Join Vaas and the gang on Rook Island and take it back!
FarCry 3 opens with a rich kid named Jason and his friends having the time of their lives on a tropical vacation. It shows them living it up before doing some skydiving over the Rook Islands. Jason blacks out and wakes up in a nightmare. Him and his brother, Grant, are locked in a cage and both are being tormented and tortured by the villainous Vaas. Grant frees himself and they escape. They are almost on the home stretch and Vaas finds them, shoots Grant in the neck and lets Jason go so he can hunt him. It's a dark and serious opening that sets the tone for the rest of the encounters with Vaas. There are very few real cinematics and even fewer encounters with the villains. It's not a bad story, it's just really simple. It's basically all told through fetch quest style story missions to save his friends.
One thing that makes it really special, however, is Vaas himself. He's so evil that you can't help but hate him but you'll love him at the same time. His encounters are the best scenes in the game and it's a shame there aren't more of them. In the end, the story isn't what is going to be pushing you through Rook Islands, the exploration and the basic gameplay will be what pushes you onward.
Which brings us to the gameplay. In FarCry 3, you are presented with a vast open world to explore littered with collectibles and pirate outposts to conquer. You move around the world in first person and shoot, drive and swim your way around the island. The gunplay feels the way you'd expect a shooter releasing after Modern Warfare to feel and the other aspects are pretty good as well. The main draw is just exploring the wilderness, hunting the wildlife and scaling the radio towers to reveal more of the map. You can find loot chests that hold money and items for sale to earn even more money. Money is used to buy ammo mostly but you can also add attachments to your guns.
Hunting the animals is not for money like in other games that feature hunting, it's used to craft different items that enhance your basic gameplay; such as giving you another holster for your weapons allowing you to carry more. The gameplay also offers you the choice of stealth, if you are stealthy enough, you'll be able to take out whole outposts without tripping the alarm. The stealth here is incredibly satisfying and rewarding, offering some encouragement for choosing stealth over brute force. There are also some mini-games scattered around the island but you'll mostly be exploring or doing the many missions. Missions are broken down into the standard story missions and side missions and it's pretty self-explanatory. Most side-missions are just hunting missions; hunting both animals and pirates, and they are pretty entertaining even if they become repetitive in the end. The story missions are a little different but usually boil down to some shoot-outs or some sneaking around.
The outposts you liberate in the wild are used as fast-travel spots. These outposts are a saving grace that was absent from FarCry 2. There is a character development system as well. As you fight and find collectibles, you gain experience that allows you to add more pieces to Jason's tattoo giving him perks such as the ability to silently kill enemies. It keeps the gameplay changing throughout the game but a lot of the perks are pretty useless. The gameplay is nothing special when you look at it, but it's addicting beyond belief and the beautiful Rook Islands don't hurt either. One disappointing part of the gameplay are the final encounters with the villains. Without spoiling anything, they are the stupidly implemented "fights" I've ever seen in a game. Other than that, the gameplay in FarCry 3 is miles beyond that of FarCry 2.
The audio in FarCry 3 is electronic and fast-paced. This suits the story and the combat encounters well and the voice work is great. The villains steal the show here, which seems to be common in things such as this and, once again, you'll remember Vaas and his boss. Jason just sounds like a generic rich white guy and the other voices are mind blowing, but with Vaas around, that doesn't matter.
The visuals are amazing. The green of the jungles is fantastic to witness and it looks stunning all the way through, even though there are very few loading times. The only other game to constantly amaze me the entire game was the original Assassin's Creed. You clamber to the top of the radio towers; similar to Assassin's Creed's viewpoints, and you can see the whole island in it's entirety. Even on consoles, this has to be one of the best looking games I have ever played. The one issue, at least on PS3 anyway, is the framerate. The framerate tends to dip often, which isn't really surprising given the size of the game world, but it tends to dip often while driving making it hard to drive properly which is a very dangerous thing. The character models don't look the best either, characters like Vaas look great, but your average grunt looks just about average.
They toned down some of the more realistic elements from FarCry 2, which can be seen as a disappointment. In FarCry 2, your map is in-game, even when driving. Here, it's in a menu. Not a big deal but it seems like a step back. Overall, the environment wins out here and it wins hard.
PROs:
- Vaas is a great villain
- Gameplay is addicting
- Vaas is voiced perfectly
- Island is large and fun to explore
- Tons of collectibles lying around for you to find
- Skill tree is fun to fully unlock
- Stealth is rewarding and brute force is empowering
- Island is beautiful and fully open with a fantastic ecosystem
- Driving handles extremely well
- Visuals are some of the best out there
- Hunting for materials adds some fun in the wild
CONs:
- Enemy AI can be pretty stupid
- Story doesn't really do anything new
- Last third of the story is all out combat and predictable
- Final encounters with villains is lazy and stupid
- Can be repetitive
- A lot of pointless skills on the tattoo
- Framerate dips far too often while driving
Overall, FarCry 3 stomps all over FarCry 2 in the gameplay department. It also looks better and has better systems in place. If you have any love for open world games, give FarCry 3 a try. Vaas is one of the best villains in a game and the open island is a sight to behold. It's beautiful, brutal and dark all at the same time. Grab a gun and fight back against the pirates..
Story: 8.0/10
Gameplay: 9.5/10
Audio: 8.0/10
Presentation: 9.5/10