With Gamepass expired in August 2020, I returned back to games I actually owned so that I can finish them.  The realization that I got was that even though Gamepass was fine, and a steal with the $1 update lifehack if you had Gold, it never really incentivized you to play what you owned because what was on gamepass came and went.  Anyway.  I finished September 29, 2020, and I played it right after Far Cry Classic, so I went from one island adventure to another.

You know what the definition of insanity is?  Expecting to have a common thread throughout all the Far Cry games 😂.  I think that it was at the end of this Far Cry when I realized that there isn't really a common thread in the Far Cry games like there is in other Ubisoft games like Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell; at least not in the grand scheme of things. However, there are recurring minor characters throughout the series, and recently one of the story folks at Ubisoft confirmed a fan theory about Jack Carver and the rest of the series.

Anyway, this Far Cry also takes place on a pacific island, but a different one from the first game.  You play a rich kid who's forced to grow up quickly because his buddies get kidnapped by a pirate and they are in mortal peril.  Throughout the game, you level up by gaining XP and getting magical tattoos that give you powers to take on the pirates on the south island, and then the more heavily armored baddies on the north island. In this adventure, you meet a CIA agent, Willis Huntley, who helps you in some parts of the journey before he joins Taskforce 141 (yeah, you read that right, that taskforce from that other franchise, from that other publisher).  I almost did a double-take when I heard that. In case my narrative doesn't help you, here's the Plot, from wikipedia:

Jason Brody (voiced by Gianpaolo Venuta) is on vacation with a group of friends in the fictional Rook Islands between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, celebrating his younger brother Riley (Alex Harrouch) receiving a pilot's license. On a skydiving trip, they land on an island that turns out to be a pirate base and are kidnapped by pirate lord Vaas Montenegro (Michael Mando), who plans to sell them into slavery. Jason escapes with help from his older brother Grant (Lane Edwards), who is killed by Vaas. Jason is rescued by Dennis (Charles Malik Whitfield), who is an adopted member of the islands' native Rakyat tribe. Dennis recognizes Jason's potential as a warrior and gives him the Tatau, the tattoos of a Rakyat warrior. Jason then helps the Rakyat in a number of missions which leads him to find one of his friends, Daisy (Natalie Brown), at the house of Dr. Earnhardt (Martin Kevan), a botanist studying the island's flora. Impressed with Jason's prowess, the Rakyat allow him to be the second (after Dennis, who is Liberian) outsider to enter their sacred temple. After he returns the Silver Dragon Knife, a Rakyat relic, Jason is initiated into the tribe by priestess Citra (Faye Kingslee).

Jason undertakes a series of missions, during which he rescues his captive girlfriend Liza (Mylène Dinh-Robic) and his friends Keith (James A. Woods) and Oliver (Kristian Hodko), while simultaneously assisting the Rakyat in retaking their island with the help of Dr. Earnhardt and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Willis Huntley (Alain Goulem). After a few encounters with Vaas, Jason discovers that Vaas is Citra's brother, and his pirates are employed by Hoyt Volker (Steve Cumyn), a notorious South African slave trader and drug lord. Jason soon matures into a fearsome and skilled warrior and, revered by the Rakyat, begins to enjoy all the killing while growing more distant from his friends. After Citra asks him to stay on the island, Jason returns to Earnhardt's house and tells his friends that he is staying. Meanwhile, Jason has an affair with Citra after she drugs him and has sex with him in a hallucination.

After bidding goodbye to Liza and his friends, Jason, with Willis's help, heads to Vaas's pirate base. Vaas seems to be celebrating Jason's death, believing him defeated in an earlier encounter. Jason takes advantage of this, but Vaas has actually set a trap. After Jason kills numerous pirates and reaches a warehouse, Jason fights Vaas but enters a delusional state, fighting multiple duplicates of Vaas in a dream. He reaches a final Vaas, and impales him through the chest with the Dragon Knife before collapsing. Jason awakens with Citra in the Rakyat temple and promises to kill Hoyt for her.

After Huntley helps him reach Hoyt's island, Jason infiltrates Hoyt's personal army with the help of Sam Becker (Stephen Bogaert), Huntley's fellow operative. During this time, Jason discovers that Riley is alive and a prisoner of Hoyt. Riley is beaten by Jason to maintain the ruse, but when Becker loops the video Jason reveals himself. Jason works his way into Hoyt's confidence, and Jason and Becker plan to kill Hoyt at a poker game. However, as they sit down to play, Hoyt exposes them having seen through the looped video Becker made, stabbing Becker fatally in the throat. Jason kills Hoyt and his men in a knife fight, losing half a finger in the process, and rescues Riley, though not before receiving a call from Liza which is quickly cut off.

Jason and Riley fly to Dr. Earnhardt's house to find it on fire: the dying doctor tells them that the house was attacked by the Rakyat, who have captured Jason's friends. Jason confronts Citra at the Rakyat temple but she drugs him and captures Riley. Citra tells Jason that she has fallen in love with him, believing him to be a powerful warrior of Rakyat legend, and that she will free him. He starts dreaming of walking a fiery path with the Dragon Knife, with Liza appearing as a monster in his dream. He awakens holding Liza at knifepoint with the Dragon Knife and is given the choice to either save his friends or ally with Citra, after killing them.

Jason freeing his friends will result in him leaving the island, despite Citra begging him to stay. An outraged Dennis tries to stab Jason, inadvertently stabbing Citra as she jumps in front of Jason; she proclaims her love for Jason as she dies in his arms. Jason and his friends then leave the island by boat, with Jason narrating that despite becoming a monster from all the killing, he still believes that in some place in his heart he is better than this. The game ends with a still image of the boat and the Dragon Knife on the beach while the credits roll. If Jason instead allies with Citra, the two have sex in a ritual after Jason kills Liza. Afterwards, Citra stabs Jason in the chest, telling him as he dies that their child will lead the Rakyat to glory and that he "won".

The game has at least two endings, as the Wikipedia plot synopsis indicates. I chose to go with the "save your friends" ending. It was what got us started on this adventure, and there was something that wasn't sitting quite right with Citra.  She was giving off Praying mantis vibes throughout the game.

Overall the game was a ton of fun, and probably my favorite Far Cry thus far. The various powers on that tattoo sleeve were great. I enjoyed leveling up the player character and trying out all different sorts of guns and takedowns.  The game did have elements that were reminiscent of assassin's creed game mechanics, like capturing points on the map to clear the fog, and there is even a story called Leap of Faith.  I wonder if the two game series co-exist in the same universe...

In the end, for me, this was a 10/10. Fantastic game!

Some stats from the box app:

Gamerscore: 620/1000
Achievements: 27/50
Percentage done: 62%