Far Cry 3 is a fun open world FPS that hits all the right notes. (Single player review only)
When you first fire up the game and begin a new file, you are shown a montage of scenes from the point of view of the protagonist, Jason Brody. We see him and his college friends living it up on a beautiful tropical island. However, we are soon shown that it's not what it seems. It turns out that all of the images that you saw were taken from Jason's phone and they are being shown to him in a cell by one of the game's antagonists, Vaas. Jason, his brothers and his friends have all been captured by pirates that plague the island. Their only destinies appear to be slavery or worse. However, it isn't long before Jason's older brother breaks out and leads him to safety. Sadly, his brother is shot by Vaas, leaving Jason alone. Jason is forced to flee into the woods from pursuing pirates. It isn't long before he is taken in by a member of a local warrior tribe. From here, the story unfolds into a tale of rescuing Jason's friends and eventually trying to liberate the island from pirates and worse.
The story sounds promising enough, in theory. However, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. In the beginning of the game, Jason is a nobody who has never shot a gun and its repulsed by simply hunting and skinning an animal. As the game goes on, he becomes more and more vicious, feeling at home in the jungle, a predator in his own right. It sounds like he would have an interesting character arc, but, for some reason, he doesn't. One minute, he's complaining to a tribe member that he's never shot a gun before, and, an hour later, he is killing pirates left and right. Sadly, the protagonist isn't the only disappointing aspect of the story. The other characters, like Jason's friends, are extremely shallow, which gives us almost no reason to really want to save them other than the fact that the game tells us to. The only really "good" character is Vaas, and that's because we are given brief explanations of his past. That and the fact that his voice acting and motion capture work is so well done makes him a good villain. However, he doesn't get nearly enough screen time. He is absent from much of the game.
And really, that's the biggest issue with the story. There is so much absent from the game that the events in the story feel incredibly disconnected. We are given almost no back story for any of the characters, which makes them simple shells despite their good voice work and facial animation. Every major event in the story just feels like it was thrown together haphazardly. This is a shame to me, because there was room for so much more. If they had delved into the psyche of characters like Jason and Vaas more than they did, the game could have had something truly special on its hands. Instead we are given a story that acts like it has something to say, but, in all reality, it's practically mute.
While the story is quite disappointing, the visuals and sound are not. The game is a real powerhouse, showing off huge landscapes and a bright, vibrant world. There is something truly special about water skiing as the sun goes down, watching the light reflect off the water as you zoom along at full speed to your next destination. The sounds are just as great as the visuals, too. As I mentioned before, most of the characters have excellent voice work (with the exception of Jason, who just sounds whiny a lot of the time). The other noises, like tearing across the country side in a four wheeler, gunshots firing off in the distance, a tiger pouncing on you and more are a real treat to the ears. It's not uncommon to want to just stop walking and look around at the various sights, taking in all of the atmosphere that was lovingly put into the game.
Of course, if you do that, you are liable to get attacked by a bear, a cassowary, a komodo dragon or one of the other various types of animals present in this game. Far Cry 3 boasts an impressive ecosystem filled with the randomness you would expect in a truly untamed wilderness. Animals never reappear in the same spot twice, giving the game a true air of unpredictability. You could be walking along, duck into a house to nab a treasure chest only to be attacked by a wild dog you didn't see. This makes the game much more fun to explore than it would be normally.
Of course, there is more to the island than just the animals. The island has no shortage of things for you to do and places for you to go. The variety is pretty good, ranging from taking on hunting missions where you must kill certain animals in certain ways to racing against the clock to bring supplies to a tribal camp. Each one is just different enough so that you're not likely to get bored with them.
Two of the most prominent activities, crucial to exploration, are Radio Towers and Outpost Liberation. With Radio Towers, you must ascend one to reach the jamming device on it. These are simple but fun and addicting little first person platforming challenges. While many games get first person platforming wrong, Far Cry 3 makes it just challenging enough so you must think about what to do, but not so bad that you'll want to throw your controller. When you destroy a jamming device, you can see more of the map, and you'll usually gain access to new guns for free. From there, you can choose whether or not to liberate outposts. These are enemy bases that you need to take care of in order to create quick travel stations.
Arguably, Outposts show off what Far Cry 3 does best, and that's giving you the choices when tackling an objective. For instance, you can attach a silencer to a rifle and snipe out the pirates one by one, waiting for them to be isolated from one another. Or, if the base has a caged predator, you can shoot out the door on it and release the animal, setting it loose on unsuspecting foes. Then, while they're distracted, you can sneak in and disable the alarms, which prevent reinforcements from coming. Or, you can go in and do your best to take down each enemy in bloody fashion with your machete. Or, finally, you can go in guns blazing, working your way from cover point to cover point and eliminating the opposition as they come at you. Each option is just as good as another, really allowing you to choose how you play. I personally would try to take out the enemies silently, since later in the game reinforcements become really tough to deal with. Of course, that's not to say the gunplay is bad. Far from it. As mentioned above, the guns have great sound effects, which make them feel very powerful and fun to shoot. However, to me, using a takedown never got old.
Another strong point of the game is the sense of progression in all facets of it. The most obvious one is with the Tatau, which is a tattoo that Jason gets early on. Essentially, every time you level up, you can choose what new ability or benefit you get, which adds more ink to the tattoo on your arm. In the beginning, they are rather boring upgrades. Typical FPS tropes like cooking grenades, sliding and reloading while running are available. However, later on, you gain some truly awesome new moves. For instance, there is a takedown maneuver that allows you to knife an enemy, then take his knife and throw it at another foe. The fairly steady stream of new moves makes exploration and mission completion exciting, since you'll get new moves to add to your repertoire, adding further depth to the combat.
Exploration also pays off in the form of money, of course. With money, you can purchase upgrades for your guns, allowing for deep but simple customization. The game even gives you a set of cool spray paint to add to your weapons if you so desire. It's quite fun and addicting to gain more cash for your weapons. But, in the beginning of the game, you can carry a limited supply of everything. This is where hunting comes into play. With animal skin gained from the animals you hunt, you can craft new pieces of equipment that allow you to carry more resources like more ammo, more guns or more money.
The campaign for the game is no slouch, either. While the story missions aren't quite as free form as things like liberating outposts, they are quite fun and various in their own right. They have a good variety. Some missions are exciting, explosive vehicles chase sequences where subtlety is thrown to the wind. Others are exciting in a different way, such as one where you must escape a collapsing cave or one where you need to sneak in undercover to infiltrate the enemy camp. The missions are consistently exciting and rewarding right to the very end.
A game of this size and ambition isn't perfect, though. There are glitches present in the game, ranging from mildly annoying (like getting caught up on a piece of scenery in a vehicle) to incredibly frustrating (losing all of your ammo and weapons, forcing you to buy more, which costs a small fortune). While they aren't too common, they can be annoying when they occur. I personally didn't have too many problems, but they were frustrating when they happened.
There are a few other elements that could have been better thought out. For instance, the hunting missions. While most of them aren't too bad, some of them are more frustrating than fun. For instance, one has you taking down a pack of rabid dogs with an RPG. While it sounds fun in theory, the dogs would almost always run away, forcing me to restart because they either disappeared or I was too dumb to find them. You may also experience weird ones, like enemies just totally disappearing since the time of day changed. As I said, the glitches aren't too bad, but they can be frustrating when they happen.
But any mistakes the game makes are more than forgivable. Despite the weak story and the occasional glitch, far Cry 3 is a very fun open world FPS. The constant character progression, the open ended gameplay, variety of activities, exciting campaign and great production values more than make up for any shortcomings the game has.
To sum it all up, let me share a story I have about the game. I was simply driving along a road, when a jeep filled with pirates pulled up alongside me. We began to drive into each other, trying to run the other off the road. I won, sending them off into the woods, where they hit a rock and flipped the vehicle. Three of them died on impact, but the fourth survived. He got out of the car, and ran to attack me. Just then, a nearby leopard pounced on him, doing my work for me. That is the kind of time you're in for if you decide to dive into far Cry 3's world. So long and thanks for reading.