Far Cry 3 was released on December 4th 2012 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows. It is a first person shooter role playing game. The game takes place on the Rook Islands, a semi-fictional place based on a set of islands off the coast of Papau New Guinea. Far Cry 3 was nominated for 18 best of E3 awards. It features an in depth single player story, an online competitive multiplayer, and a cooperative side story that can be played with up to 4 players.
Story - 9
You are Jason Brody, a young man on vacation with his friends, girlfriend and two brothers. You tour Asia and then decide to do something a little more risky. You and your friends take a plane out over some islands in the pacific and skydive. As you land, you find are abducted by a group of human trafficking pirates. Your older brother, who is ex-military, try and escape. Vaas, the leader of the pirate band, catches you and shoots your brother. He tells you to run, giving your a 30 second head start. Then Vaas sets his band of pirates on you. You run for your life, across a rope bridge, but a helicopter catches you off guard and shoots the bridge out. You hang on for your life, but fall to your apparent death.
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| Jason Brody, The Protagonist of Far Cry 3 |
A few days later you awake in a small village. A man stands over you. He explains how he found you, and tells you how you've earned the village's respect. The village is under the control of the Rakyat, a tribe of warriors trying to take the islands back from the pirates. You have been idolized by the Rakyat as the only person to see the inside of Vaas' camp and live. The Rakyat teach you how to fight, and start you on the path of the warrior. You vow to take revenge on Vaas and rescue your remaining brother, friends and your girlfriend.
Along the way you uncover that the human trafficking ring is larger than it appears, and the story gets deeper. The writers do a great job at keeping the game fresh, however the last quarter of the game feels rushed. One of the great highlights of the story is the inner battle within Jason. As the game progresses Jason has trouble deciding deciding if he wants to return to his old life, or continue on the path of the warrior. This leads to a decision at the end of the game made by the player. This decision can lead to two different endings, of which some people have found disappointing. Personally, I thought the ending linked to staying on the island wasn't well thought through, while the other was enjoyable for me.
Video - 8.5
Warning: This video contains strong language.
Far Cry 3 puts forth some extremely beautiful visuals. The jungle landscape is extremely vibrant, and the character designs are very well done. Also, a few times throughout the story there are times when you are "high" on something. It usually involves some bad mushrooms, a potion the Rakyat give you, or being drugged in some way shape or form. These sequences are bizarre, but downright beautiful. So why did I give it an 8.5? Well, there's some significant flaws in the aesthetics.
There are some significant glitches with the graphics. Sometimes I saw enemy vehicles disappear from my very eyes leaving people floating in the air, driving what appears to be imaginary cars. While this could have been attributed to the main character's slow decent into madness, or whatever toxins were still in his system, sadly its a glitch. Also, in some cinematics the character's facial expressions don't match the emotion they are trying to get across. These are rare occurrences, but the glitches were quite obtrusive when they appeared.
Audio - 8.5
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| Vaas' Voice Actor Getting Into Character |
There isn't any big names on the voice acting cast of Far Cry 3. However, the voice acting is very well done. When there is a lack of emotion on a characters face, you can still feel the appropriate emotion through their voice. The sounds of the animals are also really well done and can be legitimately terrifying from time to time. On the other hand, the music wasn't really that memorable. There was only one specific song that stood out to me. "Make it Bun Dem" by Skrillex and Damian Marley (Bob Marley's son). I have to say, Reggae mashed up with Dubstep is oddly appealing.
Gameplay - 8
Overall Far Cry plays like your average shooter. The only thing new are stealth take downs. If you sneak up behind an enemy you can use various skills do take them out quietly, while making you feel awesome. Some have you stab someone take their pistol and shoot up to 4 more enemies, others have you execute an enemy, pull the pin on one of his grenades, and kick him back into a group of enemies. They're fun and they look cool, but they don't really add anything to the game.
Frequently, you can do side quests like capturing enemy outposts, hunting exotic animals, or assassinating enemy officers. Though these are extremely monotonous, and there's not a whole lot that changes between each quest. (Have I told you the definition of insanity?) Fortunately, I found driving around to the various locations that those side quests were to be fun.
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| Far Cry 3's Co-op Cast. (left to right: Tisha the ex-soldier, Leonard the crooked cop Callum the Scottish thug, and Mikhail the Russian hit man) |
I have played some of the cooperative side story, but none of the competitive multiplayer yet. The co-op mode disappointed me. It has a ton of bugs when played online. So far out of the 5 missions I played through, twice the game didn't update objectives which forced a restart. And so far, I've completed the same mission twice, and not once did I receive the in game rewards, or trophy for completion. The overall story for the co-op is interesting, and the multiplayer gameplay is fun, but the bugs have really put me off from playing it.
Far Cry 3 is a fantastic game, and a lot of fun, but it still has a lot of bugs to be fixed. That being said, I give it an 8.5. I highly recommend this game, though only for mature gamers (the game is rated M for Mature after all). But really, the game is extremely violent and gory, it has tons of bad language, substance abuse, and the potential for 2 sex scenes and at least 3 scenes with unavoidable female nudity. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME FOR YOUR KIDS. I say this not because I think they'll become killers, drug users, or swear like a sailor, but because this sort of material is not appropriate for someone under the age of 18. Some games are rated M, but if done by movie ratings would be closer to PG-13. This game is rated M for a reason, and would be rated R if in a theatrical format.
I hope you enjoyed my review of Far Cry 3, feel free to leave a comment requesting other games for me to play through and review. Don't forget to subscribe to receive email updates whenever I make a new post.
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