iLLGamer Tathagata has been taking Far Cry 4 to his heart, and is exploring the Himalayan fallen paradise inch by inch. Besides all that firing and Kyrati adventure, he is also maintaining a diary revisiting the key events of the day. You can read some of his previous pages to step into his shoes. In case you want to keep off the spoilers of Far Cry 4, you can consider playing the game before you start following his journey.
Read Day 1 Chronicle: http://www.illgaming.in/2014/11/india-se-kyrat-far-cry-4-diary/
Read Day 2 Chronicle: http://www.illgaming.in/2014/11/india-se-kyrat-far-cry-4-diary-day-2/
Day 3: House of the Rising Sun:
Still buzzed after walking reliving the story of Kalinag, as Ajay I woke up to a loud day in Khilana Bazar, a small outpost at the heart of South Kyrat. There was gunfire all around, as Golden Path mates screamed “Eagle” wildly. The bird of prey jumped from the sky and tossed a guard off his foothold, by the time I drew out the gun, the predator was gone, killing a guard in the act. A perfect start to the day. Jumping into my mini jeep, I began searching for the nearby radio tower; I was aiming to liberate at least 2 outposts by sundown, which might unlock the ability to resist damage during falling. I was stopped on the road by the Royal Convoy, a heavily armed truck, shadowed by two other enemy vehicles. Jumping off my vehicle, I quickly ran for the nearest bush, as I prepared my RPG for a collateral takedown. The aim kept on flickering as the vehicles picked up speed again. And out of nowhere a Honey Badger appeared and rapidly started attacking me. F the convoy, survive the beast, was my immediate plan. Honey Badgers are extremely rare to find in Kyrat, unless you live next to the Kyrati International Airport, there was no way I was going to shoot a rocket at it and ruin the meat. Drawing out the Recurve bow and arrow, I kept dodging the nimble beast while shooting arrows at will. The Honey Badger made me work really hard for the prize, but ultimately it was Ajay’s day.
I was already in love with Noore Najjar, she is the Vice Lord of Pagan Min’s south Kyrat connections and presides over the Shanath fights. She has this hard and alluring persona about herself, the kind that melts a revolutionary. The bridge of her nose had a very Kashmiri vibe about her. Beneath her bloodthirsty self was a soft cored Noore who was ready to be explored within the game. She would wear a decorated wrap and an Indian tiara to her fight nights, raising one arm in the air, addressing to the hundreds assembled, she’d scream:”Let the battle begin!” Noore was attached to Pagan because of personal reasons, an ex doctor of Kyrat, Noore’s family was held captive by Min and was forced to run the King’s heroin business in the country if she ever wanted to see her family alive. On reaching Shanath, I was asked by Noore to help her out take down Paul de Pleur, Pagan’s right hand man, who was torturing poor Darpan and was also keeping a check on her family. Brace yourself for one of the most frustrating stealth missions in the game, although there are ridiculously tons of stealth quests within the game. It starts when you sneak into one of the trucks travelling to Paul’s hideout for a private party. Throwing you into an enemy infested area, where you either sneak past or stab kill, you will need to free three captives before locating Paul. You would often hear Royal soldiers torturing the hostages or dancing to bhangra beats. On capturing Paul he informs you that Noore’s family has been long dead, and ever since, Min has deployed this lie to get the best out of her. Knocking out Paul and escaping with him on your shoulders, you make way for another pawn’s move for the Golden Path warriors.
There was civil war all across Kyrat, and you could sense that by just eavesdropping on the tensed conversations between Amita and Sabal. Sabal is an old schooler, sticking to principles and trying to bring back the golden age of a peaceful Kyrat. Amita on the other hand is a warrior from the Northern Kyrat, her adamant way of reviving Kyrat is sometimes immoral but rational. I would love to follow this woman who is trying to make a mark on the revolution, but at the same time I have serious doubts about her intentions post Min free Kyrat. Is she trying to really help the Golden Path out, doesn’t she remind one of a younger Pagan Min? Haven’t you had enough with Citra in the Rook Island? These were the surmounting fears. Amita wanted me to find Pagan’s next masterpiece and steal it for the Golden Path, seizing Pagan’s Old Factory helping in his cause of global drug business, and thereby killing the chief Chemist processing the product. Sabal, on the other hand wanted me to burn it to the ground, leaving yet another stench on Pagan’s royal career. I was convinced that only a woman can make the best out of this godforsaken Kyrat, so I went ahead with Amita’s atrocious plan of a heist.
Upon reaching the spot, I could find dozens of Min guards hurling down the road, trying to defend against a pack of wolves. They had already set the tone for an epic Ajay Ghale ambush. Sliding down the mountainside, I quickly jumped into one of those elephants lurking around the borders of the factory, and pressing the L3 stick as hard as I can, we went ramming every single vehicle that dared cross our way. This mission is handcrafted with every inch of an Indian twist, right from the MC-BCs that you hear frequently in Far Cry 4 to the generators that you need to shut down to trap in the guards within the factory’s thick and poisoning smoke. The only way to track the location of the generators is by making use of your hearing sense and tracking the source of the buzzing generator noise. Of course there are a couple of alarms that one needs to shut down or else enemy reinforcements won’t stop pouring in. After the intial horde was brutally trampled under the might of my elephant, I rushed in through the factory door. And to my utmost surprise, there it was, a Bhangra track that made my school days special, Panjabi MC’s Jogi, resonating from the walls of the factory. Ajay was already high on the factory fumes, so every enemy he would drop would splash into the fluorescent colours of an uncontrolled acid trip. Gun shots, acid splashes and Jogi is indeed a weird concoction that I would never forget as long as I live to game. The bhangra beats paced up, the bass dropped like a beast, and there I was, tripping on gas and eliminating the demons inside my head. The dingy and dark factory made me run in circle for a long time, until I found the door to the Chemist. Ramming in, I took his head out, only to realise that he respawned. He respawned for some more times, as I kept hearing voices in my head, of Amita planning a conspiracy, it was a complicated trip, far worse than Reggie and Yogi’s trips. Running out of the room, screaming out, my handgun changed for a flamethrower, by itself. Burning thugs on my way, the flamethrower quickly switched for an assault rifle, and then a grenade launcher. This was the worst trip of my life and I was dying to see daylight!
I was perplexed by the amount of time I was putting in to beat the story, it seemed that I’d beat my most awaited FPS of the year in no time. So heck with it, I drew out my Recurve bow and went shooting animals. On my way I bumped into one of those crazy Kyrat Fashion Week missions that Mr. Chiffon put up for me. This time it was a rare rhinoceros that had to go down, with a shotgun. Reaching the bridge spot, I saw this thundering thing ramming through the traffic, creating havoc upon my arrival. Indeed it was the rare rhino, with its huge mouth tied like a wild animal that’s gone out of control. It was then that I realized the way to beat Rhinos: allow it to charge towards you, and as soon as it is about to hit you, jump sideways. Missing a couple of ramming opportunities, the rhino gave me openings to shot it down. 2-3 minutes of jumping here and there and finally the beast was taken down. What a fight it put up. I was already having enough rare material to max up one of my sacks, Mr. Chiffon was elated.
On my way back I found dense smoke coming out of the horizon, an enemy outpost was watching over the path nearby. Looking for possible vantage points to scope down on the outpost difficulty, I found an elegant elephant eating bushes instead. Running towards the animal as hard as I could, I jumped on top of it and rammed through the outpost, throwing enemies here and there like stick figures. In some seconds or so the outpost fell apart. The fire starter in me was exhaling huge breaths of victory.
The Golden Path was continuously challenging the heavily trained Royal Army in the South of Kyrat and just a few specks of outposts lied on our way. I was expecting the game to open the portal to the northern part of Kyrat, the misty mountains and Pagan’s stronger defense systems. Following up with the fellow Golden Path buddies I stepped on yet another mission, with Paul gone, both Amita and Sabal settled to get Noore killed. This decision wrecked my heart, not only was she a figurine throughout the game but she also bolstered the reason to return to Shanath, how am I supposed to kill the Ringmaster. However, the mission gave me a dual opportunity: to kill Noore, or confront her with the terrible news from Paul. Grapple hooking the hell out of the Shanath crags, killing almost two dozens of enemies and releasing angry beasts to the podium, here I was, right behind Noore, who was delivering a final speech. I decided not to do anything, even though the crosshair was prompting me to take her down. Ajay instead walked up to Noore, gave her a shoulder to cry on and told her exactly what he heard. Noore, terrified and exhausted from the conspiracy, decided to slit her wrists apart and dive right inside the arena, allowing herself to be eaten alive by the animals, the fucking animals. I lost my mojo for a bit, went back straight to the Ghale Homestead and decided to let that wound heal before I step out into the wilderness again.
Kyrat is fascinating, and is one of the most elaborate locations within a video game. But Kyrat is also poison feeding off you, it is an unavoidable pain and absolute dejection. There is absolutely no stability and peace on this paradise, and the conflicts within people, the vanishing of the Ghales and now the death of Noore reproduced yet another reason to set Kyrat right. But is there any end to this fight? What promises me that the rebels are going to serve the country right after the despot has been usurped? Kyrat is blinding me with questions, more than any answers I could gather from its fallen boundaries. Kyrat is drawing me, and Ajay, closer to a place that we both knew exists at the back of our head, but never ventured to call it our righteous land. And now we are going back to New Orleans, to wear the balls and chains. We are continuously fighting for the liberation of the right people of Kyrat, and the more we fight, the thinner the line that separates right from wrong becomes. May God help us all, this is Tathagata Ray, survivor of Pagan’s horror regime, signing off.
Read Day 4 Chronicle: http://www.illgaming.in/2014/11/india-se-kyrat-far-cry-4-diary-day-4/
