This scene is exceptionally clever in how it subverts player expectations, but it also shows the underlying philosophy that makes the Far Cry franchise unique. Thing is, if he demonstrates just a modicum of good manners, Pagan Min returns to the table and whisks him off to the place where his mother wished to be interred. Of course, running from the dinner table like that is incredibly impolite, so Ajay really has nobody to blame for what follows but himself.

When Min steps away from the table to take a call it’s the player’s cue to skedaddle, which kicks off the now-standard Far Cry intro of running through the underbrush with armed guards in pursuit. He gives the young man a (slightly blood-soaked) hug before stuffing him in a helicopter and whisking him off to a palace for a welcome dinner of crab Rangoon. Kyrat is ruled with an iron fist by the despot Pagan Min (played by the imminently talented Troy Baker), who arrives in person to greet Ajay’s bus as it crosses the border. At the outset the protagonist, Ajay Ghale, is returning to his homeland of Kyrat (think Nepal meets Mongolia) to lay his mother’s ashes to rest. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of fun – in fact it puts a lot of the AAA games we’ve seen this year to shame – it’s just that its cleverest moment involves skipping out on all that pesky gameplay. The best thing about Far Cry 4 is not playing it.

Skedaddle bus reviews