Far Cry 4: Hands On At PAX Prime 2014

During our coverage of PAX Prime 2014, I got some hands on time with the latest Far Cry game during my visit with Ubisoft. I have to say that in all my years coverage games and attending conventions, I never had to test a game while an animal cage match was going on but thanks to some clever marketing, guests donned animal suits to Sumo it up in a fighting cage to take a chance at some big prizes.

Far Cry 4 has the great graphics and large and detailed maps that one comes to expect from the series and the Hymilain setting of the game gave designers a great canvas which they have filled with cliffs, animals, vegetation, and plenty of bad guys.

Very early in my demo I had to scale a mountain and learned how to fire a grappling gun so I could climb.. Once I had ascended I saw an enemy whom I quietly dispatched with a crossbow. I learned that I needed to disable an alarm box, which I did by climbing into a village and taking out a guard.

Once I had taken out the alarm box, I was able to toss some meat into the map which drew in a wild animal that attacked several guards and provided me a chance to heal my injuries and escape back to my elevated vantage point.

The reason for this tactical move was due to a mortar that I had spotted and I was able to use the distraction provided by the animal to blanket the village with shells and in doing so, decimate the army that was massing against me. I was able to take out most of the bad guys and the two remaining were finished off easily enough.

While I completed my demo soon after, I was shown video of a player in a small mini copter shooting grenades from above in a nod to the co-op mode of the game.

While my sample size was small, I liked what I saw and really look forward to the release of the full game as it not only combined great graphics and action but promises some great online play as well.