Far Cry 3:Blood Dragon Review
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is an open world FPS that is also a standalone DLC to Far Cry 3. In this game, you play as a robot commando named Sergeant Rex Power Colt, who is tasked with finding a rogue colonel on an unknown island in what the 80's would deem as an apocalyptic 2007. In this self aware 80's comedic game, it's up to one man to get the girl and save the world, and that man is you.
Going deeper into the story, you play as Sergeant Rex Power Colt, a robo commando who is sent in with his pal Spider to take down Colonel Sloan, who used to be your mentor, but went rogue instead. With Sloan is a scientist named Dr.Darling, who betrays Sloan and helps you fight Sloan before he launches missiles to attack the U.S. On the island, it is up to you and the nerds... I meant scientists, to help fight Sloan and his army of cyber soldiers. Oh, and their are giant dragons with laser beam eyes on the island too, just to let you know.
Far Cry is known to be a pretty serious game, but Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is the opposite of that. When the game starts. you go through a 'tutorial 101,' in which an announcer talks you through how to do basic movements like look, run, and jump while Rex complains the entire time wanting to kill things. I found this to be hilarious, because I could relate to that in so many other games I play with unnecessarily long tutorials. But the self aware, totally 80's cheesy humor can be found throughout the game, with a drug PSA, constant talks of how the U.S. is the greatest, and much, much more. The humor to me never got old because the game wasn't a serious game to me. What made me think the game wasn't serious other than the humor was its beautiful 80's art style and aesthetic. Neon runs rampant, and anywhere from the computer screen being an old computer to the way your vision looks like a bad VHS tape near death was fantastic. I have never played a game that screams 80's louder than this game, and it's humor and art style really shows that.
Despite being different in some ways, Blood Dragon plays very similarly to Far Cry 3, except Blood Dragon is way shorter. Less missions, less map, less weapons, less everything. For those who do not know, Far Cry 3:Blood Dragon and most other Far Cry games involve capturing bases, doing side missions that include hunting animals and people, crafting, and exploring. With Far Cry, attacking bases is a lot of fun, as for their are a million and one ways to attack a base. But the driving in the game is not the best and hunting animals as part of a mission or to craft upgrades are not that much fun either. This is true in all Far Cry games, so everything I just said can be applied to the experience i had with Blood Dragon, just much shorter.
Now all games have bad parts to them, and no matter how badass and neon this game is, this game still had it's share. Despite this game being a smaller Far Cry 3, I still felt their were not a lot of main missions. What was there was fun, but there only 7 missions, including a prologue. I know this is a short game, but it caught me off guard when I started to ride a Blood Dragon and realized that I just reached the end. The only other issue I found was difficulty using the weapon wheel. I know this is something that is stupid to write about, but when I as in need of a shotgun when a soldier was rushing me, I was fumbling like an idiot through the weapon wheel and ended up pulling out another weapon that I didn't need.
The Verdict: Far Cry 3: blood Dragon is in my opinion one of the best Far Cry games to date and an overall great open world game filled to the brim with the 80's. I was laughing and having a blast in a world where you play as the basic 80's super hero. The negatives I have with the game are minor compared to the positives. If you want to be introduced to what far Cry is, or just want a great Far Cry experience, then Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is the game to get.
