Far Cry 3 review – Honestly I never planned to buy and play Far Cry 3. I didn’t really like the 1st Far Cry and Far Cry 2 for a few reasons. Watching some Far Cry 3 video reviews intrigued me and since I didn’t really have any good games to play, I decided to give it a go.
After playing the first hour of Far Cry 3, I was stoked. This game is…. awesome. It has definitely exceeded my expectations by far.
Far Cry 3 Review – Storyline and Characters
The introduction was a great one, at least in my opinion. You are not playing an unnamed and mute character. Your character talks (not just during cut scenes) and has personalities. I love how he comments on things that happen just like in real life (such as when he has to skin animals to craft a bigger wallet – more on that later).
The voice acting is awesome and can be emotional at times. The voice acting of one of the villains, Vaas, is even better than the main character.
The main storyline is pretty much quite simple – you were partying with your girlfriend, brother and his girlfriend, and a few others when things went wrong. Everyone (including yourself) was captured and going to be sold into slavery. Though obviously, you manage to escape and have to rescue the others, learning all the survival skills which involve both humanoid and animal corpses.
Far Cry 3 Review – Graphics
Far Cry 3 is totally beautiful (if you manage to get into the Ultra setting at a decent frame rate). On a GTX 660 Ti, I can set the resolution at 1920×1080 (playing in windowed mode) with the highest settings comfortably. Everything looks gorgeous – trees, grass, beach, sky, animals, and everything else. Trees and grass sway, creatures alike got thrown off from a high caliber round, and the textures are detailed.
There is also a night and day cycle in the game so you can pretty much stay in one location and wait for the sunrise if you like enjoying the view. Not to mention the pretty rain and thunderstorms that come occasionally in the game.
The river and the ocean are menacing with dark, muddy, and not-so-clear vision that leave you with that wary thoughts of what might be lurking around the corner. The inhabitants of the island also look really life-like with furs and “facial expressions” (if such thing really exists).
Far Cry 3 Review – An open world FPS with RPG elements
Far Cry 3 is an open world First Person Shooter with Role Playing Games elements in it. It means you can roam freely around the island as you wish at any time. Doing the main storyline missions, side quests, killing enemies in certain ways, and doing a few other things will earn you experience points. Earn them enough and you will get a skill point.
You can allocate these skill points into different trees, unlocking special moves and passive abilities along the way. Some high-end skills require you to progress through the main storyline first but you can always keep the unused skill points to be spent later if you like.
You are always playing in First Person view – which I disliked at first when I’m driving a vehicle (yes, you can hop onto a vehicle such as a car or a boat and drive around the island). However, I find that this design is actually a good thing as it keeps you immersed in the game. When you swim across the oceans or on a muddy river, you can only look at what is in front of you and as such, gives an uncomfortable chill around your neck (yeah..there are sharks and crocodiles around, ugh..). Sometimes a sudden bite animation from this unimaginable creature made me jumped from my seat.
Far Cry 3 Review – Combat
There are hundreds of ways to kill your enemies and all of them are pretty much satisfying. The usual ones are of course by killing your enemies at close range or with a sniper rifle at long range. You can also use a “takedown” move to take an enemy down at melee range stealthily. Yes, there is stealth in the game but thankfully it’s no where annoying. Taking an enemy silently means you won’t alert the other guards and on some outposts, there are alarms nearby which can bring more trouble than you already have.
You can let your binocular out to mark and tag enemies or if you put your weapon’s crosshair long enough on them.
Some unusual ways to kill the enemies are definitely more satisfying:
- Unleashing a captured exotic animal such as a Bear in an enemy outpost is always satisfying. Just sit back and relax.
- Set-up a mine and use a throwing stone to distract a guard and let him come for you (or err..for the mine, actually).
- Use a bow and be Legolas, only this time, you can craft and use either a flaming or explosive arrow for further amusement.
- Take down a guard, quickly grab his knife, and throw it at his nearby friend (unlocked skill)
- Take down a guard, quickly unpin his grenade on his belt, and kick him forward.. Profit! (unlocked skill)
- Send someone flying with your jeep
- Let the enemies chase you and bring them to your friends (once an outpost is unlocked, it will be filled with friendlies and they patrol the area with their vehicles). Observe the war from nearby and conserve your ammo. Loot both friendlies and enemies bodies. Another profit!
- More and more – too much to tell
Far Cry 3 Review – Crafting
Yes, there is crafting in Far Cry 3, even though this is no MMORPG game. You can craft syringes (to heal or enhance your abilities), bigger wallet (to carry more money), bigger bag (to carry more stuffs), and ammo bags (to carry more ammo, grenades, and weapons). To craft, you have to either skin the animals or do some plants picking (No, Far Cry 3 is not an MMORPG, really!).
Crafting is actually fun in Far Cry 3 because you get the chance to hunt the inhabitants of the island (and you will be able to watch them hunting each other as well). The team makes it easier by marking the maps with the habitat of each animal type. And yes, there are tons of different animals to play around with (or the other way around, ugh, those Komodo are nasty).
Far Cry 3 Review – Conclusion
Far Cry 3 Review Conclusion
THERE ARE STILL MUCH TO TELL HERE (THE HANDY BOOK THAT TELLS YOU EVERY LITTLE THING THAT YOU ENCOUNTER, A FEW MINI GAMES, OUTPOST RAIDS TO MAKE AN AREA SAFER AND FOR FAST-TRAVELING, AND MORE) BUT I HAVE SO MUCH FUN PLAYING FAR CRY 3. THERE ARE TONS OF THINGS TO DO WITHOUT FEELING OVERWHELMED, TONS OF FUN MOMENTS THAT CAN ONLY BE EXPERIENCED WHEN YOU PLAY THE GAME, NO STUPID ALIENS LIKE CRYSIS, AND A LOT OF IN-DEPTH LITTLE DETAILS THAT YOU WILL APPRECIATE AS YOU PLAY.
FAR CRY 3 IS NOT TOO CHALLENGING BECAUSE YOU CAN UNLOCK WEAPONS FOR FREE AND YOU WILL GET TONS OF MONEY (FROM LOOTING AND DOING THE MINI GAMES). HOWEVER, THAT DOESN’T MEAN THAT FAR CRY 3 IS NOT FUN. IT ELIMINATES THE FRUSTRATIONS AND KEEPS WHAT IS FUN.
THOUGH THE STORYLINE DOES NOT HAVE MUCH TWISTS OR NOT THE BEST ONE OUT THERE, IT’S THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE OF PLAYING FAR CRY 3 AND THE BELIEVABLE FEEL THAT COUNTS. I BELIEVE FAR CRY 3 SHOULD BE TITLED AS THE BEST GAME OF THE YEAR 2012!
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