[typing]
In 2004, an upstart German development studio known as Crytek
released a game through Ubisoft
known as Far Cry.
It set the bar for years to come
as one of the most graphically impressive games on the market,
and provided a unique sense of openness in its gameplay.
Even though your path through the game's story is fairly linear,
the gameplay itself was anything but.
Large, open environments and multiple ways to deal with your foes
meant that each playthrough of the game had the potential
to be completely different from the last.
Crytek moved on to Crisis in 2007.
Then in 2008, Ubisoft Montreal released their sequel, Far Cry 2.
Gone was the linear campaign path and tropical island setting,
now you had a completely open- world African location to explore.
Though the game saw its fair share of criticism
for its heavy usage of respawning enemies and random malaria attacks,
the game more or less kept the spirit of the original Far Cry alive
by allowing the player a huge amount of freedom
in how they approached each mission.
And now, in 2012,
the long-awaited third installment has arrived,
again developed by Ubisoft Montreal.
And let me just go ahead and get this out of the way:
if you've played previous games, notably Far Cry 2,
and are worried the franchise might follow a path of less-than-awesomeness,
just put that out of your mind right now.
Far Cry 3 feels like a greatest hits compilation of previous games
with lots of new and ridiculous stuff added in for good measure.
Gone is the malaria, gun jamming, guard post respawning
and fifty shades of brown color palette from Far Cry 2.
Back is that game's huge open world
and back is the idea of a bright and saturated archipelago
paradise from Far Cry 1,
as is the idea of a single playable protagonist
with a more focused story.
It does exist on PS3 and Xbox 360,
but I'll be looking at the PC version here.
So this time around, you play the role of Jason Brody,
a trust fund kid from L.A. living it up on his father's dime,
and vacationing around the assumed-abandoned
Rook Islands in the Pacific.
He's just carelessly frolicking with his friends and brothers,
and I've gotta say, Jason's a pretty believable character.
Though they've seemingly gone down the dumb American tourist stereotype checklist.
He's ignorant, loud, obnoxious, white, and a bit squeamish,
with the natives even calling him "Snow White"
throughout the game in reference to these traits.
Ubisoft has stated they're goal here was to make Jason as relatable as possible,
but whether or not that's true, of course, depends on the player.
Whatever the case, all is fine and drunk
until it gets all Six Days Seven Nights on them
and they're attacked by pirates,
imprisoned,
and are set to be ransomed and sold into slavery.
The game actually starts with you and your older brother
attempting to escape from imprisonment alive,
which doubles as a nice little tutorial.
Of course, things quickly go from terrible to hellish.
People start dying.
You reluctantly start killing.
And before you know it, you barely escape with your life
and are being nursed back to health by some locals calling themselves the Rakyat.
For whatever reason, they think it's a good idea
to inscribe a tattoo on your left arm without permission,
load you up with weird local drugs,
and set you on a path to become a Rakyat warrior.
Jason just kind of rolls with it,
since he wants to save his friends,
but is as effective in battle as a wet Ramen noodle
and becoming a warrior sounds rad.
It's a pretty simple premise to begin with, but man,
the path you take throughout the game is really fun to see unfold.
Unlike Far Cry 2, where you just played some random, hardcore mercenary
getting manipulated by a more gravely Max Payne arms dealer,
here you play a guy who doesn't even know how to fire a gun.
As such, the character progression is quite believable
and enjoyable, and it wasn't long before I genuinely cared
about what happened to Jason and his acquaintances.
A lot of this has to do with the larger-than- life presence of the villains this game has
and holy crap, these guys are pure evil.
Insanity is a recurring theme in Far Cry 3,
which is most notable in the first main villain,
the pirate leader Vaas.
You don't question at all
that the dude is absolutely out of his mind,
and he feels like a very serious threat from the moment you meet him.
All the main characters have some great voice acting behind them,
but Vaas stands out in particular with his over-the-top psychotic scumbag performance.
That said, I do wish your own character, Jason, would shut up from time to time,
as he tends to think aloud the most obvious stuff on certain missions,
and can still sound like a frightened child
even after stabbing 200 dudes in the face with a machete.
Speaking of the missions, they play out more or less like they did in Far Cry 2.
You have multiple bases of operations
and key people who provide objectives,
either in person or by cell phone.
And thanks to more abundant vehicle placement
and an improved fast travel system,
getting to these missions is a LOT easier than in the previous game.
Just bring up your map, select the nearest location you've unlocked,
and forget those crappy buses ever existed.
The missions themselves are usually quite straightforward.
They can involve infiltrating a camp using stealth,
stealing an item,
rescuing someone or providing them aid,
killing a key enemy or set of enemies,
or something a bit more wild
like blowing up an enemy communications hub,
or setting a large marijuana farm on fire
with nothing but a flamethrower and manliness.
Sure, these types of missions are nothing new to gaming.
After all, GTA: San Andreas had a mission
where you also torched a weed crop with a flamethrower,
but it's the game's myriad methods of accomplishing them
in such a vibrant, immersive world that makes it really feel unique.
Though it does seem like there are more ways to fail on these missions than before.
And you'll find yourself running into a fail state
for something you didn't know was a problem.
Thankfully, most of the missions allow more freedom.
But the few that are strangely anal about how you have to complete them
can be a real trial-and-error chore.
Fortunately, these are the exception, not the rule,
and there are plenty of side missions and activities to cleanse your palate.
First, you've got some that are clearly labeled side missions
and have nothing to do with the story,
and can involve anything from collecting artifacts in abandoned World War II bunkers
or finding a villager's missing daughter.
Then there are supply drops
in which you must deliver a bunch of medical supplies
before a timer runs out.
You also have races and gun challenges,
which provide you with various vehicles and guns
to pass through a certain number of checkpoints
or take down a certain number of targets, respectively.
And some of these types of challenges are also kept track of via online leaderboards.
So you can compete against weird Internet people
to see who is the best at grenading foot soldiers or whatever.
There's also some things to bet money on
like knife throwing contests
and shady back room poker games.
Then there are Wanted Dead quests,
which give you an outlaw and a last known location
so you can bring them to justice, Red Dead Redemption style.
Also reminiscent of Red Dead is the hunting system,
brought to the forefront by the Path of the Hunter quests.
These will give you a certain animal or set of animals
to hunt with a specific weapon.
And yes, there is a full wildlife system in Far Cry now,
unlike the stiff and lifeless wildlife seen in Far Cry 2.
You've got a huge number of wild animals to track down,
some native and some imported.
Deer, dingos, wild boars, Komodo dragons,
leopards, tigers, black bears, freaking man-eating bull sharks.
All of which can be tracked, hunted and skinned.
Not to mention a bunch of minor ones you can't skin,
like chickens, crabs, lizards and jellyfish.
The jungle, man. It's a... jungle out there,
and it really helps the world feel just that much more alive.
Animals also have a practical purpose now,
since you'll need to collect specific skins
in order to craft upgrades for yourself.
The new crafting system is how you'll upgrade your carrying capacity for guns,
ammo, loot, and even your money.
While you can just sell things if you want,
it's a good idea to hold onto those skins until you need them,
because you can't get them any other way than hunting them in the wild.
It's a pretty cool idea to have to hunt for your upgrades
instead of just buying them or unlocking through XP,
though it doesn't always make logical sense.
Why the only way to make a large wallet
is to use cassowary skins instead of, say, hog skins,
I have no idea.
And I wish you could do more with animals other than kill them.
Like being able to ride a tiger. Ooh, that'd be awesome.
Or throwing crabs at your enemies as makeshift weapons.
That way you can say you gave your enemy crabs.
But, nah, they're just here as crafting material,
so if you don't want to skin cute critters,
well, I guess that's too bad.
If you don't mind chopping up plants,
there's plenty of that to do, too,
since you can also craft syringes
from the various island flora.
These craftables fall into medical, hunting,
combat and exploration categories.
and will do things like restore your health
and provide temporary buffs to your abilities.
The rest of your abilities will have to be learned
via gaining experience points and leveling up,
which arguably puts this into the RPG subgenre
of open-world FPS.
Most everything you do is rewarded with XP.
The general rule is the more elaborate or difficult something is, the more experience you'll earn.
Once you gain enough to level up, you're given a skill point
to spend in three skill trees.
This is where all of your permanently activated abilities
and performance boosts come from,
and is explained away as the Tatau.
You remember that tattoo from earlier?
On your quest to become a Rakyat warrior,
you earn more and more abilities, or skills,
and these will show up as tattoos
once you've chosen them in the skill tree.
It's quite a neat idea,
although in practice it acts no differently than in any RPG.
Taking advantage of all this
and looting the countless corpses and item containers
will earn you lots of cash as well.
There are plenty of storefronts throughout the game
that allow you purchase new guns and ammo.
And, man, there's a fantastic arsenal here.
You'd get all the stuff you'd expect from an FPS,
along with the things like the awesome recurve bow,
flamethrower and grenade launcher.
You can also purchase health packs, maps of collectibles,
special weapons and weapons upgrades.
Scopes, silencers, extended mags,
and even Army of Two-style custom paint jobs are on offer.
And while I wish there was even more, that's just me being greedy.
Some of the weapons even have special ammunition,
like the bow with its craftable fire and explosive arrows.
You just need a red bandana and some mud to cover yourself in, and you'd be set.
And thank goodness, the fantastic fire system
from Far Cry 2 is back and better than ever.
Molotov cocktails, flamethrowers,
fire arrows, exploding vehicles and who knows what else
are a fire storm waiting to happen.
Though with less dry grass around,
it's not as easy to flush enemies out of cover,
but it's still a major force to be reckoned with,
and is super easy to set yourself on fire, too.
So when things get too hot,
you can always jump into one of the many vehicles provided for your amusement.
All the expected cars, trucks, SUVs and buggies are accounted for,
as well as ATVs, speedboats and jet skis.
Pretty darn useful, those last two,
since there's a significant amount of shark-infested ocean
and remote islands to explore.
One thing that bothers me is the lack of forklift control.
I don't mean the forklift controls are terrible,
I mean you can't use it at all.
Dang it, why did you put it there if I can't lift forks!
Makes me so mad, I wanna shoot my allies in the body.
[gunshot]
And there's still no aircraft,
but you do get the classic hang glider,
which is far more easy to find this time around.
Though perhaps even more enjoyable is the wing suit,
which you get much later on in the game.
And thankfully this can be used in any way at any time,
unlike the one in Black Ops II,
which was pretty much just an extended cutscene thing.
Just jump from enough height anywhere you can find it,
deploy the suit and fly around like freakin' Superman
without Superman powers.
Because you lose altitude
and then you want to deploy your parachute
or else your day will start to suck really fast.
On top of all the story missions and side activities to enjoy,
you also have some stuff to do to clear the fog of your map
and unlock fast travel locations.
To deal with the map, you have radio towers to scale.
These are quick and simple platforming challenges
that thankfully don't suck.
Because first-person platforming can be a real friggin' pain,
but these are designed in such a way that I never got aggravated with them.
Once you reach the top of each unique tower, you can turn it on,
and that entire area of the map will become visible.
You can explore the whole open world from the get-go without these towers.
You just won't have all the areas listed on your map until you scale them.
The towers also make some weapons available for free
and provide you with a discount on ammunition,
so exploring as many as you can early on
really helps keep your wallet full and you guns fresh.
Then to unlock new fast travel points, you'll run across enemy encampments.
Each one of these is unique and works like a mini-mission
that you can approach any way you please.
The goal here is to clear the camp of bad guys,
which sounds simple enough.
Except that if you allow them to set off the alarm,
they will call in TONS of reinforcements,
usually much more powerful.
Scouting the area before diving into combat is a staple of Far Cry,
and that returns here via Jason's DSLR camera,
which doubles as a way to capture evidence, if the need arises.
Once you do, one option is to take everyone else out stealthily,
which can be accomplished via Assassin's Creed-style takedowns
or by using silent weaponry.
Everyone reacts to sound as well,
so distracting them by throwing rocks is useful for separating them.
You can also just disable the alarms entirely,
either by destroying the button which will turn off that one alarm
or by manually switching off the entire system,
if you can get close enough.
If you don't wanna do that, you can just break open caged animals,
which will then proceed to rip everyone apart
who is unfortunate enough to be close by.
Once you've taken everyone down, the camp is permanently yours
to use for fast travel, getting new missions,
and buying and selling items.
And this is just the stuff that has some sort of structure to it.
Frick, the game doesn't stop here.
As enjoyable as the story is,
the real star of the show is the island itself.
It's huge, it's gorgeous,
and it really feels like a place that would continue on living
even when you cease to exist.
People roam about their business,
animals hunt each other for food,
wind and rain come and go,
the day turns to night, the night turns to dawn,
and there always seems to be something more to see.
You've got awesome-looking caves and subterranean labyrinths to explore,
worn-down Japanese military compounds to check out,
buried underground Chinese ruins with awesome antique stuff to collect and sell,
and a plethora of mountain ranges, valleys and waterways
filled with things to hunt and people to deal with.
Not to mention several multiplayer modes,
both in traditional online match and co-op flavors.
You get your expected deathmatch, domination and capturing stuff modes,
as well as other match types to choose from.
It's got all the unlocks, load-outs, XP and perks you'd expect
from a modern multiplayer shooter,
so if you like that kind of thing and the Far Cry shooting system, it's not bad.
And I really like how the winning team
beats the crap out of the leading player on the losing team at the end.
Co-op IS a bit disappointing, personally,
since I guess I was expecting something like Saints Row
where you and your friends could just drop in, drop out
and go around blowing stuff up in the open world together.
But no, it's a separate linear campaign entirely
that feels a bit Left 4 Dead-ish.
Up to four players at once can complete basic objectives,
kill waves of enemies,
progress through a simple story, and that's about it.
It's not awful or anything, but it's just not what I'd hoped for,
so the single-player game remains the big draw here.
And lastly, the Far Cry map editor makes a return
and it's just as powerful and easy to use as ever.
I haven't tried it on the consoles, but on the PC,
I have nothing to complain about.
I mean, I'm no mapper or modder, but I like it.
Make whatever you want. Save it. Play it.
Detonate goats with C-4. Balls, yeah!
There are a few minor complaints I have, though,
some specific to the PC version.
For one thing, the user interface is a bit irritating.
Sometimes it's scaled large, sometimes small,
and there's no way to manually scale it at this point.
And it will also endlessly post nag messages
telling you to do the next story mission
when all you want to do is shoot dudes in the face!
And navigating the menus with a mouse just feels cumbersome,
although it works great with a controller.
Also irksome is the looting and skinning.
And since you'll be doing so freaking much of it,
I really wish you could skip the animations for these.
But these are all very minor complaints,
and did not detract from my enjoyment significantly at all.
What it all comes down to is Far Cry 3
is a freakin' huge and freakin' fantastic game.
It took me about 15 hours to complete the main story
and that's without doing a lot of the stuff that was there.
I've still only explored about two-thirds of the island
and have tons of side activities to do and stuff to unlock.
Far Cry 3 is easily the best game of the series for me
and is an absolutely superb game, period.
If you like open-world games,
especially those with FPS and RPG elements,
then check this one out as soon as you can.
[music plays to the end]