A classic Douchebag-to-Rambo tale
Yet Far Cry 3 doesn't rely on sympathy for the victims to drive its emotional narrative. Even though there are rescues and near-rescues along the way, this is a straight-up revenge story. Jason Brody wants these scumbags dead, and so do you.
Were the controls floaty and imprecise, ala Skyrim, then no amount of blood would slake your appetite for vengeance. Thankfully, Far Cry 3 totally nails it. The gunplay is varied and exciting, letting you feel the bone-shaking kick of a custom shotgun and the thunderous peal of your assault rifle. Whether you're picking off pirates from 70m with your silenced sniper rifle, or stealthily knifing guards while they pee in the bushes, combat is insanely satisfying. So much so, you may forget that you have a story to follow, because you'll have spent so much time liberating pirate-controlled outposts.
As it happens, there is quite a bit of liberating to be done on Rook Island. There are 34 outposts, many of which contain quests to hunt rare game or contracts to kill at-large pirates or privateers with a knife (aka "The Rakyat way"). Areas surrounding outposts are littered with patrols who will immediately take issue with your presence, leading to brief but intense roadside battles. Extra-outpost baddies will respawn so long as their base isn't liberated, but once it is, they're gone forever.
Levelling your character is painless. Every few thousand XP earned, you're given a skill point, which you can spend on one of three different skill trees: The shark, the heron, and the spider, each representing a different archetype. If you plan on doing a few side missions and liberating all the outposts, you'll be able to fill out all three trees (turning your "tatau" into a full-arm sleeve) before you get to the final missions, so the choice is really more about how you want to play now, rather than you how you want to play later.
Many of the abilities are really fun, such as the knife-throw takedown, in which you perform a stealth takedown from behind on an opponent, then press the right trigger to unsheath his knife and chuck it at the next-closest baddie for dual-kill goodness. And Ubisoft smartly spread the wealth: If you like takedowns, for example, you'll have to dip into all three branches to fully round out your arsenal of maneuvers, meaning you'll probably distribute points evenly throughout your playthrough.
If there is any disappointment to be found in the combat, it's in the fact that there isn't an endless supply of it. Once an outpost is liberated (for my money, outpost liberation is the best part of the game, allowing for deep strategy and tons of choices) the enemies in the immediate region do not respawn. This means once you have cleaned out Rook Island of pirate and privateer outposts, your adventure is over, and all of the combat skills you've acquired are useless. But this should take you sufficiently long enough that you'll be near the end of your playthrough anyway. It's just, after finally reaching my full potential, it kind of sucks that there's no one to show it off against. Nearly all of your fighting is done while your character is "in progress," so the completed product is left to, I dunno, hunt tigers or something.
Other reviews have been unkind to the game's story, saying that it fails to resonate because Jason's friends are thinly characterized. Because you aren't emotionally invested in those characters, a late-game choice doesn't have as much weight as it should. But those reviewers have it wrong. This game--and that choice--isn't about your friends. It's about you, Jason Brody, getting even. Eye for an eye, blood for blood. In this context, the choice resonates well: Return to the listless, drifter life you lead prior to that fateful skydive, or cut ties with the past and fulfill the destiny you've set out for yourself on Rook Island.
And even without fully understanding the correct context of the player's final choice, the story is solid. Voice acting all around is strong, even memorable at times. You meet interesting characters along the way, and even get to kill a few of them. Jason's friends don't get a lot of screen time, but they're only meant to be decoration anyway. Sam, a character you meet about 2/3 of the way through the main quest line, is funny, if a bit stereotypical. I mean, look, I know that Germans probably say "Scheiße" as much as Americans say "shit," and I'm sure "wunderbar" is common vernacular, but...man, they're the two words that every English-speaking German character in film and television (and now video game) history says to add a dash of "realism" to their characters. A choice of less-predictable dialogue would have been appreciated from such a cool character.
I don't put any significance on numbered ratings, so take the 9 up there with a grain of salt. It's an amazing game with beautiful visuals even on the dated XBox 360 and a gripping story with occasionally witty dialogue and some genuinely funny moments. Visceral combat (how's that for a cliched phrase?) anchors the experience, and leaves you wanting more.