A Vacation Cut Short
I had no frame of reference for what to expect from Far Cry 3, having never played the previous entries in the franchise. Like several series that were off my radar before it, the hype surrounding Far Cry 3 in late 2012 was too much to ignore. Claims of “Skyrim with guns” from the game’s marketing were enough for me to take a chance on it. The result is a game that succeeds in many aspects, but stumbles in an attempt to make a great open-world experience.
Far Cry 3’s story starts promising. Jason Brody, along with his fellow rich, thrill-seeking friends is captured by pirates following a skydiving excursion over Rook Island. The pirates’ leader, Vaas, is a twisted drug-addict looking to ransom or sell you and your friends. Jason narrowly escapes Vaas’ prison camp and takes refuge with the island’s indigenous people, the Rakyat. With their aid, Jason sets out on a mission not only to save his friends, but to aid the Rakyat people with ridding the island of the pirates’ presence.
From there, the tropical paradise of Rook Island is yours to navigate. This is where the game finds success. Initially, the island map is clouded and the player must travel the jungle to activate radio towers scattered throughout. The structure of these towers is in disrepair, which creates a unique puzzle as you figure out how to scale each one. The layout of the towers becomes increasingly complex and this system feels like a natural evolution of Assassin Creed’s viewpoint synchronization. Activating the towers provides vision of the immediate area and unlocks an increasing armory of free weaponry from the island’s stores. The towers also reveal the influence pirates have over the island, setting up the best aspect of the game; outpost liberation. Enemy outposts dot the island and the goal is to wrestle control of the territory away from the pirates. Whereas towers have a very rigid solution, the way an outpost is conquered is entirely up to you. Throughout the game, I found a stealthy approach to be preferable to an all-out assault. Surveying the land and tagging enemies with your camera to track their movements is an excellent system. I swiftly picked-off snipers from afar, snuck-in to disable alarms and finished off the rest with brutal melee takedowns. In some scenarios, caged animals can be set loose on the pirates to devastating effect. As you work your way through the perk system, you become more survivable and unlock additional tactics to complete these encounters. Liberating the outposts clears the surrounding area of enemies and unlocks side-quests.
While these two exploration activities are satisfying through to the game’s conclusion, the same cannot be said of the side-quests. Path of the Hunter quests challenge the player to hunt down a species of animal with a prescribed weapon. These missions, for a while, are actually pretty enjoyable. It is incredibly tense to step into Far Cry 3’s dense jungles and bodies of waters, as they are populated with a variety of predators. However, the main incentive to complete these missions is to gain skins to craft additional pouches for weapons and supplies. I fully upgraded these pouches so early that the number of these quests far outweighed my interest in completing them. The same can be said of the game’s other two principle side missions; Wanted Dead and Supply Drops. Wanted Dead missions are a condensed version of outpost liberation, where the goal is ALWAYS to kill the leader with a melee takedown. Supply Drops are a simple check-point race and handling the game’s vehicles is a chore. While hunting was compelling for a good portion of the game, these missions feel lazily designed and are not rewarding enough to warrant completing them.
Once I had my fill of these side-missions, I made a beeline through the story sections. Things fell apart even more when I made this transition. Very little is done to capitalize on the strong opening, and the plot is completely squandered about two-thirds of the way through (you’ll know when it happens). Characters that initially seemed interesting become unlikeable or unbearable shortly after meeting them. Vaas, ironically the bright-spot of the story, is sadly underutilized. With the exception of one German character that joins you late in the game, I started to tune-out what people were saying. With respect to the game-play of these missions, the high-points are few and far between. I found the back third of the game to have the most enjoyable missions, but the story had already fallen apart by then.
It was hard for me to believe how gradually my opinion of this game changed for the worse. The excitement of climbing towers and conquering outposts soon drove me into completing mediocre side-missions. When I tired of those, the story and its missions didn’t do enough to redeem the experience. There is enjoyment to be had with Far Cry 3, but don’t expect it to last.
Quick Thoughts:
- I didn’t touch multiplayer. Co-op seemed promising, but I may have been more interested if I could get a game going with some friends.
- Locking skill upgrades with story progress felt needlessly restrictive. I often found myself reluctantly spending skills just because others I wanted were unavailable.
- Once unlocked, there are some really stand-out skills. Double-take downs and knife-throws were a personal favourite.
- Signature weapons, which are more powerful versions of some of the game’s default weaponry, are too easy to obtain early on. While they are enjoyable to use, I didn't really need any of the other weapons I unlocked.
- You may want to toggle off the main story indicator. Unchecked the game will badger you with a constant notification to proceed to the next story mission.
Next Up:
- Dishonored
