I always end up doing this with games. I mostly enjoy them and see the real potential in the game but there are aspects of it that I end up not enjoying at all and with Far Cry 4 there is a major gripe that I have about the game just in a general sense.
I've already mentioned that I don't like how you are frequently attacked by wildlife and this is a major part of the game. You are creeping through the woods trying to get an advantageous sniper position and then out of nowhere you are attacked by a roaming pack of wild dogs or a Bengal tiger. To me this seems really unlikely to happen ever but it is basically guaranteed in this game.
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one of the rarest creatures in the world is lurking around basically every corner in this game
This isn't my main gripe though and I think that the reason why it is there is to encourage you to use vehicles and stay out of the jungle, which would probably be a good idea in a general sense in the real world.
My main gripe is the upgrade system on things such as increasing the amount of ammunition that you can carry with you. Almost all of these upgrades incorporate the hunting of some sort of animal - several in total - in order to increase your ability to carry more grenades, herbs, or just anything in general. I mean because why wouldn't you need 3 honey badger skins in order to carry more magazines for your AK-47? It makes total sense!
Many of these animals will be encountered by sheer chance but there are others that you have to seek out in certain areas specifically to hunt them and take their skins so that you can upgrade your carrying capacity. This is a trivial aspect of the game especially when the animals in question or herbivores that are simply going to run away from you when you fire at them anyway. This results in a long as hell chase until you eventually get tired of attempting to snipe them and instead switch over to an automatic rifle and just massacre the lot of them.
This brings about another problem I have with the hunting process: In what world does it take 17 rounds from an AK-47 to take down a badger? Nearly every human that you encounter is a "one shot, one kill" type of enemy but badgers in this fictional Himalayan area must all be born with flak jackets or some sort of body armor because man oh man can they take a bullet or twelve.
The fact that I am yet to be able to take down any animal with a single shot from my sniper rifle, despite having hit them, is extra frustrating because it is meant to be a very high caliber of round yet a pigmy sized monkey just walks that shit off like nothing happened. It isn't realistic for a number of reasons such as why on earth would I need monkey skins to make a larger arrow quiver and how in the hell can such an animal take enough bullets for me to need to reload in order to kill them?
I think this is part of the reason why Far Cry Primal, which focuses even more on hunting game, did so poorly in relation to the rest of the games in the franchise.
So if you are looking to play this game be warned: you are going to be spending an inordinate amount of time wandering around the wilderness looking for some sort of deer that you have to kill 3 of in order to increase the amount of ammo you can carry for some reason. It's stupid.
