With one short month to go before Far Cry 4 lands, we take a decisive look at all the available evidence, including our very own hands-on sessions, to make the case that we could be looking at a Game of the Year contender here. So dive into this week’s Sunday Seven: Why Far Cry 4 is Set to Own 2014.

The honey badgers will mess you up

You wouldn’t think it to look at them, but the honey badgers are arguably the most vicious creatures in Kyrat. Hunting missions will make a return, but using fire or explosions to kill animals will result in damaged pelts that are worth less cash and possibly not be as useful for crafting. Looks like we’ll have to avoid using rocket launchers and mines on the monochrome missile-like bastards then. Other animals that want to eat your eyes include wolves, rhinos, leopards, eagles, cave bears and much more. Come at me, nature!

Elephant!

During my recent hands-on, I was given multiple options for approaching the enemy outpost. Enter with stealth via the new grappling hook, or recruit an elephant? Despite Far Cry’s outstandingly smooth stealth options, there was only one winner. Hop on an elephant’s back and smash down the thick wooden doors of the mini fortress. Some enemies will run in fear, others will try and stand against you, but a quick sweep of your machine gun perforates coward and fools alike. Better yet, get up close with the elephant and stamp on them or fling them away with his powerful trunk. You no longer have to worry about enemy jeeps arriving full of goons as you and Nelly can charge and send them flying in a barrel roll of fire and death. Or if you’re feeling lazy, why not shoot the door of an elephant’s cage from afar and watch them destroy a base for you?

Shoot while driving

You’re no longer defenceless while driving as you can shoot through the front window at an enemy convoy you may be chasing or at guards outside of an outpost. We’ve not seen any footage of shooting out the side-windows yet, but fingers crossed we can. We have seen an ‘autodrive on’ message appear, so maybe we won’t have to fully control the car while shooting either.

Kyrat will be huge

Ubisoft has disclosed that game world will be the same size as Far Cry 3, which is certainly no bad thing as that was a damn big map, even before it doubled at the half way point. There will be another narrative-based split, unlocking more of the region as we progress. The sense of scale is emphasized beautifully by the clip that shows you using the wingsuit to fly down the narrow mountain pass and out into the valley below. If we’re able to land anywhere on the way down, the exploration side of the game is going to be huge.

Multiplayer will have vehicles

Vehicles were notably absent from FC3’s multiplayer, especially as they were such a key part of the single player game. So, with vehicles getting involved, it’s safe to assume we’ll be getting larger maps for MP battles. Surely, Ubisoft wouldn’t be so cruel to not let us engage in aerial skirmishes with the gyrocopters too?

Level editor

Far Cry 2 had an incredible multiplayer map editor that saw some amazing creations, but as we also saw with the follow-up, there wasn’t a large enough online community to really get behind it. With Far Cry 4 shaping up to be one of the year’s most eagerly-awaited releases, the audience is going to be much bigger, which will hopefully lead to lots of new and exciting user-generated maps to play in.

Co-op

Co-op gameplay was previously limited to small-scale missions, but now players will be able to join you in the full open world, where there will be large fortress outposts for you to tackle with a friend. Will you go in all guns blazing with a jeep? Sneak around and mark targets for each other and use the new crossbow to silently pick through them? Nope, you’re going to get on that gyrocopter and take on that helicopter like a sparrow mocking an eagle. PS4 owners will also be given ten Keys to Kyrat, allowing PSN friends who don’t even have the game to join them for a two hour session.

So how about it folks? Is Far Cry looking like a Game of the Year contender? Or is something else catching your eye? Or maybe you’ve already played your GOTY? Let us know.