Far Cry 3 Review

The very first Far Cry game was released by Ubisoft back back in March of 2004 for the PC and received positive reviews upon its release. It was followed by a port to the Xbox as well as a sequel simply titled Far Cry 2, which released in 2008 with high ambitions but fell short of being amazing. It suffered from small annoyances such as malaria and over-aggressive A.I. and had a map that was too large for its own good. Now at the tail end of 2012, Ubisoft is ready to give it one more go with Far Cry 3.

Far Cry 3 aims to improve on the previous entry in the series in every aspect, promising an easier to navigate world, great story and no malaria. But does it succeed where its predecessor failed? Or does it outshine all the rest to stand among the heavy hitters as one of the best shooters of 2012? Here are the Hots and Nots of Far Cry 3.

HOT

Dive Into A Story Of Insanity
Far Cry 3 tells the story of Jason Brody, a young adult who lived a cushioned life in Santa Monica with his friends and family, until it all came crashing down around him and he found himself captured alongside his brothers and friends on the Rook Islands. After escaping from the prison camp of the insane pirate leader Vaas and watching his brother Grant die in his arms, Jason begins to learn the ways of the island in order to become stronger to save the rest of his friends. Right from the start we are thrown into this struggle for survival and we get to see how the young and immature Jason slowly starts to transform into a cold and calculated killer in order to save the ones he cares about. None of the characters you find in this game are perfect and it is their flaws that create a dark and twisted storyline. On the surface, Far Cry 3 seems like its just another shallow revenge tale. But dig deeper and you will find a wealth of character progression to flesh it all out and make this one of the best stories told in a game this year.

Lots Of Things To Do On The Island
Far Cry 3 is all about letting you explore the island in any way you want. As you explore the island you will find that there is quite a bit you can do while out and about. You can search for lost letters from WWII that flesh out the rich history of the island or take down one of the many pirate camps around the area to weaken their influence. These strongholds can be taken any way you want to take them. Feel like avoiding attention and eliminating everyone quietly? Disable the alarm and bust out the bow for some silent killing. Or you can throw caution to the wind and go in guns blazing mowing down everything in your path. One of my favorite moments that I had with the game came about when two tigers rushed in the camp and did my work for me. The world of Far Cry 3 is unpredictable and you can never quite plan out what will happen when you storm the next camp.

You can even participate in mini-games that you can place wagers on to earn more money such as a shooting contest, racing or knife throwing. Feel like relaxing and playing some cards? Try your hand at the poker table. Hunting is also a central aspect to this game. Killing certain animals and getting their skin is necessary to crafting upgrades to your equipment. Find yourself running low on ammo often? Run out and skin some Tapirs to get an upgraded ammo bag. There is plenty to do in Far Cry 3 and never once did it feel like it was forced on me or a chore to do.

Multiplayer Is Entertaining
Far Cry 3 sports both online competitive and cooperative multiplayer types. The competitive multiplayer has you playing head to head with other players in your standard multiplayer modes such as team deathmatch. It also sports a progression system that has you unlocking new weapons and attachments as you level up. While this is nothing new to those who have played first person shooters before, it isn’t a bad addition and gives you something else to try out after you finish up the single player story.

As I mentioned above, Far Cry 3 also sports a cooperative mode for up to four players, or two players if you play in split-screen. The cooperative mode sports a miniature campaign of its own and acts as a side story to the main game, complete with its own characters and story. While it isn’t as in-depth as the main game, it provides entertaining moments and is a fun little distraction when you have people to play it with. My only complaint with it is that while Callum the Scotsman and Mikhail the Russian spout entertaining one-liners, the other two characters spout nothing but pointless profanity and act as if they don’t know how to say anything else.

The game also supports a map editor across all consoles that allows you to create your own maps to upload online and play in the various competitive game modes. You can even add in animals and A.I. characters, but these are just for you to play around with and can not be played online with others. It would have been fun to be able to bring a friend in on the A.I. maps, but I guess I will have to suffice with running over hoards of monkeys in an ATV for now.