"Did I ever tell you the definition, of insanity?" The very first time you heard those word when this game was announced. You got the feeling that what was coming was going to be special. After you saw the fluid knife kills and the insane antagonists the screen dropped the name of this glorious game. Far Cry 3!
Now, I know that its predecessor Far Cry 2 left a bad taste in some peoples mouths. The story was total shoehorned garbage, the voice acting was very meh at best, and the mission structure got repetitive very quickly. It was you go here, get mission, get call from friend you don't know or care about, drive to safe house to meet that friend and get a side mission. It would then be up to you to complete if you wanted. It all boiled down to those things repeating over and over and over. Still a good game, but highly repetitive.
Thankfully, Far Cry 3 is beyond what the older ones ever were! It fixes what was broken in the last game and ditches the things that just plain sucked. Far Cry 3 is the best shooter of this year! Far Cry 3 is one of the best shooters of all time!
You are a young man named Jason Brody. You are on a vacation with several friends and your two brothers. When you decide to take a skydiving trip, things go from fun--to total hell. Kidnapped by pirates on a tropical island, you are forced to escape and fight. But the journey takes more than that, it requires you to be something more. Something legendary, you have to evolve into a warrior.
Yeah yeah I know that is pretty typical. But this game moves you along to becoming something fierce in a fantastic way. You evolve with the character as you learn new moves, explore the islands, and deal with some of the most insane and intimidating antagonists ever!
The story with this game is absolutely amazing. You see the character that you play in the beginning as an unsure, nervous wreck. Then he evolves and comes to enjoy what he is doing, he goes from kid to blood thirsty warrior during the 15+ hour story. And you are right there with him in the thick of it. The plot continues along like any normal open world game would.
You go acquire the mission and complete it. However, they are so well paced and satisfying that you will want to play them over again. Every single mission has variety. One minute you will be out hunting Kommodo Dragons and then you are burning an entire farm of weed. All while listening to a tune that combines dub step with the traditional Jamaican pot Esq music... I bet that if you are a smoker of the wacky tobaccy, then this mission may make you go "NOOOOOO!!!!" Heck, even when you stroll through the smoke your character gets high.
There is so much variety in the story missions that it will never ever get repetitive. They are all connected into an intricate and emotionally filled plot that has many twists and turns that you may, or may not see coming. When ever you encounter the character named Vaas. Your skin may crawl as his level of insanity could emerge at any moment. He looks you in the eye and speaks with a disturbing tone that makes you sit on edge every second.
It also has one of the most messed up endings that I have ever seen! Not in a bad way, more like a 'WOAH!" type way. There is one thing I did not get, but I wont spoil it.
If you are in the market for a fantastic story that is filled with great characters and brilliant pacing. Then you better never pass on Far Cry 3! The games are not connected, so you can dive right in and know what is happening.
The fantastic story is housed in a pretty tropical setting that teeters with detail and mystery. The development team wanted to make this island speak exploration to you. One moment you will be exploring the inside of a flooded cave system; then the next you will be walking in the ruins of a WWII bunker from the Japanese army. You see old artillery cannons rusted over and ruins of an old civilization. All of these things add life and discovery to your journey to become something different.
It is also filled with many things to do. You can hunt animals to craft your needed items like; bigger rucksack, more weapons to hold, more money to carry, etc. Each one requires a specific animal skin--that helps keep the variety up and make each search fresh. You also can take over outposts in the game that become fast travel stations and you gain XP based on how you take them out. The XP helps you unlock abilities that increase your skills in a great way. You can get things like new take downs, accuracy, etc.
Like Assassins Creed, a large part of the map is blacked out. In order to uncover it, you must initiate first person platforming on these hand crafted towers. Activating them will unlock weapons for you and show you interesting locations on the map.
The island is not only beautiful, it is also very dangerous. Tigers, Bears, Leopards all present feeling that you are not on top of the food chain. If you are not careful, these animals will stalk and kill you. Once, I was tracking an enemy alongside of a grassy pond. He stepped closer to the water and then BOOM! A Croc leaped up and took him under swiftly. The animals all interact with eachother and behave according to their nature.
Not all is well though. The console versions suffer from reduced field of view and range. Sometimes you can witness objects appear and vanish with one step. At a distance, some objects can look like they are floating. At first glance, some textures look grainy but that is quickly tossed out when you look at everything in full view. Character models are all greatly detailed full of features. Far Cry 3 is a gorgeous looking game on consoles, but looks totally breathtaking on the PC.
That is not it, the game comes complete with Coop, Multiplayer, a wonderful Map Editor that dates back to Far Cry Instincts. The Coop features a separate story that takes place before the Single Player story. You are a band of marooned Pirates out for revenge. You and up to 4 players tag along on a 4 hour (give or take) story that actually is pretty good! You fight waves of difficult enemies that require you to have a partner in order to survive. It is a good extra that adds to your incentive to buy this game.
Competitive Multiplayer is another story. While good it may be, I don't really foresee it becoming a huge sensation due to its big similarities to Call of Duty. You have your standard loudout options; picking weapons and their attachments, perks, etc. Rank up high enough and you can create your own tattoo for your character from scratch. There are some new modes for the game, but my favorite has to be Firestorm. As you kill eachother off, you keep coming face to face with a massive fire that spreads like the plague. It keeps you on your toes and forces you to not camp.
Many reviewers are counting it as an unnecessary addition. But that is just incorrect. It is an addition to a Single Player game that makes the package complete. So don't buy this for the competitive side of your personality. You can, however, do it for your creative side. The Map Editor allows you to create a detailed map from the ground up and fill with what ever you choose. Want a WWI map? Go ahead! A jungle map filled with ruins? Why not... It does suck that you cannot put AI controlled objects into the Multiplayer maps. They are only for Single Player use. Which is very silly--it would have been amazing to have a deathmatch map filled with Bears!
Another stupid thing is that THEY DID NOT ADD VEHICLES FOR MULTIPLAYER!!!! WHY OH WHY?!?! Seriously, how in the world was the missed?! Maybe it can be fixed with updates, but that is just unacceptable. As much as I may have raged there, it is still a very small portion of the game. The faults do dock some points, but not much at all.
Far Cry 3 is an astoundingly polished and well built game. It is an improvement over the last game by a pretty huge margin. The story is one of the best of the year next to Spec Ops The Line, and it is featured in a beautiful world with loads to do in it. Unnecessary the multiplayer and coop may be. They are still good in their own ways.
FINAL VERDICT: Far Cry 3 gets an A+.
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[Edited on 12.08.2012 5:23 PM PST]