You know where you are?! You’re in the jungle baby! You’re gonna die!
The Ubisoft Montreal developed Far Cry is back in a tropical paradise after exploring the African wilderness in Far Cry 2. Starting off more like a feature film than a video game, Far Cry 3 sees Jason Brody and his group of friends on vacation who are then captured by Vaas Montenegro, the leader of a group of pirates working for a slave trafficking ring. Jason barely escapes with his brother Grant but not before he’s shot in cold blood by Vaas. Alone and running through the jungle Jason now seeks to rescue his friends. The heavy sci-fi aspect of the first game is gone and in its place is a story of drug-running pirates, a local resistance force and an unlikely hero. All of this is set in an open-world environment that pretty much allows you to explore at your own pace.
Far Cry 3 puts you in the role of “everyman” Jason Brody rather than having you play a trained military commando, this gives the story a more personal feel and really works well. The first few missions serve as the tutorial, walking you through the basics of controls and combat. Once completed you are free to take whichever patch you want to explore the massive open-world map. Like many other open-world sandbox type games you’re free to pretty much play the game in whatever way you like. If you want to rush through the story missions you can, if you want to explore you can, side missions? Go for it. The island is basically your playground.
Decisions you make however, will impact the gameplay as you move forward throughout the campaign. Eradicating a pirate stronghold will clear the area of their influence, making it safer for you to explore and move around. This also provides a safe house/fast travel point as well. Choose not to eliminate the threat and their presence will be stronger, they will pursue you and patrol the roads and area.
Far Cry 3 intelligently allows Jason to use the environments to his advantage as well, distracting pirates by making noises or attracting wildlife. Hunting of course is a large part of the gameplay in Far Cry, animals provide the materials in order to craft and upgrade items. Some animals even double as weapons themselves, having been known to inadvertently assist you by attacking your enemies.
In addition to the traditional activities of the series, players can also partake in racing, sharpshooting and even playing poker. This of course is a good way to bank some extra cash if you’re so inclined. Climbing puzzles al la Assassin’s Creed synchronization points, reveal quests, key points of interest and treasures in surrounding areas. From here take a zipline and literally drop right into whatever one of the aforementioned activities you wish.
The skill trees are divided into three categories: Heron is the commando-esque skill tree that includes skills like improving hip-fire accuracy. The Shark Skill Tree is comparable to a healer tree in other games. This includes skills like improving first aid and reducing damage from explosions. The final tree, Spider, focuses on stealth abilities. Moving quicker when crouched, reload while sprinting or move quicker in the water. Skills are represented by a corresponding tattoo on Jason’s left arm. Earning experience is no different than any other game; fill your bar by killing, exploring, crafting, etc. Far Cry 3 does a great job at requiring players to use each tree in tandem with one another, with no single build being the go to loadout.
Visually the game is nothing short of stunning. Once again pushing the limits of the outdated hardware, and you’ll get no complaint here. The game suffers from the odd texture loading and visual tearing moments. It’s nothing that detracts from the experience but it’s worth nothing. The geography of the islands is believeable, feeling natural and looking beautiful. The dynamic weather system mixed with the daylight cycle just adds to the realism and sheer beauty of the islands.
Every game needs multiplayer these days. Except this one, but it has it. Multiplayer includes unlockable weapons and player progression but just doesn’t compete with the upper echelon of today’s FPS’. Where it does shine however, is in co-op. Rather than having a second player trying to participate in the single player campaign, co-op has its own missions. Set prior to the events of Far Cry 3, 2-4 players engage in a multitude of mission objectives that vary from defend this to attack that, collect this or that before time runs out. Although it may sound rudimentary, that’s actually the beauty of it and it’s a boat load of fun.
The minor annoyances in Far Cry 3 three hardly hold back from the whole experience. An in-depth story that sees the internal struggle for sanity of our main protagonist and an engaging and memorable plot are what sets Far Cry 3 apart from not only other games in the genre, but all games. More layered and compelling than any game in recent memory, add in one of the best game villain’s I’ve ever seen and 30 hours of gameplay, if Far Cry 3 isn’t what every gamer has been looking for I’m not quite sure what is. Ubisoft pulls everything that was great about the two previous iterations into one spectacular package, play this game.
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