Something went wrong. Try again later
Click To Unmute

Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?

Sign up or Sign in now!

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.
This video has an invalid file format.
00:00:00
Sorry, but you can't access this content!
Please enter your date of birth to view this video

By clicking 'enter', you agree to Giant Bomb's
Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Giant Bomb Review

55 Comments

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon Review

4
  • PC

Blood Dragon has a terrific sense of style and gives you some good extra Far Cry 3-style gameplay to fool around with.

The dark, scanline-laden look of Blood Dragon really goes a long way.
The dark, scanline-laden look of Blood Dragon really goes a long way.

Far Cry 3 was a great game, even if its story and characters were pretty lame. Taking over outposts by stealthily cutting alarms, hunting animals, or climbing towers provided terrific distractions from the main plot. So the idea of a standalone Far Cry 3 offshoot that offers more chances to get into some of this specific type of open world mischief is pretty appealing. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon isn't just more Far Cry 3, though. It's Far Cry 3 taped onto a VHS tape, then duped over to another VHS tape with the commercials cut out, then copied for your friends at school and played on a filthy VCR that's been playing illicit tapes taken from the "steamy" section of the local rental store. This '80s action movie twist on the Far Cry 3 mechanics has a killer aesthetic, but it flinches a little too often, resulting an a game that oscillates between dumb B-movie tropes and a self-awareness that prevents the look and tone from working as well as it should.

Blood Dragon takes place in the far-flung future of 2007, where cybersoldiers are the norm. You play as a Mark IV model named Rex Power Colt, and you're sent to an island to stop your former commander, who is harvesting blood from large dragons and plans to launch missiles and infect the world with... whatever it is that the blood from those dragons actually causes. The details of the story are largely irrelevant; it's the style of this retro-futuristic 2007 that matters. The whole game has a dark (almost too dark, at times), muddy look that's being filtered through Colt's cyber-eyes, giving the entire game scanlines. There's a small handful of main story missions to play through, and plenty of side stuff, too. Some of it, like taking over outposts, comes in from the main Far Cry 3, but nothing comes in untouched.

Capturing outposts in Blood Dragon is a little different. The basics of eliminating all the enemies and trying to avoid alarms are still in place, but each base is surrounded by huge energy shields that keep the blood dragons out. If you like, you can sneak into the center of an outpost and lower those shields, letting you watch as the huge, mostly-flightless creatures make their way in and start stomping the computer-voiced enemy troops. Once that's done, of course, you'll still have to deal with the dragon by either killing it or tricking it into leaving the base, which automatically raises the shields again. You can lure the dragons around by throwing cyberhearts, which are looted off of the bodies of your humanoid enemies. It's like the rock throwing system in Far Cry 3, which also shows up in Blood Dragon, but for some dumb reason you're throwing 20-sided dice instead of rocks.

There are tons of robot-voiced enemies to gun down and you'll want to steal their cyberhearts once you're done.
There are tons of robot-voiced enemies to gun down and you'll want to steal their cyberhearts once you're done.

That starts to illustrate the disconnect between Blood Dragon's '80s action movie style and its self-awareness. The game starts with a sour note by putting you through a tutorial that's too cute for its own good, forcing you to stand still and go through the basics while your character, voiced by Michael Biehn (though at times his delivery is a little more Michael Rooker), curses up a storm because he just wants to go kill stuff. All of the loading screen tool-tips try to be self-aware, too. It's like the game can't decide if it wants to lean all the way into its Commando and RoboCop references or hang back and comment on the action like the game is trying to be "above it." It's disappointing, because there are funny moments in both cases, but the whole thing would have been stronger if the writers could have just committed to nailing one or the other.

Other side missions let you rescue hostages or go hunting. Completing these tasks unlock the ability to buy weapon attachments, like explosive rounds for your sniper rifle or a silencer for your pistol. You'll also gain experience points and level up, but unlike Far Cry 3, you can't spend points on a skill tree. The skills--most of which are lifted right out of the main game--are unlocked in a set order. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon isn't an especially long game, but if you attempt to wring every last bit out of the side missions and start hunting for collectibles, there's certainly more to it than the average digital release. It also has a fantastic soundtrack that fits with the retro-futuristic action perfectly.

There are outposts to overtake and just enough side missions to keep you going.
There are outposts to overtake and just enough side missions to keep you going.

By building on a strong base game, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon brings in a lot of the best moments from its predecessor. Stalking around and silently grabbing an enemy, then dragging his body out of sight is still pretty fun. Chaining together stealth kills and tossing ninja stars at distant enemies (which replaces the "stealth kill one enemy then use his gun to shoot someone else" animation from the original game) is rad. So Blood Dragon works. It also has enough completely ridiculous moments--especially near the end of the game--to make its boneheaded action movie tone work. It's just a shame that this love letter to the sorts of movies you'd catch on Showtime at 2PM on Wednesday in 1988 gets cut with so many winks and nods. Played straight, it'd be a funnier game, but like the core game upon which it is based, Blood Dragon is still great fun.

Jeff Gerstmann on Google+

55 Comments

Avatar image for skareo
SKaREO

24

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By SKaREO

I used to stay up for hours playing Duke Nukem 3D as a kid. That game was seriously kick-ass so I figured I'd preorder this game. Read the requirements more carefully and found out I require UPlay DRM client to be installed on my machine which has a notorious history of security breaches. Cancelled my preorder and never got the chance to play the game because of the draconian DRM.

Avatar image for hallic
Hallic

38

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Didn't Jeff have a problem with Far Cry 3 taking it's story and characters so seriously and not being self aware enough but he has the same problem with Blood Dragon even though it's the exact opposite?

Avatar image for ersanven
Ersanven

96

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

I just finished it. Sequel hook. I am so ready for a sequel. So ready for a full game.

Avatar image for space_amoeba
Space_Amoeba

2

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Space_Amoeba

This game is so stupid. I love stupid.

Avatar image for omgmyface
OMGmyFACE

96

Forum Posts

2

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

The rail shooting segments in Far Cry 3 and Blood Dragon have been my favorite gaming moments of the past year. Infinite ammo + licensed music out of nowhere = intense fun. And ever since beating BD, I've been on an 80's movie kick.

Avatar image for ghostiet
Ghostiet

5832

Forum Posts

160

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 3

@jeff

"Chaining together stealth kills and tossing ninja stars at distant enemies (which replaces the "stealth kill one enemy then use his gun to shoot someone else" animation from the original game) is rad."

You might wanna fix this. The takedown you are talking about - the Gunslinger Takedown - is still in the game, unlocked around level 25. What you are talking about is simply the Knife Takedown from the vanilla FC3, only you throw a neon shuriken instead.

Avatar image for vuud
Vuud

2052

Forum Posts

74

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Vuud

It's been a while since a game made me genuinely laugh out loud. I really hope we get to see more Rex Colt in the future but I fear this was just a one shot deal for funsies.

My only complaint is that I wish there was a way to turn off those scanlines.

Avatar image for zurv
Zurv

1041

Forum Posts

64

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 8

the colors in this doesn't make for "wow, look at the grafix!"

while far cry 3 looks hella better on the PC.. in BD, the colors wash everything..

either way.. here is some PC action :)

Loading Video...

Avatar image for ryendeckard
RyenDeckard

46

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

I bought two copies of this just because I want publishers to know I want more crazy shit like this.

Avatar image for firecracker22
firecracker22

750

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 3

Edited By firecracker22

I'm curious to see what can happen if this DLC is successful. It seems like Ubisoft invested a (relatively) small bit into this. If I remember correctly, through Patrick's dumptruck interview with the lead on this DLC, they had something like 6 or 7 months to finish this, right? That, plus the game's price is $15....I wonder if this is successful if it'll just greenlight either more expansive DLC in the future (maybe some kind of sequel that'll be larger) or if they'll take a chance on a full game approach?

I dunno, just thinking out loud here. I'd be interested in seeing what more time could do to flesh out some of the ideas in this, like less fourth wall breaking or maybe a better approach to the breaking of said wall?

It still is kinda crazy to see this even exist, when you think about it. And it's a very attractive price.

Avatar image for rowr
Rowr

5861

Forum Posts

249

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 3

You can never rely on the French for humour.

Actually you can never rely on the French in general...

Avatar image for kennybaese
kennybaese

729

Forum Posts

1507

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

I never did play Far Cry 3. Now I can't decide if I should play this then play the main game if I enjoy it, or play Far Cry 3 and then play this if I enjoyed the main game...

Avatar image for fourwude
FourWude

2274

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

Edited By FourWude

Loved Far Cry 3. I'll pick this up when it's half price.

Yeah, value proposition me now, bitches.

Avatar image for zevvion
Zevvion

5965

Forum Posts

1240

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 6

User Lists: 2

Edited By Zevvion

Looking at reviews, but can't get any sense of whether there are any quality issues in the XBLA/PSN versions as compared to the PC version.

Wondering if this is a game to hold me over until I own a PC capable of playing what I have been told is the one true Far Cry 3

I'm actually kind of curious what all the hate for Far Cry 3 on consoles is about. Yes, it looks better on PC, but allot of people act as if it doesn't look good on consoles. If you compare it to other console games it looks really great.

Also, I have not experienced that much low frame rate on my 360 as others say they have. For example, that instance Patrick often talks about where a certain boat section on rails slows the framerate down to near unplayable levels; I haven't experienced that at all. Which seems impossible because every console is almost the same and it should play games the same way, unlike multiple possibilities on PC.

But I also do not have the insane long boot up time on my 360 they have talked about lately on the podcast. It takes 15 seconds between me pushing the power button and being at the main menu of a game. I'm not sure how it's even possible to have that much of a difference between the same type of console.

Avatar image for wickedstyx
WickedStyx

9

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@louiedog said:

While I wait for the game to release I'm going to watch this on a loop. (SFW despite the title)

You lied! There's boobs at 52:57

Avatar image for demontrace
demontrace

86

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By demontrace

@louiedog: that was a pretty awesome link. For those wondering about the music, if you click on the vimeo icon in the video, it takes you to the vimeo page for the video, and the guy who made it has a track listing. Pretty awesome.

Avatar image for dyong
dyong

334

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

I would play this game and I don't give a damn about Farcry 3.

Avatar image for sen0r_awes0me
Sen0r_Awes0me

190

Forum Posts

63

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Sen0r_Awes0me

Looking at reviews, but can't get any sense of whether there are any quality issues in the XBLA/PSN versions as compared to the PC version.

Wondering if this is a game to hold me over until I own a PC capable of playing what I have been told is the one true Far Cry 3

Avatar image for probablytuna
probablytuna

5010

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Weird how there's no preloading. Also I didn't expect it to come out in a physical form. I would've loved to have one of those awesome posters.

Avatar image for beautifulspacecowboy
BeautifulSpaceCowboy

671

Forum Posts

1017

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 6

Looking forward to playing this. I'm happy to hear it turned out good.

Avatar image for beard_of_zeus
beard_of_zeus

2021

Forum Posts

4665

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 37

Edited By beard_of_zeus

@reisz said:

Just like you guys mentioned in the quick look, this is such a great idea. Leveraging a fully realised engine and assets to create a varied, shotgun style, standalone experience is a way better use of materials than DLC and Season pass style content. Forza Horizon was another example of this, no one built a physics engine or handling model for that game, yet it stands on it's own as an experience. I would love to see more of this in the years to come.

Cheers for the write-up.

Definitely with you there. Make more weird standalone spinoff games, developers! I always find those experiences to be quite memorable. Things like inFamous: Festival of Blood or Red Dead's Undead Nightmare spring to mind.

Avatar image for aarny91
Aarny91

3962

Forum Posts

2309

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 6

User Lists: 14

Edited By Aarny91

I can't wait to play this.

Avatar image for korolev
korolev

1800

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 17

User Lists: 8

CYBER-EYES!? Sold!

Avatar image for r3dt1d3
r3dt1d3

300

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Classic Jeff: "I didn't really use explosives, I don't even know how to throw grenades." Then he continues playing with a FPS with a controller on baby mode difficulty :(

Avatar image for silleevanillee
silleevanillee

3

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

jeff might as well be the living embodiment of video games

Avatar image for swiftopian
Swiftopian

178

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Wait...did @brad just insult USA shows? We WILL have words, SHOEMAKER!

Avatar image for bybeach
bybeach

6754

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By bybeach

Appreciate the review. Between this and the Ql I got a good sense of whether I wanted this game or not. Especially since I went and pre-ordered it....

Being a shooter, science fiction, parody and neon pretty much guarantees I will like it, despite the fact the world is to my eyes too dark ( maybe notch up the bright/gamma just a bit), though I suppose it does take place after a nuclear war.

Like others I am rooting for what the dev. is doing and suspect this game at 15.00 dollars is pretty low priced. But they (the dev.) could do that, having done much of the work for their main presentation. I get a kick out of ppl. seemingly pricing games low, though once or twice I thought a game overpriced also.

Avatar image for bgdiner
bgdiner

315

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 13

User Lists: 0

I like the creativeness in shifting from a comprehensible, if silly, plot to one that revels in its hokey-ness. Given that a lot of DLC these days is rather derivative of its progenitor, it's cool to see content that, in a way, flips the bird at its parent, and goes on a complete tangent.

Great QL by the way.

Avatar image for saddlebrown
saddlebrown

1578

Forum Posts

81

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 4

User Lists: 1

It's weird to see all the hate toward Far Cry 3 now. I thought the story wasn't as good as it could've been, but the characters were all plenty interesting.

Avatar image for ripelivejam
ripelivejam

13572

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By ripelivejam

man some people's concepts of value are jacked up. :( this seems fucking rad for $15. just need to beat the main game first. :\

Avatar image for hawkerace
Hawkerace

364

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 0

Edited By Hawkerace

I'm glad it got a good review, the criticalness about some aspects of the game during the quicklook had me somewhat worried. Though I would probably have enjoyed it either way, it shatters the illusion if somebody picks up on something jank that I managed to scim over.

Avatar image for kanerobot
KaneRobot

2802

Forum Posts

2656

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 5

User Lists: 9

That's some Zamfir-ass flute they've got going there. Makes me want to watch Karate Kid 2. Dunno if I'd pay 15 bucks for this game, but I'd probably pay 5 bucks for the soundtrack.

Avatar image for mofaz
Mofaz

62

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@ravage484: The argument of price is absolutely irrelevant, it's the standards that are set by the genre, if it's an open world shooter, it should be longer than a CoD shooter, regardless of price. That being said, 7-12 hours (which is already way too large a margin of difference and likely completely wrong) is fine for an open-world shooter that's smaller in scale, but the whole price-point argument is dogshit anyway.

Avatar image for ravage484
ravage484

98

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@cthomer5000: Probably a good thing that it is so short. I don't think I could listen to bad punchlines over and over for more than a couple hours. I think it's probably just enough "dumbness" and gameplay to feel successful. Not to mention you're right, $15 is a huge bargain, even if the story isn't super long.

Avatar image for louiedog
louiedog

2391

Forum Posts

227

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

@atwa said:

Shame its so painfully short

It's a $15 downloadable that has a campaign as long as most AAA first person shooters. Is this really the game to criticize in terms of value proposition?

Where was the value questioned? Maybe @atwa thinks it looks super rad and wants to play even more.

Avatar image for cthomer5000
cthomer5000

1422

Forum Posts

31

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@atwa said:

Shame its so painfully short

It's a $15 downloadable that has a campaign as long as most AAA first person shooters. Is this really the game to criticize in terms of value proposition?

Avatar image for louiedog
louiedog

2391

Forum Posts

227

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Edited By louiedog

While I wait for the game to release I'm going to watch this on a loop. (SFW despite the title)

My childhood weekend afternoons rushed back to me in the Quick Look.

Avatar image for hassun
hassun

10300

Forum Posts

191

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Considering we already have the article, we should just make sure the name which is used is Suppressor, and no Silencer.

Avatar image for artisanbreads
ArtisanBreads

9107

Forum Posts

154

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 6

Edited By ArtisanBreads

Haven't played yet, but do have to agree with Jeff about how this could have been played more "serious" to the tone and still have been hilarious. It would have been intentional, but played unintentional (if that makes sense).

And a few bits (like the dice) are kind of head scratchers... oh well though. Still looks like fun. Might get it soon or wait for a sale but I'm sure I'll be playing this.

Avatar image for rubyeye
Rubyeye

20

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Rubyeye

I am going to stream my playthrough by recording it on my Sony BMC100P Betamax Camcorder and output through my Pinnacle Dazzle digital encoder device and then Gopher my file to the web. Bah, no time for this, my bowl of Croonchy Stars are getting soggy.

Avatar image for fisk0
fisk0

7320

Forum Posts

74197

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 75

Edited By fisk0  Moderator

@hsvlad said:

Gonna play this at 480 resolution to get the true VHS experience!

This is one game I'd like to be able to lock the framerate to something low in, playing the game in 720x576 at 25 fps should be the optimal way to experience it for us living in PAL territory. Preferably if it runs 4% faster than in the US, to simulate the 24 to 25 frame conversion.

Avatar image for hsvlad
hsvlad

167

Forum Posts

45

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 2

Gonna play this at 480 resolution to get the true VHS experience!

Avatar image for colourful_hippie
colourful_hippie

6335

Forum Posts

8

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

@atwa: but it's $15.

lol what the hell is with some people and wanting a bunch of content for every game?

Avatar image for rayeth
Rayeth

1239

Forum Posts

749

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 8

Edited By Rayeth

I am pretty happy they took a gamble on a game like this. I think its a great way to mix stuff up rather than put out some DLC missions, too bad they didn't play it a bit more straight.

Avatar image for lesaboteur
lesaboteur

38

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@atwa: I've read it's clocked around 7-12 hours of gameplay. For $15 that's a pretty good deal.

Avatar image for meatsim
MeatSim

11201

Forum Posts

150

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 23

Edited By MeatSim

Liked me some Far Cry 3 and I like the style of this game so I will play this sooner or later.

Avatar image for reisz
reisz

1626

Forum Posts

1095

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 6

Just like you guys mentioned in the quick look, this is such a great idea. Leveraging a fully realised engine and assets to create a varied, shotgun style, standalone experience is a way better use of materials than DLC and Season pass style content. Forza Horizon was another example of this, no one built a physics engine or handling model for that game, yet it stands on it's own as an experience. I would love to see more of this in the years to come.

Cheers for the write-up.

Avatar image for sbarre
sbarre

106

Forum Posts

4

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

I'm impatiently waiting for it to unlock tomorrow morning!

Avatar image for atom
Atom

257

Forum Posts

276

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 4

The outpost after the tutorial kinda reminded me of an old PC Terminator game (Future Shock...?)

Looks like they kinda boned up some of the humor, but the good outweighs the bad, IMO. I'll play this one.