Far Cry 3 Review
You play the role of Jason Brody, an American male on holiday with a group of friends on the thrill seekers dream island, “Rook”.
Everything seems to be going well until you awake to find out that you and your group have been captured by a psychopath named Vaas, a leader of pirates in the slave trafficking ring.
Find and save your friends and escape the island if you want to live!
Jason is an average male with no military training which makes Far Cry 3 great. You will watch Jason go from an American tourist to a killer totally out of his comfort zone, which it self has ill effects on his mental state and outlook.
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For the first hour the story is quite slow but to be honest this is (in my eyes) the tutorial. During the hour tutorial, you wake to the gentleman that saved your life, get more of an idea as to what has happened to you and your friends and find out what it is that you have to do in order to save them and yourself.
Once the hour has passed and the story gets going, everything opens up and to be honest, it’s amazing. Being Far Cry means to be given freedom. You can choose to explore the island and its inhabitants or progress the story, but no matter what you choose, you’ll love it.
The story, to me, is one of the best mature and exciting stories I have followed in a video game since I can remember. Everything you do and every NPC you meet is an experience that won’t be forgotten.
NPC’s are very unique, weird and have a great sense of personality. They take on their role well as being who they are and conversations are a treat. I was so engrossed in the story that I rarely wanted to explore for more than a few minutes before getting the itch to continue. However, you have to travel to each location in order to start the next part of the story and this means some exploration whether you want it or not (you will want it!). On your travels to the next story point, you will get distracted. There will be a village that you can take over, an old ship wreck waiting to be climbed upon or some wildlife that needs dealing with.
The fact that the game makes you want to go and discover what you can see means that someone has done a great job. They have created something that you’re interested in and look forward to checking out and that’s what Far Cry is all about.
The island is open right from the start with none of the “do this mission to unlock the next are” rubbish. However, in order to see some of the collectibles and areas worth checking out you will need to get up high and check out the surroundings. Luckily for us there are radio towers. Climb a tower and you will unlock part of a map which shows you areas of interest within the vicinity. This is very “Assassin’s Creed” but very welcome and a great touch. It is also worth mentioning that when you climb a tower and unlock part of a map, you also unlock free items at gun stores.
So, you’re on an island for you holidays as a regular person which means you didn’t bring guns, ammo, and storage for these items, right? Correct! There is a load of wildlife lurking within Rook and most have pelt worth taking. Sharks, leopards, dingo, boar and dogs are just a few of those animals worth killing. Certain pelts create certain items such as ammo pouches, rucksack for loot items and throwable item pouches, but there are many sizes to unlock. Eventually you will have to hunt rare animals in order to create the biggest and best pouches but these rare animals are only available through hunting side missions, which can be obtained through stronghold takeovers. I love the hunting because it works, unlike the hunting in “Red Dead Redemption” which was a total chore that gave you no real reward.
Keep it in mind that these animals are very dangerous and will more than likely attack you.
You can travel the island by sea, land, air or fast travelling. The boats and jet ski’s are fun for the water as is flying through the air on a hand glider but the cars and atv’s handle horrible and fast travelling totally ruins what Far Cry 3 is about. In my opinion the best form of travel are walking/running, swimming or using a hand glider because these are the forms of transport that offer the most fun and exploration. Walking/swimming is also funny because at times you will stumble upon an animal hunting for food or attacking a group of humans. I had many lol moments after hearing a scream and running to the area to find my enemies being thrown about by bears and buffalo.
Getting injured is never a good thing so luckily for you there are many plants that offer medicinal properties. Some plants can be used to make you better at hunting, some make you gain health you have lost. Pick the flowers and use them to make syringes and you’re good to go!
Throughout your travels you will earn XP which can be used to unlock perks. Perks vary from silent takedowns to gaining more health slots and again this is another great idea hat works perfectly with the game. The cool thing is that these perks are represented as tattoos on your arm which you can see. It’s as if these perks are special powers and I totally love it.
Graphically, Far Cry 3 is gorgeous. Whether you’re in the air, on the ground or swimming through the shark ridden waters, green and turquoise has never looked so good. There will be many times where you will want to stop, take a look around and think wow, this is a beauty. Everything runs so smoothly and feels alive.
The horrible guns from Far Cry 2 that felt sluggish and to make things worse jammed are long gone. Now you can experience smooth reloads and shots on target which is always nice in a shooting game (*Sarcasm*).
There are two let downs in Far Cry 3 and they are the multiplayer and the currency. In multiplayer you have your typical game modes that every other FPS game offers and co-op play which again other FPS games offer but the problem here is that Far Cry 3 doesn’t bring anything new to the table and what it does bring is being done better elsewhere.
You have the famous map editor at your disposal which could cause you to lose hours of your day but for me, I don’t really care for it.
The currency becomes worthless after a while with its only need being for ammo purchases. I honestly can’t remember the last time I purchased anything other than ammo because once you have the radio towers unlocked there isn’t much else use for it.
Overall
Far Cry 3 is what gamers want. It’s fun, has loads of exploration (all of which is exciting), there are crazy and interesting NPC’s that carry one of the best stories known in gaming history and all of this will take you at least 25 hours to complete.
Multiplayer may lack but who cares when you have a single player experience as good as it is.
Far Cry 3 is most definitely my game of the year and I can’t wait to see what DLC will offer those of us that can’t get enough of the game.
9/10
Review By Wicket2961
