a much better job of writing a concise yet deep story. That sort of thing doesn't just belong to BioWare either. Bioshock and Red Dead do an excellent job of telling deep stories while not interrupting the game itself.
All too often I feel like games subject the player to "here sit and walk with this guy while we explain way too much about the story to you, ok now here's how you crouch, shoot and run, anyway... more story". That feeling you get when you start off playing a game for the first time and you know it's going to be an hour or more before you really get taken off the leash.
Not that Far Cry is the only series guilty of it, but the game could shine so much more without all the backstory. On either side of the fence you have games that handle storyline completely different. Dragon Age with their pages and pages of story and subplot and everything else, and you have COD with its rough semblance of a storyline just deep enough so you can understand your geographic location and know what outfits to shoot at.
I want to love the Far Cry series, and for the most part I do. I just don't care for the storyline and poorly planned out lead character I pilot. It's not that kind of game, and I doubt anyone is really expecting it to be. Skip over all the fluff and backstory of the game, and you have a consistently solid shooter with great mechanics, beautiful landscapes and tons of hours to spend in it. IF I WANTED A STORY I'D READ A BOOK.
......who am I kidding, if I wanted a story, I'd watch half of the movie based on the book, and google the ending.
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