Goes downhill fast...
The beginning of the game is sweet, the story is plausible and the hate you have towards your captors is justified because of the terrible things that happen to you and you family and friends. The graphics are lush and the wildlife prolific, a living breathing world in which to explore and kill.
You waste a bit of time exploring, skinning a few dragons and tigers and the like, then get stuck into the missions, here is where the problems start. Sometimes you have no idea what the objective is until it flashes up moments before you fail the mission, objectives are unclear and the path unknown. Don't worry too much because even failing a mission mid-point just moves you onto the next checkpoint, WTF? The various side missions are a joke, with various villagers wanted menial and trivial jobs done, boredom ensues. Even after killing half the island your buddies spew the same old line to "check the bulletin board" for another set of menial tasks. Hunting missions usually just require you to have enough medical supplies to heal when dealing with leaping monsters. None of the hunting missions provide any deal of real enjoyment. Then the assassin jobs raise their ugly head, having to knife someone surrounded by snipers is a joke, sit back in the bush with a silenced sniper and pick off all his buddies then run up and knife the guy, inspired...not really.
Ok...back to the story and boy it gets worse, quick time events spoil any game and this is a FPS first and foremost, one particular end battle will have you tearing out your hair as your forced to listen to the same dialogue repeated over and over till you learn the buttons to finish him off....what a joke.
The AI simply relies on numbers to harden the difficulty, throwing massive numbers of troops at you while you "search" blindly for the next objective point, you can't take any friendly AI with you although you have liberated half the f#cking island and saved hundreds of the b@stards! Again, have enough medi packs and hope the enemies don't keep respawning indefinitely. The second island is a complete bore compared to the richness of the first, so the game starts out with a bang and goes downhill fast.
I really enjoyed the first 10 hours or so, exploring the islands, diving sunken boats and wrestling with gators in a lush tropical paradise. It's only when you sink your teeth into the main story and the missions that the grating problems arise. Quick time events in a FPS? Oh my lord who's idea was that? Time limits do not, I REPEAT DO NOT, add tension to a game, it's a cheap way to try and develop tension within a game and it's a lazy technique at best. The enemies range from stupid on a stick to eagle eye superman, sometimes they are the most stupid while others pin point your position 3 hills away whilst your hidden in a bush, consistency flies out the window. It's hard to say the stealth is great when it simply doesn't work, it all comes down to what the AI decides to do at any given point in time....
I have gotten to the end of the game, I haven't finished it mind you and I doubt I will, the last 5 hours of the game have been so tedious and frustrating it's hard to muster up the enthusiasm to have another go. My controller has been threatened a few time with violence and it's only the cost of a replacement that has saved it's sorry hide. How can we be expected to swallow the fact that all the skills you build up during the game are forgotten for a quick button mash/instant fail boss encounter? I unlocked the run/reload but during one final chases it didn't work, slowed me down to reload everytime...it's like the game just wanted to be harder...grrrrrrr. I'm sorry but I have grown to hate the game, the frustration, the stupid missions, the stupid AI, the monotonous grind to get anywhere only to do the same sh#t for another skill point that doesn't work when the game doesn't want it to.
It starts so wonderfully but falls so hard, broken missions are inexcusable in a AAA title, so it gets a D- for it's final exam...looks good on paper but all the answers are wrong or made up...