E3 2014: I Piloted a Gyrocopter in Far Cry 4

Fellow GameSpot editor Daniel Hindes had a great time stampeding into an outpost in Far Cry 4 on an elephant. Now don't get me wrong: I like elephants, and the elephants of Far Cry 4 look remarkably fireproof, but I know that even a pachyderm's wrinkled skin can't shield it from flames forever. And so when I played Far Cry 4 today at Ubisoft's E3 2014 booth, I decided to forego the stampede and forget stealth. I wanted to save the elephants, and make sure my victims were of the human variety, so I chose to liberate the outpost by mounting the game's funny-looking gyrocopter and wreaking a different kind of havoc.

That may make me sound remarkably bloodthirsty, and indeed, my assault on the outpost was anything but silent. Once the game loaded, I approached the nearby copter and had a seat. Rising into the air was as simple as holding X on the PlayStation 4 controller, while descending was a matter of holding the circle button. The copter didn't have a weapon of its own, but I was in possession of an automatic pistol, a grenade launcher, and a handful of grenades. The glee was immediate. I aimed my launcher in the general direction of the snipers dogging me, and soon I I watched enemy corpses fly into the air like ragdolls. The gyrocopter might look a little silly, but there was no doubting that I had the upper hand.

I couldn't retain the upper hand for long, however. I could hold triangle and heal myself up in the copter, but I was taking too much damage to stay in the air for much longer, so I bailed and used my windsuit to sail softly to the ground--in the middle of a crowd of combatants. I scurried into a nearby hut, took down a few enemies with my pistol, and then took stock of my situation. I was low on ammo, and I could hear a helicopter whirring overhead. Reinforcements had arrived, and I needed to consider my options.

There was only one true option, however: shoot my way out and grab whatever ammo and guns I could find. Success! I grabbed a semiautomatic rifle from the ground and aimed it at the guardsmen flanking my position. I could see on my minimap that I would need to take care of a few stragglers, but my primary concern was the helicopter firing at me from above. The rifle wasn't much help, so I whipped out my grenade launcher, which had only three grenades left in it.

Grenade one: a perfect shot. The ordnance landed and the helicopter reeled, but the damage wasn't enough to destroy it. I needed to fire again.

Grenade two: a dud. The grenade sails past the helicopter and lands beyond, causing a small blast but taking no one down with it.

Grenade three: another perfect shot. And thank goodness, since it was my last one. The helicopter bursts into flames and falls to the ground. I have vanquished my greatest foe in the short Far Cry 4 demo. Well, aside from the honey badger I made the mistake attacking afterwards. That honey badger really didn't give a s***.

All that was left was a bit of easy cleanup. I headshotted one guard and stabbed the remaining one in the back, and the outpost was mine. Gyrocopter aside, the action was very much in the Far Cry 3 vein, which is to be expected in this circumstance. The sequence was great fun, and I can't wait to discover more ways to get myself into trouble in Far Cry 4. Elephants and gyrocopters are a good start. Now where is the gun I can shoot honey badgers out of?

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