Far Cry 4 kicks off with a serious bang. The prologue gives you a perfect taste of what you're in store for: gorgeous visuals and textures; a vastly epic landscape; intense action with bullets flying and elephants stampeding; and the wickedly insane tyrant Pagan Min.

Beautifully detailed with a living; breathing world; Stunning graphics – a very cinematic experience; Loads to see; explore; and do across the map

The protagonist is dull – not very relatable or endearing; The story won't get you hooked; but then you won't be playing this for the story; RPG mechanics could do with fleshing out

Diversity is one of Far Cry 4's strongest assets, and it overwhelms the mostly disappointing story with countless opportunities for free-form adventure and fun. Visual variety, tons of distinct side-quests, and a dense world with plenty of options always gave me something I wanted to do, and its...

Amazing; gorgeous world; Combat variety; Strong side-quests/economy; Versatile PvP combat

Some terrible characters

The Far Cry series has long been an eclectic one. The series started off as a fairly basic first person shooter, but began to morph into something else in and of itself. By the time the third Far Cry rolled around, the series had turned into an immensely entertaining joy that many considered one of...

Weapon variety is immense; Tons of side missions to get lost in; Unpredictable gameplay is in full force; Co-op works well; Pagin Min is yet another joyful villain created by Ubisoft

Story is underwhelming; Competitive multiplayer seems tacked on

At the start of Far Cry 4 , the despotic yet not wholly despicable Pagan Min invites you to simply sit at his table and eat. You don't have to join the rebellious Golden Path in fighting him for control of your native homeland, as you can indulge in the crab rangoon instead.

There's no denying that Far Cry 3 was one of the great games of the last generation of consoles and Ubisoft absolutely nailed the feeling of open world, crazy adventuring, coupled with a strong and well driven narrative. Hell even the psycho was, well, a believable psycho.

I've spent the last minute tagging everyone in the outpost. I've scouted out the alarms, I've found a tiger trapped in a cage. I've got a full complement of arrows -- fire, explosive and the regular pointy kind -- and I'm all set to stealthily dismantle the outpost.

It's been a rough year for Ubisoft, with nasty bugs cropping up in their flagship franchise's latest sequel, Assassin's Creed Unity, as well as the lukewarm reception for new properties like Watch Dogs and The Crew.

Far Cry 4 is an FPS set in the fictional region of Kyrat. You play as Ajay Ghale who is returning to his home country of Kyrat in order to scatter the ashes of his deceased mother. However shortly after arriving in the region, your bus is attacked by Amaka government Zulu forces and Ajay, along with...

I feel like I've played this before…

Does everything great that Far Cry 3 did; Hurk is hilarious; Kyrat is beautiful on the PS4; No shortage of content; Open world cooperative play

Fails to innovate much beyond its predecessor; Lack of narrative motivation; Co-op is neutered and limited; Unimaginative human AI

While each of Ubisoft's previous sandbox shooters has felt like a reinvention of the franchise, this year's offering hews so close to the structure of Far Cry 3 that it sometimes feels like a re-skin. But does it really matter when the end result is this much fun?