Best It's Gonna Get

Years ago, a friend and I were playing Far Cry 4's co-op mode, as that was part of the game's selling point at launch.

It didn't really have much else going for it.

And honestly, this mode didn't seem much to rave about either. 

We just spent an hour talking over casually strolling into base after base after base of baddies, not acknowledging the weapons they fired at us, as we'd typically kill them before they even got a shot off, and this was on the hardest difficulty.

Far Cry seems to be designed with enemies that hesitate to give players a chance to shoot or stab them before fighting back, but not only does it make them not threatening even when they discover you first, it's also a real problem when they have to deal with two players.

We were just about to disconnect, before remembering one of the other features of Far Cry 4 were Fortresses, turbo outposts that were supposed to be the game's bread and butter formula turned up to eleven, though you're also supposed to work your way up, as the game said we weren't nearly ready enough to enter the first Stronghold but we figured, if we're going to shut the game off anyway, might as well give it a go and at least see what it looks like.

And in the words of Anakin...

I remember to this day coordinating a Rocket Launcher round against a Helicopter bearing down on us, and another taken down by shooting the pilot with my final shotgun round. We were juggling mutliple firefights with little health and resources left to keep up with each oncoming wave and we loved it!

We had to scavnage Light Machine Guns off of heavy enemies with separately timed our hits with, enemies were stabbed in chains, at one point we were in side-by-side takedowns able to see the other player throw a knife into another enemy approaching us.

And somehow, despite everything the game told us, with one HP and a dream, we did it! We were laughing, smiling, and eager to do this all over again!

Only we couldn't…

The next Fortress wasn't available so we had to settle for Outposts…

I drove a pickup onto the main-road of the first Outpost we saw, and my friend on the back mowed every enemy down with an LMG we took from the Fortress in twenty seconds.

We uninstalled the game after that…

I would eventually revisit the game and even play it to completion, but I couldn't blame that friend for uninstalling it, as the game never did reach the heights of that Fortress run, and the fact the game's own systems were warning us not to do what led to the most fun we ever had in Far Cry 4 really bothers me.

Clearly enough that, in the sea of piss that was gaming in 2014, those handful of hours with Far Cry 4 manage to stick out to me.

I guess the question that lives on in my head, and the real reason this memory persists is...

How often do we steer players away from fun?