Far Cry 3 Review

Far Cry 3 is the latest game in the long-running open world, first-person shooter series. Much like its predecessors, there’s nothing connecting it to the previous games, except the general gameplay and setting. After visiting the African savanna in FC2, this title brings players back to a tropical island. Assuming the role of a tourist in trouble, players must navigate the vast island in search of his friends while battling the local wildlife, gaining local allies and avoiding the hostile faction. With tons to do, solid gameplay mechanics and only a few annoyances, Far Cry 3 brings the series back on top form.

Players will become Jason Brody, who was vacationing on the island with a group of friends when they are captured by Vaas, the leader of a group of pirates. In a polar opposite to Ubisoft’s own recently released Assassin’s Creed 3, the story of Far Cry 3 begins rather abruptly, and the players are forced to fill in the blanks later. Because of this, the campaign lacks motivation as we’re forced to care about the well-being of characters we don’t know, and who come across as jerks anyway. Jason himself is highly uneven, still whimpering and doubting himself during story missions after hours of killing enemies and wildlife in the open world. He’s also instantly proficient with any weapon, which makes his complaints about being not strong enough fall flat.

You’ll meet a variety of strange individuals during the story as you rescue your friends. Vaas is a particular highlight, stealing the spotlight every time he’s on screen which is never long enough. He acts in crazy and menacing ways, pushing the game’s insanity theme. But at the same time, he is a very typical hot-headed villain – leaving Jason in a deadly situation only to see him escape every time, and he also has far too few appearances for a character that’s on the game’s box art. After a few escapes and important plot points, Jason finally grows up and takes the fight to Vaas and his boss, leading players on a series of action-packed events. Overall, the game’s plot is well structured but often let down by the protagonist and his unlikable friends, while the inhabitants of the island are the real stars. At least, the story feels more personal and relatable than Far Cry 1’s monsters or Far Cry 2’s politics.

As is customary for the franchise, Far Cry 3 features a vast open world setting. In many ways, as you’ll read later, this is much more of a game than Far Cry 2, thanks to not being too bothered with realism and focusing on a fun experience instead. Starting out, the game’s map only contains a few points of interest such as enemy camps and radio towers. To reveal a part of the map, players will need to climb these towers and disable the jammers at the top. This unlocks visibility of terrain, animals, plants, and treasures, and makes the world much easier to navigate. Activating these towers also has a great effect on your combat ability – as it apparently allows the island’s populace to like Jason and want to give him free weapons.

That’s right, as you unlock more of the map, weapons in stores become completely free. The game has a very varied arsenal, from the usual SMGs, pistols, assault and sniper rifles, to series classics like a bow and flamethrower. So instead of buying guns with cash, players would be smart to unlock a few towers instead and spend money on weapon customization. Many of the guns have a couple of item slots, which range from extended magazines to scopes and silencers. All of the weapons feel good and pack good firepower, plus you no longer have to worry about deterioration or jamming. Ammo is scarce, but dead bodies can be looted for extras and cash.

Now that you can see where you’re going and armed to the teeth, time to pick a fight. Most of the confrontations in the open world take place when storming enemy outposts. If you choose to attack head on, chances are the enemies will sound the alarm and take cover, which means that things can get heated very quickly as reinforcements arrive. Still, it’s a practical approach and certainly gets the job done fast. Players can take cover in first person view, and enemies will do their best to stay in cover and flank. Once all enemies have fallen, the outpost falls under control of the Rakyat (the militia faction of the island that Jason has aligned with for mutual interests). This means the surrounding area becomes almost free of any enemy presence, and that gives the game a huge sense of progression (unlike Far Cry 2’s endlessly respawning foes). But at the same time, an opportunity for some dynamic gameplay is missed as enemies will never attempt to re-take an outpost.

If you’d prefer the stealth approach, the good news is that Far Cry 3 handles this gameplay style just as well. By couching in tall grass or bushes, Jason is able to remain invisible to the enemy from a distance, and using your photo camera as a make-shift binocular, you can mark all enemy targets just by looking at them for a moment. From there, they will remain marked and visible through walls as you move in for an attack. Using melee or silenced weapons, with a little patience it’s always possible to clear a camp without setting off any alarms. The only downside is Jason’s inability to pick up or drag already fallen bodies (though you can at least unlock a skill that lets you drag them after a melee attack), so you must move quickly to avoid any of your victims being found. Far Cry 3 does a great job at letting players make a real choice between a stealthy predator or a gun-blazing soldier, with both approaches featuring well-designed mechanics to support them.

All of the outposts you take over become fast travel points, and thanks to their generous number, you’re never too far from your target location. It cuts down on a lot of the travel time, but even if you do find yourself in the middle of nowhere, cars in the game are scattered overly generously. They still handle rather awkwardly, and also hilariously bad by AI, but it gets you places faster. Once an area is free of enemies though, there are still plenty of activities to partake in.

The open world of Far Cry 3 is a joy to explore but not simply because of its impressive size and variety, but because of many valuable things to do. Hunting and gathering make up a large portion of the open world gameplay, and they both carry a purpose. Collecting the various plans allows Jason to craft injections that vary in function, from simply restoring health to improving your senses and abilities. In the heat of battle, these limited-time abilities can be very beneficial but are mostly optional. Hunting is not only fun in itself because it’s both exciting and dangerous, but also because it’s critical to your character progression. From the materials gathered via hunting animals (of which there are plenty and of every variety) you can upgrade your inventory to hold more items, guns, ammo, money, etc. So while hunting and upgrading your inventory can be considered a one-time experience, gathering is a more of an on-going task to keep yourself stocked up on boosts.

You can also embark on a number of optional side quests. These are often brief, but provide a nice bonus to your bank and net extra materials. Hunting missions provide you with a specific weapon and a general area to hunt a rare animal, while assassination missions are like miniature outpost takeovers, with the goal of eliminating a specific enemy in a guarded area. Everything you do in the game contributes to your experience bar – from hunting and gathering to side missions, kills, and story progression. The XP earns you skill points, which can then be used to learn a new skill in one of the three trees. The unloackable abilities include everything a typical shooter/RPG mix requires, such as running faster, healing better, firing more accurately, etc. Progression is quite well paced, though it depends on how much open world gameplay you choose to embark on between story missions, meaning you’ll be able to unlock a majority of the skills in all trees through a single story playthrough. The skills you choose to unlock then appear as tattoos on your arm, and that’s just cool.

Far Cry 3 does have a bit of a two-faced approach at times. The very best open world gameplay moments can happen, when the player comes across a random group of enemies and wild animals at the same time. Many outposts have curiously positioned cages with a tiger surprise just waiting to be set free and do your bidding for you. Seeing random events happen in the world, or causing/participating in them, has the potential to be unique every time. Animal AI is similar to humans’, in that it isn’t very diverse and can often run in circles, but every encounter can be unpredictable and entertaining none the less. Story missions, meanwhile, present a change of pace with strict requirements and frequently linear gameplay. Some may say this is detracting from the overall experience, but that’s not really the case, as it gives you a different challenge from simply surviving as you have in the open world.

The game does have its share of problems, though none too impacting. There are multiple similarities between it and Assassin’s Creed 3, which is eerie at times, everything from climbing towers to some sound effects and even quotes from Alice in Wonderland. Thankfully, ideas like hunting and fast travel are better implemented here than in AC3. Also problematic is the action prompt, which appears when you want to loot, harvest, or interact with anything in the world. The issue is – the button is extremely picky of when it appears, often requiring you to readjust your position and view multiple times before it shows up. Inconveniently, it also always puts preference on swapping to a nearby gun instead of looting a body. Finally, the inventory system is completely basic to the point that items don’t stack so you’ll be full often, which puts a dent in your loot-everything ambitions.

An online component is also included. The islands have a few challenge scenarios which offer you a chance to see how well you can perform against others via leaderboards. There’s also a cooperative mode where up to four players can complete missions on linear levels. A bit of story is thrown in, but the characters you play as are just unlikable as those from the main game. Further, the cooperative experience is currently riddled with bugs relating to AI and scripting, as we’ve often had to restart missions because the friendly AI had a glitch and could not advance, or the last enemy to be killed got stuck somewhere. Those still looking for the classic coop experience will be happy to learn the coop missions can be played offline in split screen. Finally, competitive multiplayer is present with all the usual character and weapon upgrade systems and streaks. It’s a nice diversion but nothing on the multiplayer side can make up for the lack of true open-world roaming with friends.

Visually, Far Cry 3 doesn’t quite impress at times, with a poor draw distance, some low resolution textures and frequent object pop-in. Lush vegetation and great lighting effects mostly make up for it though – along with immersive day/night and weather cycles. Some of the animations for animals and lip syncing of characters can be a bit glitchy. Besides Vaas, voice acting is fine but the writing is often not up to par, and Jason’s voice fails to provide confidence in his ability to even tie his own shoes. The rest of audio design works; guns are a pleasure to see and fire, plus the animal life on the island adds an authentic soundtrack to your hunting expeditions.

Probably the best open-world game of 2012, Far Cry 3 delivers in most aspects. You’ve got plenty to do and many ways to do it, whether that’s hunting (humans or animals), exploring, or being a gun for hire. Story missions are linear, and feature a disappointing cast of survivors against the much more interesting island natives. Online modes are present but largely unnecessary or aren’t quite polished, as is the case with cooperative play. If not for a few shortcomings, Far Cry 3 could have been amazing and a great way to finish off 2012. None the less, this is still a great experience and finishes the year off with an explosive arrow, fired from across a natural ridge overlooking a deep yet peaceful lake. While being chased by a tiger.