In Far Cry 3, you play as Jason Brody, a young American who escapes from the pirates who kidnapped him & his friends whilst on vacation, and now he fights back to rescue them. The story is promising at first but in the end becomes pretty weak despite its attempts to branch out. We're introduced to a menacing villain and interest is raised in seeing how our protagonist Jason will react to his circumstances. However, nothing much ever comes from the story. Jason develops rather too quickly. When he's first handed a gun he remarks how he's never used one but shortly after he guns down his enemies without concern or lack of skill. Also, it's pretty unbelievable how he is able to demolish entire outposts full of violent pirates seeing as just a little while ago he was inexperienced in killing or shooting. Of course it is the player who controls him in the end but they are still his actions and the story is tends to shy away from how he reacts and feels about his first few kills. His later sentiments feel tacked on to add some dramatic depth to the story such as when he explains how he is starting to enjoy killing. It works in showing his contrast to his friends but it is a bit cliched and comes from nowhere. Unfortunately it serves as one of the few insights into his character. The antagonist Vaas is the best character here, but he's vastly underutilized. He's a great and terrifying antagonist that gives you thrills which is also thanks to the terrific voice acting by Michael Mando. An effective character as well, though, unfortunately, we have seen all of his scenes before in the E3 showcases for the game. If you've watched what has been shown, then there will be no surprises with his character in the game, which is pretty disappointing considering the mass potential his character holds and the intrigue that was built through those showcases. However to be fair, his actions in the game are imaginative and his monologues unforgettable. The rest of the characters are mostly adequate to lame. The minor villain Buck has some amusing dark humor but Jason's friends have uninteresting personalities and don't really motivate you to care about them as Jason does. Along with various tired tribal cliches, the story doesn't come together as a strong whole despite some good characters. The protagonist is weak, his motivations weaker (for some cases).
Though the story is severely lacking, the gameplay is outstanding and always rewarding. Most of the time, the game will face Jason off against waves of enemies and the most enjoyable examples of this comes from raiding enemy outposts. There are many enemy outposts scattered throughout the vast islands and clearing them is not always a simple feat. The enemies may trigger alarms to call backup or being careless may get you killed as well so it it best to have a smart approach. There is always the possibility of releasing a captive creature on them or simply disabling the alarm and then going in stealth to take your enemies out. Thanks to the weapon system, you're able to carry four weapons (considering you have upgraded your equipment) which can be shaped to suit the exact approach you want or you could have significantly different weapons tailored to counter all scenarios you may face. You could carry a sniper rifle and/or mechanical bow to pick enemies from a distance as well as a heavy machine gun in case you get overwhelmed by numbers. The weapon system is very flexible and lets you shape your arsenal to your liking which in turn makes combat always enjoyable. Constantly changing your weapons can change how you play and along with the variety of ways to approach the outposts, each encounter can become different from the last. Once an outpost is captured, new side missions are opened up, such as bounty hunting or straight-up animal hunting, with the latter being more beneficial to your arsenal progression. Upgrading your equipment will result in Jason being able to carry more weapons/explosives, extra ammunition, more syringes (health packs), etc. and hunting and skinning animals is the key to this. Certain upgrades require a certain animal's skin and you'll get plenty of chances to hunt them down in the vast world that Far Cry 3 is set in. The islands look great and you'll encounter various fun ways to traverse the island. Whether using a jeep, jet-ski or wing-suit, it's always great to explore the world and pleasant to look at as well. Humans aren't the only danger to Jason on the island, its the animals who can lead to unpredictable and life-threatening encounters. There is quite of an impressive range of animals too ranging from tigers to cassowaries. While collecting animal skins allow you upgrade your equipment, gaining experience levels you up and allows you to obtain skills to help you in combat or to increase Jason's stats. By the time you've collected all the skills and upgrades, Jason becomes a walking tank and the game is of little challenge. There are tons of collectibles to find, legendary animals to hunt, radio towers to discover and many more though there is little motive to find them aside from the trophies/achievements tied with them. The letters of the lost collectibles do have a story within them which may appeal to some but the relics on the other hand have little appeal.
The main missions of the game will have you doing various tasks, such as sneaking into the enemy ranks or attempting a rescue. Once in a while you will face a boss, but the transition from usual combat to boss fight is jarring. Jason will be taken to a surreal, dreamlike state and a QTE will start up to defeat the boss. It results in some spectacular kills but this unexplained transition of setting really works against the game, despite how good it looks. With the first two boss fights it seemed that Jason was actually dreaming and it doesn't really send the message that you have defeated a boss but rather that you have pretended that you did. Only after when other characters remarked on the death of the boss Jason faced that I realized that in fact Jason really did defeat him. I did feel silly for not realizing this but the setting change did not make any sense at all when reflecting upon it. Aside from single-player, there are a few multiplayer modes to try out as well. There's online versus modes but it is the co-op mode that reigns supreme. You and three other players can join up to take on the human enemies throughout the island and it is often a fun time. There's a story tied to it but it is nothing memorable. Rather it's just purely enjoyable to fight alongside others against the game's enemies and every level throws in a competition. Be it racing with jet-skis or destroying the most boats with RPGs within a limited time, it is frantic fun with a scoreboard to boost the compete. With the right players, co-op is a blast and competing against teammates was a good addition to the mode. Bolstered by strong and fun gameplay, Far Cry 3 is a great game though it could have been superb with a stronger story.