Day 1: From the frying pan into the fire:
When insanity hit you in Rook Island, you just didn’t see it coming, “jumping out of aeroplanes” to “being a p*ssy in someone else’s regime”, as Vaas would say. But it seems that in Far Cry 4, it is your destiny, to plunge right at the heart of a civil unrest, atop probably one of the most gorgeous locations to be ever used in a video game, the Himalayan Kyrat. As Ajay Ghale, a Kyrati raised in America, I was travelling to Lakshmana to pay respect (no you don’t press an X button) to my dead mother’s last wish. “Ajay my son, take my ashes to Lakshmana,” said the prologue.
And that’s when some bad guys jumped on us, shot down what they claim are members of a terrorist organisation operating out of Kyrat, the Golden Path, and then englufed in an air of pomp, he showed up. Stepping down from the chopper, dressed like the Killer Queen, his swag preceded his psychotic mind and cruel intentions, Pagan Min, the self elected King of Kyrat. Nodding his head to The Clash’s famous ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’, it took Min seconds to punish his own men for almost killing his favourite hostage off, me. Min’s intentions are yet not known, he has had a history with my mom, she escaped his clutches and swore to keep me away from Kyrat, until now. Cool story bro, so I am like the rekindled Vijay Deenanath Chauhan, ready to free this Mandwa from the evil usurper. Did the twisted Min lick my mother’s ashes? Did he just provoke someone to shout his lungs out for help, with a fork stabbed to his shoulders? Troy Baker, leaving our history aside, I think I am going to enjoy piercing a bullet through your cranked head. Nearly surviving death down the mountain side, I somehow escape De Pleuss’ hostage camp and team up with Amita and Sabal, the forerunners of the current generation of Golden Path. The car chase immediately laid down what Far Cry 4 was aiming to do, mindless and restless gunpowder action, with Bollywood style song and often heard North Indian curse words at the heart of the fight. The day for all my brothers across Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and of course India has finally arrived big time on a global video game franchise.
It was in Banapur that my journey actually began, the home of the Golden Path, a village on top of a Kyrati range, looking down upon hundreds of smoke lines, which are enemy outposts ready to be ambushed by yours truly. The natives had a mix of Indian and Nepali cultural obediences, and each forged a story into mine, like it was indeed destiny for Ajay to be here in this mess. Yeah baby, I’m the messiah in this mess. Amita offered me my first task, help an old villager whose sty of pigs have been murdered by a pack of Himalayan wolves. Kanan, the old lady, was drinking away to her own misery. Keeping the snow capped Himalayas to my left, I walked down towards the wolf den with a hunting bow to aid me. It took me a while to adjust to the changes from Far Cry 3, although there weren’t plenty. Ambushing the pack of wolves, I found a dead corpse that had a few molotovs and fire arrows to spare. Setting the wolf den ablaze, I returned to Banapur. I was sprinting through the lush and lucid Himalayan slopes, when I spotted an auto rickshaw/tuk tuk to my surprise, of course I was dying to drive it around. The NPC drivers in Kyrat aren’t trained in mountain driving at all, they would often drive through the heart of the thin roads, and ram into me needlessly, especially downhill. After what happened to me on the Himalayas a few months back, when I busted my head riding down, I decided to keep it slow in case a car came rushing in.
On reaching Banapur, the news of a accident hit me. One of Pagan Min’s key features of controlling Kyrat is by denying people of their rights and controlling radio towers to serve as his propaganda announcers. A Golden Path mate broke a few bones and it was up to me to reach the tower, liberate it and clear some fog off the part of the map I was headed to next. The tower puzzles were one of the best features of FC3, and Ubisoft certainly brushed up a few puzzle dimensions to reproduce a new, Kyrati version of Radio Tower Liberation. Coming down from the radio tower, I met some of my mates waging war against the Royal Army, and it was up to me to intervene and help the cause. These are the newly introduced dynamic open world challenges in FC4, known as Karma missions, that reward you with both Karma and money. With higher Karma you can get stuff around Kyrat at an even lesser price. Ending the fight, I jump back into my tuk tuk, and that’s when I first hear this wannabe Radio Jockey shouting his heart out against Pagan Min, Rabi Ray Rana. We both share the Ray bit, have to admit. Rabi sounded an overconfident and Americanised native, the ones you would often meet in bigger Indian cities like Mumbai and Delhi. His prudence and sense of conviction is startling, and so is his attitude towards men whom he claim assholes, he doesn’t seem to like his Chhotu, but nevertheless he is charming in his limited desi ways.
On my way down, I found the mini chopper that rose to fame during the Gamescom. Quickly jumping into action, there I was, flying across Kyrat, with snow on my skin and sun in my eyes. It was just then when Pagan called me back on my cell, he wanted to know if I follow Kanye West on Twitter or not. Pagan Min seems to be quite a worldly fellow, so much for a self elected King of a mythical kingdom. Safely descending from the sky, I found another surprise waiting for me: a couple of rhinoceros gazing at me from the bushes. One more thing, don’t ever try combatting a rhino. Running around, trying to readjust my broken thumb or taking an arrow out of my shoulder, I remember what Vaas once said to me when I was Jason Brody, he said: “Run, Forrest, Run”. Returning to Banapur, I found the village being attacked by Min’s royal army, and after gunning down a few badasses, it was my job to become Spiderman, jump into one of the houses caught in fire, and rescue a girl who was extremely important to the Kyrati mythology – Bhadra. Bhadra is a male name, and she was famous because she was destined to become the next Tarun Matara (another male slash female name combo, she’s a child god in Kyrat, a common Hindu belief). If you are an Indian and if you hate people abusing the shit out of you, you are so going to love going mad with guns, as people point at you and yell: “Oye bhonsdi ke, darr gaya kya?” or “Oooooh bheeeeenchooood”. That’s my mojo, keep ‘em coming.
As I headed for an enemy outpost next, because I needed a save point in between the long drive, I ended up riding an elephant and absolutely crash through the gate and end the party within seconds. With the same elephant I crashed a Royal Army drop and drove it back to the outpost. There is a living breathing Himalayan world, with all its snow capped richness and untamed wildlife ready to engulf you in a civil war. For Day 2 in my diary, stay hooked to this page.
Read Day 2 Chronicle: http://www.illgaming.in/2014/11/india-se-kyrat-far-cry-4-diary-day-2/
