Far Cry 3 Review: Did I Ever Tell You The Definition Of Insanity?

Far Cry 3
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Montreal

X360, PS3, PC – December 4, 2012

 

 

Welcome to paradise! You and your friends are off on a tropical vacation where the sky is the limit, parties, women, and extreme sports are on your agenda… Until something goes horribly wrong and you wake up in a cell at a slavers camp. With no training, weapons, or idea of where you are, you are left to survive. What do you do? How far will you go to get to safety? You follow Jason Brody through the Far Cry 3 story as you slowly slip into insanity.

Far Cry 3 is a separate story from Far Cry and Far Cry 2. The story is told 100 % in the first person view which really adds to the feeling of the game. Far Cry 3 was quite easily one of the best single player campaigns I have ever played. From start to finish I was not able to put the game down. The story was very interesting keeping you hooked with plot twist, betrayals, and damn amazing scenes (some may have included intense dubstep in the background and burning weed fields). Far Cry 3 also offers a plethora of extra activities to complete to keep you buys when you do not feel like finishing the story. These side missions range from liberating camps, to races, to hunting different creatures with specific weapons (dogs with RPGs…Why not?). The hunting quests would also reward you with skins to allow you to craft bigger bags for loot, weapons, and healing materials. There were a few moments where you had to stop and say “really!?” But they were few and far between.

This time around Far Cry 3 offers a RPG element to the mix. A skill tree and level system was added to the game. The 3 trees focus on, stealth, healing, and combat. At first I thought this was a very amazing idea, allowing the player to customize their character to how they want to play. It was very quickly realized that you had very little choice in character class. Half the skills are locked at the start and slowly unlock as you finish key story points, which forces you to spend points in trees you were not interested in. Furthermore by the time you add up all the levels and the amount of skill, you notice that you will get enough points for every skill…or you can check the achievement list… There was a small amount of strategy that went to skill selection, but some of the knife combat skills are just devastating to watch which makes it well worth it! The skills are then represented by a tattoo on your arm that grows as your character learns new skills, it was a nice touch.

Speaking of knife combat, Far Cry 3 had one of the coolest melee mechanics I have seen in a while. Mixed with a number of skills from the different trees you could initiate some amazingly powerful attacks. I personally did most of my attacks with the takedown attacks because they were very stealthy and looked bad ass! My personal favorite included stabbing an enemy from behind the pulling out his knife and throwing it at another enemy…pure enjoyment!

The graphics in Far Cry 3 were quite spectacular! The open world tropical island was very realistic looking. The draw distance was very impressive considering the amount of details included on the island. The island even felt alive at points! The inclusion of small bright coloured birds that would flee when you got close to them really just helped draw you further into the game. The coolest graphical feature was the spreading of fire. This was first done in Far Cry 2, however it felt more natural in Far Cry 3; and by natural I mean completely wild and unpredictable. I learned very quickly not to go wild with fire base weapons, or not to blow up vehicles in areas with lots of foliage. The fire would spread and burn everything in its wake rather quickly, grass, tress, cars, buildings, scaffolding, you name it!

One thing that seriously lacked in FC3 was multiplayer. It had a online multiplayer and coop section, but they just didn’t feel up to par. The multiplayer felt very rushed and the execution of it just did not feel right. FC3 included a taunting feature at the end of each match, showed the top 3 players of the winning team surrounding the top player of the losing team. The MVP of the wining team the proceeds to beat the crap out of the losing MVP, while he is tied and has a bag over his head, with a number of moves you can pick in your player customization. This may have struck me the wrong way because it hit a bit close to home because of the areas I work in. One way or another it just seems a bit out of place.

The coop on the other hand was just boring. The missions were very linear and offered no options to clear the areas other than the single path In front of you. It is very much like putting 100s of enemies in an ally way with no were to run, then attacking them…I Personally did not finish the coop so maybe it got better, but from what I played I was very unimpressed!

All in all I think Far Cry 3 is an amazing single player game and is well worth picking up. You will not be disappointed!

NG Crew Top 5 Of 2012 – Dave’s List

2012 was an amazing year of games. Every year we think, “How can last year be topped?”, but it somehow seems to be topped every single year. With the next consoles just over the horizon, we are coming to the end of the Xbox 360 and PS3’s life cycle, with them both at 8 years old, it’s hard to see what 2013 will bring to the consoles as developers will be hard at work on new hardware. It will be an interesting year, one I am very much looking forward to, the major releases of the later year will be released on both consoles, see Call of Duty next. It’s a huge install base that can’t be ignored, 70 million strong for both the PS3 and 360.

Now, lets look back on 2012. These games in no particular order, were my top 5 games of the past year. Keep in mind, I did not have the time or money to play all the releases of the year, but I still plan on getting to some of the great games I’ve missed over the past year.

1. Borderlands 2

Oh, Borderlands, you had me at Claptrap. It’s the game I have spent most of my time with this year, and having come out in September, that was only 3 short months that I’ve blasted many of hours in. I get some of the complaints from people, it’s a hell of a lot like the first Borderlands. Sure, you have a good point. It is, but it’s so much more refined, and they really nailed the writing this time to take it to that next level. It doesn’t do anything revolutionary to the series, but what they did do, they got it so right, and it keeps you coming back for more and more. It’s the coop really, a few buds and I get online and do the raid bosses, or new DLC, it’s amazing how they just keep you coming back into their world. I love it! They are doing great things with the DLC this time around, with 2 pieces out already, and 2 more to come that we know of, the DLC adds so much more to the main story. Great challenges and new characters make everything so fresh to get into, and plus, MORE GUNS!! With the inclusion of the Mecromancer character, who knows what Gearbox could cook up with some great DLC characters!

2. Diablo 3

Diablo 3 was a great game that I constantly have in the back of my mind to get right back into the middle of that land. I am a huge fan of the series, and Diablo 3 just took what we knew of its classic gameplay and just improved it so well. The game is constantly evolving and the drop in, drop out coop was perfect. It made everything so streamlined to make it so easy to kill some monsters with some buddies. I know there were a lot of naysayers out there against it, but I thought Blizzard deserved my money.

3. Need For Speed: Most Wanted

Most Wanted was an amazing game. Taking some of the best elements from Burnout Paradise and blending them with the best elements of the Need For Speed franchise. In my review you can see I was a tad bit letdown with the single player portion of the game, which still was a blast, but it sure made up for it in its multiplayer. The multiplayer was amazing and seamless. It would create a playlist for you so you’re always in the action. Even the lobby system in the game was great. You never stop driving! The billboards and speed cameras were a great addition to the social aspect of the game as it always keeps you looking at the leader boards to stay atop of your friends.

4. Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3 just grabs you right away and takes you on a great ride. The story is great, even though it may drop the ball here and there, put it will pick you right back up. The island as a whole feels alive. From the animals just waiting to be hunted, to the many enemy outposts to take over. The little nooks and crannies you find all over the island are amazing and immerse you right into the world they have built. The couple of things I wish Ubisoft had taken more time to flesh out would be the coop and multiplayer modes. They had such potential they could have done with coop especially, but you’re left feeling letdown once you see what they have done. All in all, it’s one game I can’t put down for it’s amazing single player campaign.

5. Halo 4

343 Industries had a huge shoe to fill. There was doubt, excitement, fear. I wont lie, I was a little nervous now that Bungie was out of the question. What 343i delivered was an amazing package. The single-player was great and kept you on the edge of  your seat, and the muliplayer was top notch. I keep going back to it because it’s so solid. The controls are great and the progression system makes you want to just get that next level. What they did with the Spartan Ops was great. Keeping the story going on a weekly episode is a great idea, and well executed by them.  I am very excited to see what 343i will do with the next installment in the Halo franchise. Until then, Halo 4 will keep me occupied for a long time.

Honorable Mentions:

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

Forza Horizon