I bought FC4 early this summer and have then played it every now and then since. Just wanted to give some feedback now that I only have 3 outposts left.
The Good:
The core gameplay of FC (guerilla warfare) is just straight up fun. I never get tired of scouting outposts, planning the attack and then execute. Comparing to AC I think the AI is much better. Enemies are predictable enough so you can make plans, yet they have enough variety of actions to be engaging to fight. The various takedowns work perfectly, which is kind of suprising as it seems hard to implement for an amateur like me. Like for example the drop takedown works pretty much flawlessly and feels satisfying to do. The idea of stealth combos (killing one enemy opens up options for the next) makes the stealth so much more fun as you try to get as many of these as possible into your plans. The throwing knives are a sweet addition also.
Speaking of good additions I really like the new climbing system. One important aspect of Farcry to me is about exploring natural enviroments and everything that that lets traverse in new ways really adds to that. The system had way more options than I thought when I first saw it. Hopefully climbing will be part of FC and expanded upon in the future. I also loved the elephants. Easy to maneuver (lots of cheating going on lol) but felt powerful at the same time. More rideable animals in Primal perhaps hehe!
The artdirection is fantastic, which made the world way more exciting than 3 to explore. A highlight was ofc the Shangri-la sequences. Finally I really enjoyed some of the characters like Longinus and Pagan Min.
Oh almost forgot: the HUD/Map customization is fantastic! Loved how you can turn off stuff like loot from your mini-map!!!!
Potential improvements:
One problem I have is that all the loot you find in the world is generic. This kills some of the fun of exploring. For example yesterday I was trying to get to a location high up in the mountains. The problem is that I know in advance that all I will find there is a bit of money, or perhaps a mask or poster. You never find anything exciting in the world. There are tons of weapons and skill upgrades in FarCry. How about letting some of them be things you can find in the open world instead of being locked behind XP/money thresholds? Like for example if you explore an ancient temple and get to the treasure chamber you will find a recipe for a special syringe (or a cool looking knife, or a bigger wallet, or silent boots or...). This is not an item necessary for completing the game. At the same time it feels rewarding to get. Think of it like Christmas. You want to get suprises wrapped in paper, not a list of chores you need to do in order to unlock a certain present.
Another issue I have is that I think the world can be a bit too bullying at times. For example there are just too many eagles. First time I was attacked by one it was really cool. Now they are just getting annoying. They are everywhere it seems. The problem is the eagles forces you to look up which is uncomfortable (yeah I'm a bit whiny lol). Think a better balance would have been to have them "guarding" a couple of special locations instead. Overall the world feels a bit too crowded for my taste. I realise this is a balance that players feel differently about. But you are constantly hearing gunshots, or people getting attacke by animals, or yourself getting attacked by animals etc. I would prefer more room for breathing.
By the same token I found the Shangri-La sequences to be really spammy with enemies. Would have prefered to have focused more on the culture/art aspect (which were excellent!) than constantly fighting tons of enemies. This actually reminds me of the sharkinfested underwater sequences in AC4. When you have really strong presentation, perhaps you should let it speak more for itself rather than constantly harass the player?
Final words:
Overall I really enjoyed FarCry 4 and I'm looking forward to Primal!
That was a fascinating read Sushi, thanks for sharing! There are couple more things I'd like to add:
1) When you do a takedown you can start dragging the body. I would like the option to tap the takedown button again to carry the body instead. As it is now if I wanna carry the body I first need to let it fall to the ground, then pick it up. This is a bit annoying when timing is important.
2) Rock climbing up cracks similar to AC3 would be sweet. Also tree climbing. Especially for Primal as it makes sense to reduce the amount of gadgets (have allready gone dark on Primal to not spoil anything, so these things may allready be in).
3) I'm thinking maybe there should be more options to melee combat with animals. Close encounters with predators play out a bit weirdly imo. Basically you just alternate between spraying bullets, spamming healing syringes and doing QTEs if they grab you. It doesn't feel right. First off maybe you should be able to do takedowns on animals from above (don't think you can?). Secondly I'm thinking you could have some kind of more organic QTEs like in God Of War Ascension where you alternate between attacking and dodging. Let's say when you are locked with an animal you can dodge right, dodge left, attack with knife and attack with fist/knee. Then you need to alternate between these options correctly. If you succeed perhaps this will just wound the animal who tries to escape, or attack again etc. Then there needs to be really cool finishing moves like doing a full nelson etc!
4) I mentioned the eagles being too common. I also think the fishes are pretty annoying. Do they have to be everywhere? No wonder there are lots of disseases when people can't go for a quiet swim.
Thank you for the kind words Sushi!
Another thing I've been thinking about is traps. It's very cool in the first Rambo movie how Rambo builds various natural traps. Similarily in the movie Apocalypto. I think the ability to craft natural traps would fit FC perfectly. We have mines but those create a lot of noise. How about being able to set up some traps attached to corners of buildings. If a regular guard walks by he gets silently killed (armed guards/vehicles won't which gives mines a role to play). Also sabotage. Being able to sabotage cars so they explode on startup. Or saboage Zip lines so they snap when anyone tries to use them. Starting a rocklside, or chopping down a tree falling on enemies or to block the road. Perhaps being able to put a tightropoe accross the road to kill motorcycle enemies.
In short just expand on the guerilla warfare thing!