Far Cry 3 is a game so engaging it could virtually drive you insane.
You are Jason Brody and with your friends you take a holiday on a remote island and decide to go on a skydiving trip only to end up being hunted by a pirate leader named Vaas, who works for an equally, if not, more psychotic Hoyt Volker, who is probably the most ruthless slave trader you'll ever cross paths with. You're held captive along with your friends at first but with the help of your brother Grant, you break out of the cage Vaas had you in but only to escape into a wilderness you must learn to cultivate and thrive in, or else survival is futile. After your escape from the pirate camp, you encounter a man named Dennis who introduces you to the ways of the Rakyat tribe. You will slowly become a part of this tribe as you grow with the island and become one of the warriors who fight against the oppressing pirates. As you progress through the islands challenges you will have to free your captive friends from the grasp of Vaas' insanity, possibly at the cost of your own. Jason Brody is young, has a very adventurous personality and is talented in adventurous sports. He starts off as being a little naïve and panicked but grows into someone who becomes intuitive, brave and often calm. With most protagonists who don't have any military and survival training, they are thrown into an environment that they must learn to thrive in and usually don't enjoy the situations they're in, but with Jason this is a different matter that Ubisoft do well to demonstrate as he grows into a warrior who enjoys killing to a point that it disturbs his friends and makes you question what exactly he's fighting for. Eventually Jason himself notices this and thinks himself a "monster" but also a changed man. To start off with you might see Jason as some typical naïve party boy but his character grows on you as you play, especially due to the attachment and protective nature he displays towards his friends and family, but this may change towards the end of the game.
Vaas Montenegro is unlike any antagonist I've ever seen. Ubisoft did an amazing job to portray this crazed and troubled pirate leader. He is extremely violent, unpredictable, dangerous and downright psychotic. Vaas wasn't always like this though; his addiction to drugs and thirst for power and wealth, also promised by Hoyt, pushed him towards insanity. One of the most memorable and noticeable depictions of Vaas' insanity, was his very own definition of insanity (*NOTE THIS QUOTE MAY CONTAIN OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE*): "Did I ever tell you what the definition of insanity is? Insanity is doing the exact same **** thing over and over again, expecting **** to change. That is crazy. The first time somebody told me that, I don't know, I thought they were bull****ting me so, boom, I shot him. The thing is, okay... he was right. And then I started seeing everywhere I looked. Everywhere I looked, all these **** pricks, everywhere I looked, doing the exact same **** thing, over and over and over and over again. Thinking 'this time, it's gonna be different. No, no, no, please! This time it's gonna be different.' I am sorry; I don't like the way… you are looking at me! Okay? You have a **** problem in your head? Do you think I'm bull****ting you? Do you think I am lying? **** you! Okay. **** YOU! It's okay man. I'm gonna chill, hermano. I'm gonna chill. The thing is... All right, the thing is: I killed you once already. And it's not like I am **** crazy. It's okay. It's like water under the bridge. Did I ever tell you the definition... of insanity?" His insanity was then further emphasised when he kicked a stone brick, tied to a rope, which was tied to your legs into a Cenote for you to drown in. To top it off with Vaas', the voice acting for his character is just outstanding and really brings out his character to make him very believable and to a point where you would never want to meet someone like this in real life. Hoyt Volker the main antagonist of the game, again unlike any other. If you fear Vaas then you best not even think about Hoyt. He is twice as sadistic, twice as unpredictable, twice as dangerous, twice as violent, and twice as psychotic as Vaas. For a man who maintains a calm manner, he is extremely mentally unstable. Hoyt has a thirst and hunger to outdo his father who was a brutal mining boss, forcing Hoyt to often go to the extreme to a point where he became the head of a pirate consortium, by killing the original boss in front of his family. He currently runs his own private army of mercenaries known as the Privateers and keeps his base of operations mainly in the Rook Islands. He is portrayed as a ruthless man, who enjoys executing innocent people and a man who despises the islands natives to a point which he ordered his men to kill any natives on site. Hoyt has made himself someone, which you would have to be as equally insane, in order to kill him.
Citra Talugmai, another character who plays a big part in Jason's growth on the island. A leader of the Rakyat tribe, she is viewed as the goddess of warriors by her tribe, a woman who aches for power and to bring her tribe to its former glory. She will help you throughout the game by giving you missions and becoming a valuable ally. At times she will make you question her mental stability, although this isn't much of a surprise considering she is Vaas' sister. She has a mysterious aura about her, which keeps you intrigued and infatuated but her beauty is almost as deadly as she is.
When you look at Far Cry 1 & 2 then at 3, you almost feel that they are somewhat different games, and this is mainly due to the effort Ubisoft has put into making this a work of art. If you didn't like Far Cry 2 very much then all will be forgiven as a lot of the issues in 2 are not present in number 3. The environment is just absolutely stunning and breathtaking. Both visually and in terms of how the world thrives. The way the world interacts with itself is just outstanding and makes you wonder how Ubisoft managed to achieve this and at times even makes you wonder if they did some of the things in the game on purpose or if it's just something that happened and worked so well they decided to keep it. After escaping Vaas you wake up in a hut, to find Dennis finishing a Tatau (a tribal type tattoo) which is an important element of the game. As you progress through the game you will earn experience points from killing enemies, hunting, finding treasures, relieving outposts of pirates or mercenaries and among other things which allows you to level up and unlock more of the Tatau. You can pick a particular class to follow depending on your play style to start off with, although you will eventually unlock all of the Tatau. The classes consist of the Heron (for long range takedowns and mobility), the Shark (for assault takedowns and healing) and the Spider (for stealth takedowns and survival). Either way you choose the game is catered to suit both the stealth ninjas and the berserking maniacs and should you find yourself following a particular path, you can still survive off either tactic, but keep in mind you may lack skills from a certain class to achieve the opposing play style. Fortunately if you don't want to put all of your eggs into one basket, you can have a mix of different skills from different classes. Certain skills will not only provide you with passive effects on the character but also skills that can be initiated in certain scenarios. An example of this is when you are following the stealthy path and want to use stealth takedowns. Normally in a scenario where you're on a ledge above an enemy or below an enemy on a ledge, without certain skills you'd be forced to sneak up behind them to use a stealth takedown, assuming you unlocked it prior. As you unlock more of the Tatau, you can choose skills that allow you to perform stealth takedowns from certain positions in the environment. Skills like 'death from above' allow you to drop down on an enemy and land on their head with your knife or machete, to "help" break the fall. You can even unlock a skill called 'dual death from above' which allows you to jump down on two enemies in a stealth kill, and of course, having two bodies to help break the fall is better than one. The best part of skill usage in the game is when you start stringing takedowns together that aren't even part of a chain and this is where Ubisoft step it up a bit. There is nothing like stalking a group of pirates and running up behind one to stealth kill them and instantly pressing a key to initiate a knife throw takedown on an enemy near him, then sprinting up to another who only just noticed what's going on and using a takedown on him and using the gunslinger takedown to pull out his pistol to finish off the last enemy who's near him. This play style in addition with using the bow and arrow gives the player a sense of feeling that survival is a must. Once you get the hang of things like these you practically become an unstoppable machine….until you try it on a bear or tiger. If you don't feel confident enough to pull off your own chained takedown, you can unlock a skill that allows chained takedowns but consists of stabbing all the enemies to death.
The map in the game is fairly large and offers a lot of areas to explore and discover. Typically Ubisoft have even included some history (based on WWII) on the island with a lot of corpses of Japanese soldiers scattered around the island which is incorporated into some of the main missions as well as side missions. The map is covered in a 'fog of war' to start off with but as you play through you will encounter radio towers which provide a small challenge just by climbing to the top of them. Once you take a radio tower it reveals some of the map as well as unlocking some new weapons in the gun stores. Taking radio towers can get a bit frustrating though as you'll find on occasion you will come across certain towers that aren't as obvious with areas to climb, which can result in you falling to your death a lot of the time. Sometimes you may even find yourself being a bit creative with ways to get to the top of a tower that may feel like cheating but you soon realise it was the only way to do it. Taking outposts from enemies is pretty much a must, especially if you want to travel around the island safely without having to get into a gun fight or losing a quarter to half your health from gunshot wounds on the way to a destination.
One of the most important elements and by far one of the nicest features is that the game provides a small sense of dynamics. At one point you could find yourself scouting an outpost for a good five to ten minutes, learning where all the enemies are, trying to find a tactical course of action to take, then all of a sudden a tiger roaming around the area may pass into the outpost and kill everything there, resulting in you being awarded the outpost. It does feel a bit cheap to be awarded the outpost, after all the tiger did do most of the work, although keeping in mind that everyone there is dead thus leaving the outpost for the taking. This does add to the interaction of the world that it has with itself and makes it feel more realistic, especially knowing that you're not the only one who can be hunted on the island. But don't be fooled into sitting around an outpost and waiting for some animals to take out the bad guys for you as this type of scenario can go both ways. You could be scouting an outpost and in the middle of it get attacked by a deadly animal. Forget the fact that you can die from the attack, because normally you can survive one or two attacks from an animal. It's the part where the enemies shoot at you and the animal, which is likely to kill you. If you've been attacked by a tiger, bear or any other dangerous predator, then you're not going to last very long if there are bullets flying your way. While the game is great when small dynamic events like this happen, the AI can fail to provide you with a significant challenge. This is evident especially because it can take almost an entire outpost of pirates to take out a single tiger or bear. If you've failed to take outposts nearby in an area then firing your gun or throwing a grenade out in the open will attract enemies to that location and force them to scout the area. If you're hiding near an outpost and have startled the enemies, then they will scout the area looking for you and surprisingly will find you just by simply stumbling into a bush you were hiding in or even narrowing down the last position they saw you and concentrating on scouting that area. Otherwise if they haven't found you, they will eventually carry on with their drinking and tough man stances completely ignoring some of the dead bodies you've left lying around for them. If you have been spotted and choose to fall back though, the AI will pursue you but again will eventually carry on with what they were doing once you're out of sight long enough. Other issues with the AI are that you'll often find them driving into objects or walls or worse yet, driving a metre forward, hopping out of their car, then instantly back in to drive another metre forward. Maybe the driver was just trying to park the car and needed an outside perspective; either way the AI doesn't do well in these certain aspects of the game. This isn't necessarily an annoying thing but does break the immersion of the game a little and sometimes they can get in your way while you yourself are trying to travel around the map.
Navigating your way around the map is relatively easy and only gets easier as you play further on. You can use cars to get to your destination that also offer some mild protection against gunfire. You can use small boats that offer next to no protection against gunfire but keep in mind should the boat sink in a fiery blaze, you have nothing to protect you from the shark infested waters. You can occasionally find some hang gliders left near mountain ridges that offer a temporary mode of transport but one that is definitely worth using just for the view of the island from above. Eventually you will unlock a wing suit that allows you to glide in a similar manner to the hang glider but can be used after jumping off virtually any elevated area in the game and allows you to deploy a parachute to land safely. Unfortunately this can be buggy at times. You may find yourself forgetting to activate the parachute after jumping off a small ledge and dying where otherwise you'd have survived just by jumping off it without the wing suit at all. Far Cry 3 also offers more than just the main story. While the main story keeps you immersed the side missions also offer a nice perspective of the island and its people as well as rewarding you with money and experience on completion. Side missions can be found all around the map but normally only unlock one after another or a few are unlocked a time. They aren't bland or overly too repetitive and each side mission has its own story that relates to the main story as well as the back story of the island as opposed to just being a typical kill mission with no story involved at all. You also have other side missions or collectables which are Path of the Hunter, Letters of the Lost, Wanted Dead, and Supply Drop, Trials of the Rakyat, Relics and memory cards. Unfortunately these missions do get repetitive over time but do offer unlocks that can benefit you in the game. Path of the Hunter missions are unlocked as more and more outposts are taken. It involves having to kill a certain amount of animals with a specific weapon or weapon classification, in a certain area. Most of the time you will find yourself killing groups of animals but there are occasionally the rare animals that are meant to offer a greater challenge by being harder to kill and also offer you items towards crafting that you otherwise can't get from normal animals. Fortunately depending on the weapon you are forced to use, if the mission asks you to use a shotgun, you can use one you already have in your inventory even if it is a customised version. The same can apply towards pistols, rifles or even the Recurve Bow and adds an advantage to hunting your prey.
Letters of the Lost are collectables that you can find among Japanese corpses all around the island giving evidence that at some point during WWII the Japanese occupied the Rook Islands. They were letters that never got delivered during the time. You have the option to explore for the location of the letters or purchase maps that reveal their location in certain areas.
Wanted Dead missions are unlocked after taking outposts. It involves you having to approach an enemy camp and finding the target or targets and killing them in Rakyat tradition which is using only a knife. Like Path of the Hunter missions, Wanted Dead missions get repetitive and don't offer anything towards the story but instead offer you money and experience as your reward for each kill.
Supply Drop missions are again unlocked after liberating outposts and are essentially just checkpoint races. The idea is that the Rakyat are low on supplies and doing these runs give them extra supplies. There are a few milestones for supply drop runs and when you reach each milestone it contributes to unlocking extra skills for the Tatau but otherwise only offers extra money and experience as the reward and will get repetitive. These missions are best done after liberating every outpost on the island, unless you prefer an extra challenge, then you can do them while the island is still infested with enemies and their roadblocks.
Trials of the Rakyat missions are found scattered around the island and are shown by red stars if you have not discovered them or white stars if you have discovered them. These trials involve you having to eliminate waves of enemies in the specified method, within a time limit and using the specified weapons. The trials let you compete with other players for the highest score. The rocks that are used to initiate the trial then have the name of the highest scoring person written on them in graffiti. Some of the trials can involve just plainly killing 1 enemy after another but can also offer more points for using stealth kills. Another 1 of the trials you can partake in will have you driving around a small area of the island, trying to run over the enemies and accumulating more time for doing so.
Relics are collectables similar to Letters of the Lost scattered throughout the island in hidden places that will either result in you climbing, descending into caverns or swimming through deep waters to find them. When near the relics they make tribal or haunting noises to signify they're nearby. Similar to the Supply Drop missions, the relics have certain milestones that unlock signature weapons and recipes. The player can also purchase a map to reveal relic locations.
Memory Cards are collectables that can be found in every outpost liberated and contain information about drug trades throughout the island. With each Memory Card you find you will earn money and items.
Apart from roaming the island and doing all of the above, the player can also craft items using animal skins and parts as well as collecting plants to craft syringes. Some of the syringes can provide healing benefits while some have a more enhanced effect on Jason like allowing him to see animals within a certain range through the foliage or seeing enemies within a certain range and even through walls. Other syringes can allow Jason to breathe under water for long periods of time. Unfortunately you can't craft any weapons but you can customise them in the stores by purchasing extra upgrades like scopes, suppressors, extra magazines or other upgrades. You are limited to the number of upgrades you can have on certain weapons though.
The graphics in Far Cry 3 may seem a bit cartoony but otherwise if ignored the game looks gorgeous. When you're about to take flight with a hang glider or wing suit you can't help but stop to admire the surroundings and the amazing high up view you will have of the island will have to climbing mountains over and over again just to repeat the process. It's like you've finally gone insane. Unfortunately at times the visuals can be hindered by the bad hardware support for graphics cards, especially if you are an NVidia user, as the game was catered specifically towards Radeon users, but they weren't also without troubles for high end cards. You may find you'll have to tweak the settings down just to get the game running above 25-30FPS even though your system is well above the recommended specifications. Fortunately the tweaks don't involve taking away too much from the game and even after the tweaks are done, the game still looks amazing. Although it all works out in the end, it's still a strange thing for developers to do this, especially when PC is supposedly the elite gaming platform.
The sound in the game is next to perfect. Especially if playing it with a surround sound system. The sounds make the island come to life as you hear birds calling, insects buzzing and chirping, the gun fire of pirates executing the locals a great distance away and the growls and calls of the wild animals in the distance. With all these sounds combined together, you could close your eyes and easily feel as though as if you're there on the island. This in addition to the great voice acting make the games sound next to perfect.
Far Cry 3 doesn't offer much to replay value as the story is linear but does have 2 endings which can result in you playing through again to see the 2nd ending should you forget to create a new save prior to the last mission. The game does offer continuous play to explore the island, complete unfinished side missions and collect any items you missed along the way. Unfortunately this can get fairly repetitive after some time especially if played in a long stretch or for a few days in a row. With the repetitiveness aside though, you will want to explore the island just to observe the environment and its interactions. Regardless of this you are guaranteed to enjoy the game for everything it has to offer.
Far Cry 3 may seem like just another plain old shooter with a bland story but it offers way more than that. As you play through the game more and more you will notice the darker side it has to offer and at times it can even make you feel uneasy. And this is thanks to the effort Ubisoft put into making this so different from its predecessors. Regardless of what you choose to do or how you choose to play, you will get lost in this immersive world that Far Cry 3 has to offer. The game should last you around 10-20hrs just for completing the major side missions and story missions but can last a lot longer if you decide to take on all the challenges the island has to offer. Far Cry 3 has definitely raised the bar to a very high level for Ubisoft even if it hasn't done so for the first person shooter genre.