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I have a confession, and it is this: I really like the Ubisoft formula. Items everywhere, side-quests out the wazoo, big mission arrows, the steadily-expanding skill-set - bliss. I don't like every game made with it, of course, and Assassin's Creed shows what happens when the recipe is used too often. But when it works, and when it fits, you get a game like Far Cry 4. Part of enjoying Far Cry 4 is abandoning yourself to the sheer weirdness of how Kyrat is made to look on your screen. A gorgeous Himalayan skyline, endless mountains and roads, amazing fog effects, sheer natural bliss - with a map pockmarked by visual icons, a giant yellow arrow pointing somewhere, silly NPCs doing silly things and lunatic wildlife. For some people the latter elements ruin the former, always offering up a distraction and a candied trinket when all you want to do is explore the wilderness. Which is entirely fair enough, except for me these discordant elements blend - like salted chocolate - into something absolutely irresistible.
The thing is, I like to think of myself as a hardy explorer type figuring everything out and making this world of Kyrat mine. The truth is that I have more great games and less free time than at any other point in my life. So I nod sympathetically to those making the purist argument, then go back to gleefully skipping after treasure chest icons with a grappling hook and grenade launcher.
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