Far Cry has always flirted with supernatural themes and ideas. The third and fourth games featured hallucinogenic sequences and spinoff Blood Dragon was a ridiculous 80's themed neon adventure with giant creatures that roamed the lands. Valley of the Yetis is the supposedly final add on for Far Cry 4, offering the most complete expansion of the game to date after a frenetic mode, a day oneFar Cry has always flirted with supernatural themes and ideas. The third and fourth games featured hallucinogenic sequences and spinoff Blood Dragon was a ridiculous 80's themed neon adventure with giant creatures that roamed the lands. Valley of the Yetis is the supposedly final add on for Far Cry 4, offering the most complete expansion of the game to date after a frenetic mode, a day one side mission, a multiplayer pack and a 2 hour expansion that includes all of the 5 preorder missions and weapons. It offers up new tower defence mechanics, a large new enemy and even a campaign that takes the story of Ajay Ghale in exciting directions. It resets all of your progression and feels like a completely new Far Cry game in some instances. You don't even access it in game- Valley appears on the Chronicles side of the main menu, just under Escape from Durghesh if you did end up buying that as well.
Of course the best part of this expansion comes through the use of the titular mythical beasts. They don't show up in the open world until after the second mission and my first two encounters were both scripted (the second relic mission tasked me with escaping one while I killed my first in the next mission). My favourite confrontations came in the open world and my first one saw me frantically bolting as I was chased by a rampaging Yeti. I was simply on the prowl for a side mission that was at the top of a mountain, when an inhuman roar came from behind me. The Yetis are highly intimidating, about twice the size of heavily armoured enemies and twice as tough. While I could quickly weaken them with four shots from my handheld grenade launcher, you never get rid of that sense of tension and I was always a little fearful as one of the beasts began to approach me. Once they are weakened you can jump on their backs for quick time finishing moves that will net you a bucketload of XP.
The Yetis are introduced through the campaign and it is very interesting. Ajay wakes up in the titular valley after his chopper crashes in the frantic Escape from Durghesh. With his pilot gone and his gear taken, he must work his way through the lands to find his ally and build up his armoury once again. A mysterious cult stalks him, constantly trying to capture and sacrifice him to their mysterious gods, the Awakened (or the Yetis). Ajay begins to realise that everything is caused by a dangerous relic that must be destroyed before things get out of hand. With no help coming anytime soon and all communications cut off he must shoot his way through hordes of foes...alone! I love the set up of the story and while it ends abruptly, the cliffhanger finale is memorable and leaves the whole thing at a cool place. The mission design is fairly varied as well- I performed a prison breakout, escaped a dangerous cave and ambushed a convoy across the 5 hour runtime. It doesn't feel rushed and too short, like AC:Unity-Dead Kings and the length is just right. The thing I hate is that it doesn't have a memorable villain. The creepy Master Sandesh sounds appropriately insane and I saw a bit of potential in his menace, but you only talk to him over a radio and you never meet him. Plus, his motivations are a little mixed.
There are 6 Relic missions, but the best quests come in the form of the 5 Night Raid missions that are placed in between each main campaign objective. They incorporate great tower defence elements and building up your relay station that you unlock after the first mission is rewarding and addictive. It's basically like controlling your own outpost and the sense of progression is great. You can buy most of the traps from the start, but taking on the 9 enjoyable (if repetitive) upgrade quests will gift you with some free parts to use back at the base. Each night gets progressively harder and the strategy associated with each one makes you look forward to them. While the Yetis make them even harder, these missions never get tiring and I wish there was an option to replay them after completion.
On the topic of side content and there is noticeably a lack of meaningful activities to partake in. There are the aforementioned upgrade quests and there are some small convoy and assassination events, but there are no outposts outside of the relay station takedown and some small establishments in the open world with alarms, but there are no true bases to take over. This sucks, as these are my favourite parts of Far Cry and so is the progression system. While earning my skills all over again doesn't bother me too much as you get experience at a fast rate, finding weapons in the valley or waiting for them to unlock can leave you at a disadvantage and I wish there were maps to buy, as finding skin chests for the rare skins can be annoying.
Valley of the Yetis removes outposts, resets your progression and has the lack of a cool bad guy, but the tower defence, the yetis themselves and the beautiful snow covered world makes up for those few shortcomings.… Expand
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