From Far Cry 3's blue skies, tropical islands and bright sunshine, to the snow-capped peaks, dense forest and ancient temples of Far Cry 4, prequel and sequel appear vastly different.
Environmental changes aside, however, this is very much the same Far Cry experience we've come to know and love, albeit with a few new additions, most notably the inclusion of a co-op mode.
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When you're first let loose into the vast and beautiful region of Kyrat, you're presented with an almost overwhelming number of activities to get stuck into.
More diverse and more challenging outposts
We asked production manager Phil Fournier for a few suggestions about the sort of things we should be looking out for in Far Cry 4.
"Outposts are my personal favourites," he explained. "What I like about them is that you can tackle them in any way. All of the vehicles are available to you, and you can now call in some friends as part of the Guns for Hire system."
Saving co-op play for later, we decided to take his advice and seek out some new outposts to liberate.
While Far Cry 3's outposts were largely indistinguishable from each other, Ubisoft has attempted to inject more variety into the enemy camps featured in the sequel.
Explaining the differences, Fournier said: "The way they're designed and just by the landscape. Kyrat being set in the Himalayas and the mountains, there's that verticality to play with, which makes it super interesting.
"Also there are lots of new toys to play with, like the grapple, and the elephant also is a big new component. We had bears in cages, and now you've got riding elephants."
In the years spent playing games, we've ridden many a horse, Kart, spaceship and even a Titan, but there's nothing quite like riding a huge, lumbering elephant through the middle of a crowded battlefield.
Busting through gates, flipping over jeeps and pummeling lowly soldiers is every bit as exhilarating as you'd imagine.
Moving on to another outpost, we decided to use verticality to our advantage, picking off guards from up high, before moving along rooftops to take out the stragglers.
Unfortunately, this wasn't as straightforward as we would have hoped. According to Fournier, enemies are much more able and intelligent this time around, which creates a more dynamic game world.
"The [enemies] can now climb on rooftops, so that's really cool," he continued.
"They can use ziplines, climb up on rooftops, which creates a more dynamic world, because the [enemies] and even the animals, the felines, can follow you when you seek higher ground, so you can't just go on rooftops and be godlike almost. Now, you really have to watch yourself in every direction."
Hunters - a new enemy type - for example move around battlefields largely unseen, firing arrows and even charming wolves and eagles to inflict damage and draw players into the open.
Introducing convoys and tackling fortresses in co-op
Ubisoft has also introduced moving outposts in the form of convoys, as well as imposing, heavily guarded fortresses, which are recommended for co-op play only.
"The new convoy is super interesting also," Fournier explained. "It's basically a moving outpost, or at least to me that's how it feels.
"There are convoys just roaming around in the open-world which you either need to stop and capture or just destroy them, depending on your style. If you do capture them, you get an extra reward."
Fortresses, meanwhile, are "bigger, meaner, well defended outposts, basically".
"It's the same system, but they're really hard to conquer," said Fournier. "With two of you, you can plan a strategy. One of you can be a sniper guy and be outside sniping the defenses, while the other can sneak in and take it over."
And that's exactly what we did. After initially driving up to the front gate of one fortress - and quickly getting killed by snipers and mortars before we'd even entered - we returned with a new stealthy strategy where one player sniped the lookouts, while the other snuck in to disable the alarms.
Unfortunately, we hadn't accounted for multiple alarms, and ended up falling foul of one of the gun-toting helicopters that were called in.
With such an array of heavyweight defenses, new enemy types and even wildlife, planning ahead feels more important than ever.
A less linear story where choices could matter
An alternative strategy is to weaken fortresses by completing campaign missions, although with multiple factions vying for your attention, making choices will influence how the narrative unfolds.
"There are a couple of spots in the mission structure where you can decide to align with certain characters," Fournier said.
"What we really tried to inject in that is that clear choice and freedom that we always try to have in the open-world. We really wanted those water-cooler moments or those anecdotes to come out from the narrative.
"We didn't want a straight, linear structure, we wanted a bit more freedom and for it to feel a bit more organic, so for sure your choices will have an impact on the campaign."
In one instance we were given the choice to assist resistance fighters in a battle to save a friendly outpost, or sacrifice those soldiers in order to gain additional intel.
We chose the latter, but are yet to find out exactly how this influences the story. It's certainly one of the more intriguing aspects of the game, especially if it opens or closes new paths in the mission to dispose of charismatic villain Pagan Min.
This sense of intrigue and of wanting to discover more is a positive sign for Far Cry 4, a game that doesn't feel a million miles removed from its predecessor despite its contrasting geography.
From what we've seen so far, Ubisoft is keen to recapture the magic of Far Cry 3, all the while injecting more variety into outposts, radio towers, wildlife, enemies and the branching narrative.
We may not have had much luck conquering fortresses, but we really enjoyed the co-op aspect of the game and the potential for planning a successful strike. Oh, and did we mention how cool it is to ride an elephant?
Far Cry 4 will be available on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. It will be available in Europe from November 21 and North America from November 18.
