Far Cry 3 is an extremely inviting adventure in a vibrant and lively island playground worth exploring.
Visually, FC3 is spectacular both artistically and technically. Crisp, high-resolution textures are a great PC-only feature. Combat is great fun too, with precise gun mechanics and surprisingly awesome stealth segments. Silent takedowns never get old. The expert sound design also aides in immersion, with loud guns, brutal slashes, and ambient jungle noises.
FC3 has a lot of minor issues but nothing too severe. Switching weapons is finicky. Falling damage can be unpredictable, and the inability to climb semi-steep slopes is irksome. Crafting is much too shallow. Loot can be sold for money but there's almost nothing to buy except for maps to help you find more loot. The collectibles provide no gameplay or lore value, apart from a handful of WW2 letters.
The story starts decently but fizzles into nonsense (the writer was trying to be clever but the end result is a debacle), although very strong characters and voice acting keep things compelling. The menu system is inefficient and reeks of a shoddy console port. Then there's the mandatory UPlay nonsense.
Overall, FC3 can easily suck you in with its immersive jungle playground, even if it is fairly shallow under closer examination. The writer wanted to make some deep statement on the nature of gaming, but ironically FC3 ends up being a great looking FPS-sandbox game that takes 35 hours for 100% completion.