I just recently decided to play Far Cry 3 finally and I understand the massive hype behind this game and I get why it has a classic status on it’s name and a huge cult following. Some people would definitely say that this third installment is one of the best in the series. Still, as I played it in 2021 Far Cry 3 isn’t a flawless masterpiece.
Far Cry 3 has an iconic setting where I am stranded on a massive tropical island trying to save my friends from crazy pirates and ambitious human traffickers with huge private militaries. And it really works! The setting of this game and where it takes place is just unforgettable and although Far Cry 3 has a quite big map it still, even on today's standards, is fun, entertaining and there's lots of things to explore. The Rook island as it is called in the game, is an amusing place to see and graphically it holds to this day. The graphics aren’t wonderful or total garbage. The game can look surprisingly good sometimes and I think the graphics are still good to this day, but I don't know how long into the future it will look as good as it still looks. Far cry 3 has some issues on fps which can lead to some frame drops. I don’t know what affects this but I have a pretty new self-assembled computer with good hardware and I had like 80 fps at best. Averagely it jumped from 50 to 60 fps and on rare occasions it collapsed to slightly over 30 fps. So it doesn’t run well even though it is a 9-year-old game. But in the end it didn’t affect my experience too much. Speaking about graphics, I really admire the game's art style in the menus. It gives the game a unic feeling to it. Also Far Cry 3 has some really great licensed soundtracks that blast while I am burning fields full of drugs or shooting bad guys with a machine gun from a helicopter.
Far Cry 3 has maybe one of the most iconic villains ever in gaming history. The crazy, murderous and unpredictable leader of the pirates on the island, Vaas Montenegro. Vaas is arguably the best character in this game and I can say that everyone knows that. I just love every second when Vaas enters the frame and he really gives this uneasy feeling that I am not safe and anything can happen to me at any moment. What makes Vaas even more iconic is his voice actor Michael Mando who really brings life to this character with amazing acting. But in the end I really don’t enjoy what the developers decided to do with Vaas, completely destroying his potential. All the other characters are just super generic and forgettable. I personally didn't even care about these characters and if someone dies or not. Mediocre is the best word that I can describe them. Even the main guy, Jason Brody, whose name I barely remembered, is just a mediocre protagonist who gives no emotions at all after the intro. All the other side characters just kind of are there, there's nothing much to say about that rather than Vaas casts a huge shadow over all the other characters. Character development is also nonexistent and at the best, minimum. There is some development on Jason Brody because he turns from this basic rich party-kid into a merciless killing machine but all the other characters have no development.
As I talked earlier about the setting that lays a foundation on the game's story is actually more iconic than the whole story. In my opinion the story is slightly above mediocre and that’s because I was never invested in the story rather on the gameplay itself. The story of Far Cry 3 has a great foundation where to build but the story remains between garbage and masterpiece. I personally never cared about the story and how it unfolds but if there's something positive about it, it must be the ending. Without spoiling anything I really liked, and was really surprised when the game actually had multiple endings which I can choose from. That gives the game instantly much more replayability and power to the player and his decisions.
What I think makes this game really worth playing is the gameplay itself and the mechanics. It is just pure fun to capture enemy outposts guns blazing or like a ghost killing everyone without anyone even noticing anything, and liberate enemy controlled radio towers which work as these mini puzzles in the game. I personally didn’t care about the side missions because they were basically really boring fetch quests where you find something to someone or go help these random natives for whatever reason. Only side missions and quest lines that I really liked were the “hitman” quests. Where you are given a certain cash prize to kill some pirate leader or private military officer. You can also approach those missions how you like and to me, because I like stealth games, these missions were lots of fun. There are some minor bugs and glitches that can break the immersion but nothing too ground breaking. All the guns feel good and are entertaining to shoot bad guys at. Also the gun selection in Far Cry 3 is inclusive and there are lots of different guns to choose from, from assault rifles to compound bows to rpg’s. You can build your own gun selection to match your playstyle. If you like to go in like a ghost you can pick for example a bow and some silenced snipers and pistols. If you like to go in guns blazing you can pick light machine guns, grenade launchers and shotguns. Far Cry 3 really lets you choose your own playstyle and how you like to approach things which again gives power and freedom to the player. There are some flaws of course as well. The enemies can feel sometimes extremely dumb and blind. I can sneak under their nose and they won't still spot me which destroys the immersion in my opinion. I can not understand why I am not able to carry dead bodies in this game!? If I kill someone his body just stays there and I can’t hide it. Which is just dumb and I don’t understand why they didn’t add this mechanic to the game. Nevertheless the gameplay is truly addictive and it is fun to grind through all the skills and upgrade my gear in this game.
In conclusion I say Far Cry 3 is definitely a must play title if you like first person shooter games. But I can warn you that this game uses its own launcher and if you buy this on steam it wont start from steam, it starts from some ubisoft launcher which gave me some problems. If you still haven’t played this game in 9 years, like me, go and buy this game from a sale and give this game a shot especially if you have played the other Far Cry titles. It is definitely worth in sales because i payed about 5 euros of this game if I remember correctly and after I finished the story, upgraded all the skills, captured all the outposts and radio towers and upgraded all my equipment to max in 27 hours of play time, I would say this game is worth your money even if you pay 20 euros of this game. Far Cry 3 really is a huge classic and I think all gamers who love first person adventure shooters should play this game sometime in their lives. Even though it is not a perfect game it still is a fun and memorable experience.