But what's one more average gaming experience? Albeit a fairly short one, which makes it palatable at least. Even the intriguing selling point of Yetis still somehow ultimately turns out to fit the Modus Operandum for Far Cry 4 of everything just feeling a little bit underwhelming.
You're still in control of the main protagonist, Ajay Ghale, as the plot starts with a helicopter crash landing right in the middle of a valley. Your pilot is heard being taken captive by a local group and you have no clear way of escape. You eventually find a relay station to hole up in, which you acquire control of - and will ultimately have to defend throughout the story. The goal is to find your pilot and escape, as the plot is told via radio communication with a man who eventually identifies himself as Master Sandesh, leader of the Disciples, the group who have taken the pilot hostage and hold the secrets that occupy the valley.
Except, they're not the only occupants of the valley. The Yeti plays a role in the plot, though their overall presence both within the storyline and open world is somewhat on the scarce side. You mainly fight against disciples throughout the storyline, and Yetis only really make the odd appearance during a story mission or through open world random encounter. It's not exactly a massive dealbreaker, but if you're excited at the prospect of being led to believe that they're at the forefront of this DLC, you're in for a disappointing revelation.
Outside the plot, the new environment just feels like the same as it did in the main game, just with snow, though in a thankfully sensible move, you don't have to liberate outposts to reveal it bit by bit anymore. Other smaller additions of the snowmobile as a mode of transport and a small collection of side quests rebranded from the main story just feel pretty insignificant. Just like the main game, it's a passable at best experience.
The package contains 7 trophies, which can all be earned through natural progression of the storyline, and best explained by splitting this content down into 3 parts.
There are 6 Storyline missions to complete the story, which will earn 3 progression-based trophies, 5 nights to survive in-between, which are used as a way to break up the story missions, and 9 additional side quests to complete in order to unlock 2 trophies relating to earning all relay station upgrades.
The relay station, which serves the purpose of a hideout, is attacked each night, and you're made to survive 5 nights in between each story mission, giving the story an interesting little twist. It's actually nicely done, and the way they're interwoven is a good touch, but it does ultimately just boil down to being a horde-mode-esque feature that pads some additional time to the package as you fend off increasingly more challenging waves of enemy per night. The steadily progressive levels of chaos are fun to watch unfold when you reach the latter nights and Yetis start to turn up and you've suddenly got a 3 way fight between yourself, the disciples and the Yetis, but it's still just a content-padding concept when you strip it all back.
The 9 side quests, which also contain little variety, especially given that most of them are just ripped straight from the main game - Hijack a truck, collect some bags etc - are vital to complete outside of the trophies they award, due to the fact the upgrade rewards will help you greatly when fending off the nightly attacks.
Each side quest will grant you access to an additional feature to help you defend the relay station, whether this be a mounted turret gun, stronger fortifications or traps, so from a strategic perspective, it makes sense to complete these as soon as you can. They're a bit bland, but it's fun seeing the carnage on nightly defence missions when you have every upgrade installed and traps are going off like fireworks.
It all amasses to around a 6-8 hour experience. Missions and side quests are short, sweet and well mixed, and it's nicely paced throughout with the alternating story. It feels very much just more of the same, and I didn't expect anything drastically different that strayed too far from the already trodden path, but it's a fairly quick completion, so it never reaches the point of feeling laboured or forced. You're also encouraged to kill the Yetis, which awards the remaining 2 trophies within this set once 5 of them are felled. They're big, hit hard and they soak up bullets like a sponge, but they're still no match for a couple of power weapons and that's about as tough as it gets.
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