Lives up to the hype
Once in a while a game comes along that takes over your life. You cant stop thinking about it when you stop playing it, and when you are playing, you are amazed at what you are able to do/happening onscreen. Far Cry 3 is one of those games.
Story
By far, the weakest part of the game. The narrative in FC3 is paper thin and gives you just enough reason and motivation to meet people that give you more missions to do on the island. I also found the ending very disappointing and not satisfying in the least. Its too bad, because they really could have made the characters more interesting and gone into the main characters background story. A lot of potential that was tossed aside.
Gameplay
I dont know if I have played a more smooth, visceral shooter than FC3. The game knows always where you are, and gives you button prompts based on your location. If you are on a ledge above an unsuspecting enemy, you pounce on him with a knife in his throat without a thought after a while. Its the sort of game that was so well designed, you may find yourself playing around with the environment, and thats where the fun really ratchets up. Some bases(well most in my case) can be taken apart slowly with silenced weapons, and you can shoot animal cages once in a while and let a bear do your legwork. Nothing I have seen in any other game comes close to the satisfaction of clearing an outpost silently from afar. Other times though, you may feel a little more on the side of Rambo, and go in guns blazing, which I found also can be quite fun, and is even more intense as you get up close and personal. The weapon/upgrade selection is great, and you really can choose how you want to play. I dont fully complete most games, cause they dont hold my attention that long, but FC3 was an exception. I did absolutely everything in this game, missions, achievements, everything. Somehow doing all the stuff the game gives you access to stopped feeling like a grind 1/4 of the way through. The island slowly starts opening up and I got very engrossed in it. It got to the point that when I turned on FC3 to play, I was going on a virtual vacation. My only gripe about the gameplay is the multiplayer. I played through all the co-op missions once, and dabbed in the competitive multiplayer, but didnt really want to go back after the high bar was set by the single player. Its not that the MP is bad, its just bland and relatively boring compared the awesome fun in the SP.
Visuals
I understand that this game looks better on the PC than on the Xbox, but my PC is getting old and didnt hold up too well when I tried it out. I ended up sticking with the Xbox version, and it looks fantastic. IMHO its the best looking game on the console, and really gets you lost in the island. Lush vegetation, crispy explosions, and fantastic audio design really sucks you in. The engine holds up well in the Single player, but for some reason it does hiccup and drop quite a bit in the co op and multiplayer.
Overall, I loved this game, and its my favorite on the X360 so far. Any action junkie or open world gamer needs to play this. Its just that good. Just come for the SP, forget the MP.
