14 DAY TRIAL // Far Cry 3 may have been released in late December of 2012 after a pretty unfortunate delay but despite this it still resulted in great sales and impressed a lot of fans so much so that Ubisoft's central division allowed the Montreal team to release the standalone Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon expansion that allowed for a huge overhaul of the whole open world shooter.
Now, with Far Cry 4 the Montreal studio is once again pushing the boundaries of the series, both figuratively and literally, as it takes place in a whole new location, the fictional Himalaya country of Kyrat. Here, a dictator called Pagan Min rules with an iron fist and protagonist Ajay Ghile must fight to overthrow the dictator, while actually trying to stay friends with him.
At Gamescom 2014, Ubisoft brought forth two wildly different sides of the game, in the form of a regular mission that sees Ajay infiltrate an enemy stronghold and another one that's centered around the mythical Shangri-La.
First up, the stronghold mission kicks off in a pretty dramatic way, with Ajay using his wingsuit to drop by right near its front gate. While of course stealth is recommended, you can still go in guns blazing. Better yet, you can use the all-new bait items to draw in wild animals that will do your dirty work by killing enemies or at least by causing diversions.
The main goal is to assassinate a lieutenant with a knife and this certainly forces players to use less destructive means of killing enemies when they get close to him. Once all that dirty business is done, Ajay once again uses his wingsuit to glide away to safety, while avoiding the treacherous cliffs of the Himalay mountain range.
By far the more impressive side of the demo was the Shangri-La portion. During the game, Ajay will find mystical items that tell the story of an ancient warrior that, together with the spirit of the Kyrat people personified by a white tiger, banished an ancient evil.
While meditating, Ajay can take control of the warrior and use a powerful bow, together with the tiger, to take on various monstrous foes.
These unique encounters are similar, in a way, to the Watch Dogs digital trips, as they play completely different, especially since you can order the tiger to dispatch of foes or distract bigger monsters while you strike at their weaknesses.
The foes are various humanoid monsters that shift in an out of visibility. Fortunately, your bow can be used not just to shoot them with arrows but also slow down time in order to nail the critical shots. There are also some sort of monster dogs, whose bodies can explode if they're shot a second time.
Overall, the whole Shangri-La moments are quite impressive and should certainly act as high points in the game, in between the regular real-world adventures of Ajay.
Far Cry 4 launches this fall on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.