Far Cry 4 Is Still a Weird Mess Even After Its New Update

Try this other game instead

Troy Baker does a solid job playing Far Cry 4’s Pagan Min, but it’s also a bit weird that he got the role at all considering the game’s attempts at representation. He was replaced in a later appearance by half-Asian actor Daniel York Loh. PS5 Pro screenshot captured by the author.

This week, the long-forgotten open world action adventure Far Cry 4 found itself back in the gaming news cycle thanks to the release of a new 60FPS update for modern consoles.

I have no idea why Ubisoft randomly decided to invest money in patching this ancient game from 2014. All it did for me was dredge up many old disappointments.

I loved Far Cry 2 and 3, even though tonally they couldn’t be more different. Far Cry 2 was a thoughtful, sombre, almost desolate game about a fictional African civil war. The story centered around a team of brutal mercenaries and their quest to stop an arms dealer known as “The Jackal.” The game was an early pioneer of using simulation and dense systems to provide and inspire more dynamic gameplay, and the story dealt with philosophical themes and generational cycles of violence in an interesting way. The ending remains one of my favorite swerves in gaming, as I always enjoy a good “this villain has more depth than you thought” type of story.

Far Cry 3 had almost no subtlety at all, and took a sharp pivot towards stupid summer blockbusters. It was anchored by an excellent performance from character actor Michael Mando, and featured a pulpy story that was theoretically about white privilege and…