I’ve been a gamer since receiving my first NES console and Super Mario Bros. Stomping on goombas and turtles, getting coins, eating mushrooms…I was hooked. Since then, video games have evolved from basic run/jump/shoot titles requiring twitch reflexes and infinite patience to a form of creative, artistic expression. The technical depth of modern games is astounding, but storytelling is what defines my experience as a gamer. Far Cry 4, my first venture into the series, is filled to the brim with quality gameplay but lacks a consistent, engaging narrative to keep you invested in its gigantic world.
As a writer, I play video games for the same reason that I watch movies or read books: to embark on an adventure outside of my own world. Back in the day (yes, I said it), a game’s story was limited to basic intro/ending text and maybe a few pixilated images. Gaming narratives have come a long way from “your princess is in another castle.”
Professional voice acting, cinematic cutscenes, and ultra-realistic environments have become the norm. When properly utilized, the end result can be revelatory. Just look at critical and commercial success of The Last of Us – over 200 Game of the Year awards, a Playstation 4 remaster edition, and a movie adaptation in development.
For many gamers like myself, high scores and trophies/achievements aren’t reason enough to invest hours of our busy lives. The AAA titles that I enjoy like The Last of Us have years-long development cycles with budgets rivaling Hollywood films. I’ve come to expect a balance of story and gameplay to keep me entertained on both an emotional and technical level. Strip away the glitz and glam of any game, and it becomes a repetition of simple gameplay mechanics. Quality characters and story keep your focus on the unique, interactive essence of a video game. If those elements are sacrificed, the illusion is gone.
You’re just wasting time hitting buttons.
Far Cry 4, a first person shooter/adventure hybrid, starts off extremely promising. The player assumes the role of AJ Ghale, an American-raised man who travels to his homeland of Kyrat to spread his mother’s ashes. Upon arrival, AJ is kidnapped by Kyrat’s leader, Pagan Min (Troy Baker). Soon, AJ escapes Pagan, is recruited by revolutionaries called the Golden Path, and is tasked with freeing Kyrat from tyranny. The player can even decide which prominent Golden Path leader to support: Sabal who wants to preserve Kyrat’s culture and history, or Amita who wants to bring Kyrat into a new age of socioeconomic freedom. It’s a great setup, but as soon as AJ is thrust into the expanse of Kyrat, the story comes apart at the seams.
“Open world” games, popularized by the Grand Theft Auto franchise, allow the player to explore huge worlds laden with content. Kyrat is graphically stunning, but it’s not long before it feels like a sandbox of repetitive mini-events and not a living country that you care about. The story failings of Far Cry 4 can be traced to the very nature of the open world genre. The main story only progresses if the player chooses one of the “campaign” missions. But with so much to do around every corner––collectibles, vehicle races, hunting quests, outposts to liberate, radio towers to reveal more of the map––you are constantly distracted from doing so. Hours could pass by before you advance the main story at all.
Unless you ignore everything else on the map and only focus on the campaign, you will quickly lose interest in deposing Pagan. Is this lack of focus the player’s fault or the design of the game? My own dash of OCD forced me to engage the innumerable little side quests that I came across every few minutes while making my way to the next campaign mission. This wouldn’t be an issue except that the optional events rarely have any impact on the overall story. They are thinly veiled time sinks that lose their luster from having no real significance.
Personally, I find the freedom of open world games to be overwhelming. At the same time, forcing a player along the campaign defeats the draw of an open world. How does a game like Far Cry 4 balance exploration and storytelling? I think it comes down to sheer size and relevance of the content. Gamers tend to whine about the length of video games and place far too much importance on the amount of hours it takes to complete them, but Far Cry 4 has way too much to do. Does there really need to be 14 hostage rescues, 8 assassination and eye for eye missions (essentially the same thing), or 150 propaganda posters to rip down? You could literally slash the amount of activities in half and still have a game worth buying, especially if it all felt relevant to the main narrative.
Freedom is not the only story hurdle in Far Cry 4. Pagan is barely seen after the opening sequence, a shame since his sociopathic charisma is a highlight of the game. AJ, who quickly becomes a mass murderer in the name of saving Kyrat, has little to no personality. The player feels like a heartless terminator rather than a soldier with a conscience. There are different endings, which is a great way to give weight to AJ’s actions…unless you happen to get the “bad” ending. You can’t access the other ending without replaying the entire game. That’s just poor design for an open world game in which you’ve invested 40+ hours.
It may seem like I didn’t enjoy Far Cry 4. On the contrary, it’s a solid game that was met with almost universal praise. The voice acting, the character animations, the production design––it’s stellar. The shooting mechanics are tight, there’s a ton of different ways to play around in Kyrat, and you can ride a freaking elephant into battle.
Good stuff…for a while, but Far Cry 4 is not an effective piece of storytelling––a fault shared by its open world design and my own personal tastes in gaming. There’s a plethora of content to play through in Kyrat’s fight for freedom, but one nagging question kept popping in my head: why should I care? Developers are throwing heaps of content into their games, making the maps bigger and more packed with goodies, but more isn’t always better. I’ll take a memorable story told via 10 tight hours of gameplay over 40 hours of padded distractions any day of the week.
I had fun with Far Cry 4 and got my money’s worth, but I won’t be journeying back to Kyrat.