This may be a contentious point, and allow us to be clear in that we are not saying Vaas was not a superbly written and performed villain; who struck all of his necessary narrative chords virtually flawlessly. It is simply that Vaas was so well done, so incredibly within the zeitgeist that to simply attempt to repeat that; to capture those opiate moments of madness within the same glass jar would be doomed to fail, leaving us underwhelmed by repetition. Now that the villain of Far Cry 4 has been revealed properly at E3 2014, we see the same level of excessive violence in his first moments as he cuts down an already injured subordinate with a hand blade. This does the important first job of emoting with us all, of reminding us of the fear we felt when caged in Vaas' camp but let us hope that is not all there is to Pagan Min. Beyond the psychopath with an insatiable desire for violence and a typical scheme to secure his own power hunger inner demons, it would be fantastic to see a villain who uses his violence for a purpose. A villain who progresses his own machiavellian schemes around us, who genuinely has a reason for his actions and has a realisation that perhaps his methods make him more satan than saviour. Nothing is more realistic than seeing an antagonist question their motives, question their methods in the quest to do what they must. Far from a similar game, Fable 3 did this exceptionally well with evil King Lucien doing what he must so that a few would die to protect the many. Hopefully as Pagan Min evolves he becomes the well rounded relatable character we all hope for.
