Far Cry 4 - Valley of the Yetis - Maxi-Geek Review

Far Cry 4 was one of last years stand out titles, with solid gameplay, a vast open world and an intriguing villain, players were pretty spoilt. With the latest content release, players loose most of that, but it still works.

Valley of the Yetis is actually something entirely new for Far Cry 4, it starts off with Ajay surviving a helicopter crash and then attempting to locate the pilot, who has been dragged away by unknown forces. Out of the gate, anyone who spent time in the region of Kyrat will feel right at home here as all the core gameplay has carried over, along your way down the mountain, you can use bait to lure animals to attack for you, sneak up on enemies and stumble across loot. The newest addition here is using ice sheets to damage people, shooting them will cause then to break and fall to the ground, injuring anyone in their way.

Once Ajay has made his way down to the radio tower and taken control, things become a little bit clearer as to what is going on. It seems that the people who shot down your helicopter, were afraid that you were coming to take their relic, what this relic is Ajay does not know, but they will stop at nothing to stop anyone from taking it. After seeking help through a radio, Ajay is attacked from many sides and must fend of the attackers, until they are all defeated, doing this reveals more of the story.

What has changed here though is that the world Ajay has to explore is all new, unlike Escape from Durgesh and its restricted map portion, Valley of the Yetis gives players a vast new open space to explore, while not as full of things to do as the main game, it has enough to warrant exploring around. During the daytime, you can take on quests to help bolster your defences at night, these can range from taking a truck from the bad guys, to locating several packages, each of them can be completed with relative ease, which is nice. The world itself is also covered in snow and ice, as mentioned before it can work to your advantage, should you lean that way, but it also means that barrelling down the road in a truck and then attempting to take a sharp turn is going to result in you sliding about.

But to cover this, you also have access to a new vehicle, a snowmobile, a quick and agile means of getting around the world, it does however leave you open to enemy fire and animal attacks. Speak of, the animals are far more viscous this time around, packs of wolves can be seen hunting down a heard of Yak and while watching this occur, I saw an enemy soldier foolish enough to get close and the wolves take him out. Hunting has all but been removed from this place, as you can find pelts you need to upgrade your gear in loot chests around the world. The same is true for the weapons, while you can purchase most of them, if you find it out in the world, you can get access to it anytime for free.

Of course the one thing most people will want to know about here are the Yetis and frankly they are worthy editions to the game. The first encounter you have with a Yeti, you have nothing, no guns, no knife, heck not even your climbing gear and it is this encounter where you get a sense of how powerful they are. You are required to sneak around and find an exit to a cave, but making enough the lightest noise on rocks, or in the water, will have the beast come running and if it sees you, you are dead. It does not get any easier when you have to face one and you do have your weapons, the first time you engage in open combat with one, it is atop a shrine, that can only be accessed by wing suiting across to it, which means when the Yeti knocks you around and it will, you had better be ready.

The overall story here is one of simplicity, in fact if you explore the world in detail, you will learn more about it from the various memos and journals around the place, but by removing a lot of what the main game offered it changes things up enough that it is a welcome change. By adding Yetis to the mix, the player now has a real contender to deal with and unlike bears or tigers, the Yeti will hurt you.

If you want some more Far Cry goodness, then Valley of the Yetis is for you, but if you want to experience more of Pagan Min or have complete freedom to do what you want, it’s really focused nature is going to disappoint.

Thanks to Ubisoft Australia for supplying the game for review.