It didn't hit me until I had played about 6 hours of the game and had saved my second friend from the clutches of the evil Vaas, Far Cry 3 is a new updated version of The Goonies II. I know how strange that sounds, so allow me to explain a bit further why I believe that.

In the original Goonies II game for the NES, you are placed in the shoes of Mikey Walsh. Your friends have all been kidnapped by the Fratelli’s and are being held captive all over a strange house, filled with caves, creatures and secrets. Armed with nothing more than your wits and a Yo-Yo, you set forth on an adventure to free your friends.

Far Cry 3 you parallels the Goonies II in some strange often eerie ways. While Mikey and his friends were kidnapped really for no reason, Jason and his friends were caught basically wrong place, wrong time. However, both were kidnapped by crazy folks. As Mikey, when you rescued your friends you would gain a “heart meter” thus extending your own life. As Jason, when you rescue your friends, you will often receive EXP that then can be used to make progress in the game easier and more exciting.

Goonies II allowed the player to go about saving the friends mostly free from the constraints of a linear story. While Goonies II kinda has it beat here, you are still allowed certain freedoms in Far Cry 3. You can take the direct path and burn through the story, making only the necessary stops along the way. However you can enjoy the game much more by taking time and doing missions like hunting, or contract killing, or even driving missions to break up the monotony of the story beats. Also, the way in which you approach missions and side missions allows for a myriad of options. Take out enemies from a far with a sniper rifle, up close with a knife, or sometimes (if you’re lucky) you just let them kill themselves.

As Mikey you sometimes had to explore strange caves, talk to strange people (Konami Man) and uncover artifacts to continue along your journey. The same can be said about Far Cry 3. There are a slew of caves to uncover and a plethora of treasure icons that are begging to be discovered. You also meet strange people like Dr. Earnhart, a pill popping recluse more concerned with keeping his high than helping Jason.

While the end goal in Far Cry 3 is still being uncovered in my story, (I haven't finished it yet) I imagine that it involves 1. Stopping Vaas. and 2. Rescuing all your friends (or as many as there are left) from Vaas. Much like Goonies II where the end goal was to rescue all your friends and the mysterious mermaid Annie, from the Fratelli’s.

I may be reading a bit more into this than perhaps I should, but the fact remains, Far Cry 3 reminds me a lot of The Goonies II. This does bode well for FC3, considering that Goonies II is one of my all-time favorite games. Agree with me or not, now that I have planted the seed in your mind, the next time you rescue a friend in Far Cry 3, just picture them saying “What took you so long? I almost died.” Then again, they probably say that anyway.

wow. Everything I thought I knew was just turned on its head.

@RedRavN: When the second girl said "Thanks for saving me Jason." My mouth fell to the floor and I was all "OH... SHIT!"

This changes everything.