Far Cry 3 Review

You must have seen in those Discovery or National Geographic channels how a tiger hunts its prey. It walks with grace and poise, slowly and steadily, and as soon as its target notices and starts running, the chase begins and ends up with the tiger usually pouncing on it and grabbing its neck.

In Far Cry 3’s lush jungles, you will witness this event. You will also witness a tiger killing off a bunch of goons guarding an outpost, but that just makes your job easier, doesn’t it, since you just have to pick any remaining guys off. And the tiger too, don’t forget that.

While the game’s predecessor was a highly polarizing game among fans, its sequel won’t suffer the same fate because there are hardly any annoyances due to bewildering gameplay design that plagued Far Cry 2.

You are Jason Brody, an american, trapped on an island where two warlords and their goons reign supreme, and they are quite dangerous too as you will know very early in the game. In a year where antagonists were far better than protagonists–this game included–one has to wonder why it has to be this way.

See, Brody is the very definition of a generic character, from his voice to almost everything he does in the game, but since this is a first person shooter, that’s negated a bit. Lucky for him, huh? The game is in stark contrast to Far Cry 2 where the game showed you not to get on the bad side of Africa. But in way, it felt a lot more unique than this game where the entire map is one gigantic island, and haven’t we seen that before, in like, numerous games out there? OK, not numerous, but Crysis comes to mind.

Brody and his friends are scattered, scared, and it’s up to him to side with the natives of the island and gain skills to defeat Vaas–the superb antagonist of the game. Vaas is someone who you definitely don’t want to mess with, because yeah, he’s not someone who you can really call a human being, you know, compassion and all that. He doesn’t have it.

But you know why you want to play this game, right? It’s the open-world nature that makes it so appealing. And that’s also the thing why you will love the game. As soon as you get control of your character, it’s recommended to buy the Recurve bow. Yes, bow. Fully upgradeable bow, not to mention other weapons as well. You are Rambo in a jungle, now roleplay this way, and you’ll know what I mean. Far Cry 3 is a damn fun game.

The game running on consoles is a mighty fine achievement in itself, considering the scale of the game and the amount of things you are able to do. However, the visuals aren’t something that will win a lot of awards, because it’s clear they have tried to optimise the game on the consoles and a lot of things had to be cut. Sure the PC version is the best one visually, but the console version is no slouch either because the game is made with the latter in mind.

I always think that in open world games, the amount of side things to do are sometimes just put there for the sake of buffing up the content, giving the player an extra incentive other than the main missions. That leads to repetition and you reach a point where you become bored of the game and just finish the main missions to end the game. It’s what I do in most open world games, the excitement fizzles out after a while. However, that’s not something developers can change, really, because of limitations of consoles.

It’s when you lose the motivation to all the side thing that counts. Far Cry 3 will keep you busy for a while because there are a lot of things to do in the game, ranging from hunting to clearing outposts. There’s an extensive stealth mechanic in the game which is very well implemented especially compared to the last game where enemies could spot you from afar.

Here, you are armed with an unlimited supply of stones for distraction (it’s a videogame after all), and a solid crouch mechanic whose potency you can increase by getting the specific skills. For example, crouching faster and making less sound while doing that. The main highlight here is your machete kill, where you stab a guard brutally in stealth mode to dispatch of him unnoticed. You can also chain such takedowns via upgrading your skills.

Skills require XP and I don’t think I need to tell you how to acquire them, right? There are a lot of offensive to defense skills in the game, unlocking them also magically creates tattoo on your body. That tattoo mechanic is a part of main story so you will understand once you play those missions. 

The best thing about the game is the unscripted nature of it. You are harmlessly vaulting into an area where a guard spots you and opens fire. That attracts attentions from the other guards who were earlier merrily sitting by the fire. A bunch of drunk guys with molotovs charge at you, setting you on fire while you frantically try to set if off.

You succeed and jump off a cliff down in the river only to spot a crocodile. After escaping the crocodile, you end up in a desolate area and try to heal yourself only to hear a growl. It’s a tiger. It charges at you as you try to jump back in the river to escape it but it pounces on you resulting in a button mashing QTE.

After you break free, you jump in the river and the tiger follows you, and meets its end. You are like “lol wtf” as you just try to grasp what just happened in the last few minutes.

Far Cry 3 delivers that experience and is a pinnacle of open world unscripted games, where the game gives you cool toys like bows and heavy weaponry to create your own experience as you wander around rook island.

There is an in-depth hunting mechanic too, but those are mostly required for increasing your weapon or ammo capacity. In other words, you gotta do it. There are a lot of things in Far Cry 3 that will complete amaze you, and considering a meaty single-player mode where it will last you 15-20 hours, it is something that is completely a value for money.

Add in the multiplayer mode, where you get access to a bunch of maps which are quite Uncharted-esque in nature, and a complete upgrade system that would make any Call of Duty proud, you have a game that is not only offers a lot of fun but also a lot of content.

Sometimes, you may be bored doing the side things, but if you are, you can just jump on a hand-glider and fly away in peace. Far Cry 3 is a fantastic open-world game, filled content, and offers you something that very few games this gen have–a fun unscripted experience.

[9/10]