First off, first blog post of 2013! Woot!
Like most “hybrid” games, a certain game has two or three things that remind the player of them. FarCry 3 is no exception, except it has four games, having some Crysis, Just Cause 2, Skyrim, and a pinch of Mirror’s Edge in it. Crysis for the FPS and being on an island (actually, multiple islands) and the enemy tracking camera. Just Cause 2 for the handgliding the player can do, Skyrim for the Crafting and XP, and Mirror’s Edge for staying in FPS of the player jumping around like he’s Faith.
Some say that Far Cry 3 is “Skyrim with guns”. I actually have to agree with this. The crafting side of FC3 is almost similar to Skyrim. And as for dragons, there’s only one type of dragon threat, which is the Komodo Dragon; a real life creature (doesn’t breath fire, but is deadly with its saliva).
But the graphics in FC3 on Ultra graphics, really pop out at you.
So anyway, I haven’t been really thinking about buying this game. The MRT Server and WoW had my interest at the time. But both have gotten boring again. Also, seeing it was on sale via the New Years sale. I got the Deluxe version which has some added goodies, and it was still below the normal price ($50).
And even with my ‘once beefy now a relic compared to todays games’ computer, the FPS is very smooth and realistic on Medium/Low graphics. There’s a few ground shadow glitches I see when on roads, but that’s the only thing.
So you’re this teenager named Jason Brody, who’s with his friends to celebrate one of your friends getting their pilot’s license. All of you have gone on vacation to an island complex near Asia, “Rook Island”. The fun comes crashing down on their and your heads when you’re captured by a powerful, deranged warlord named Vass. Turns out most of the people on this island, are high and trying to get even higher.
Eventually you manage to escape the stronghold, and get rescued by another guy who tells you about this faction called the “Rakyat” which are the true owners of the island, and about your new tatau (tattoo actually). This is no ordinary tattoo. He explains this tattoo is the mark of the Warrior. This thing is pretty much your skill points over your enemies. You get more tattoos when you skill up, and you can actually see them on your arm ingame.
Before I go over what I think about the game so far, I’m going to talk about one thing that really irritated me and still does when I launch the game.
When I launch it through Steam, I expect to play it through Steam. Instead, it’s launched through an entirely different service, called “Uplay”. A service similar to Origin for EA games. I have to login through this service, to play a game I didn’t buy through it. Feel free to explain the level of bullshit this is, because I can’t think of it.
On top of it, this retarded thing will not let me redeem the extras I paid for without fucking playing the game. It has these “units” you have to use to unlock the stuff you paid for.
Passing this crap, time to finally explain what I think about it. I like it. They got rid of one idiotic thing in FarCry 2, which was the Malaria attacks, so no more pauses in killing something to pop pills in your mouth. Gun jamming, is gone too. Yay for that. Also, proper sneaking! You don’t stick out like a sore thumb.
The currency is USD, instead of Diamonds. Radio towers have a purpose. They show the map, and give you free guns. And the last good change, taking down an Enemy Stronghold, really means no more enemy respawns in that sector of the map! You also get bonuses for doing it with Stealth, and not having any enemy trigger an alarm.
And just shooting your bullets in the air like you just don’t care, no longer alerts enemies from a nearby enemy area to your location (unless you’re really near it). That was annoying.
And when it comes to taken over enemy strongholds, they have a Fast Travel feature. Similar to the busses in FarCry 2.
The map is fully accessible, even areas that are covered up by a mist. No more fading and appearing back away from it.
And now, to talk about where they messed up (I’m such a nitpicker);
— The Map is its own page instead of being able to pull up while walking around.
— In FarCry 2, your purchased guns were on shelves so you can easily see which one you want and swap them, in a Safehouse. In FarCry 3, this is done through the Stores in safehouses. Very inconvenient.
— The ‘cutscenes’ of interacting with people. Why is this needed? This reminds me of Mirror’s Edge more than anything. You’re still in First Person here, so I just don’t get their logic.
— No sleeping. Period. Why did they get rid of this feature? I hate fighting at night.
— No “favorite gun storage” in safe houses. Again, a nice feature in FarCry 2 removed.
— No Quick Load feature, incase your “Stealth Mission” ends up going bad by failing to silence a guard. You have to rely on checkpoints.
— Saving your game is pointless. When you save, quit, and go back in, you’ll appear inside the safe house of the last enemy stronghold you took over. Again, checkpoints.
— Vehicles cannot be purchased like they could in FarCry 2.
— Due to no sleeping, there’s no realtime. The sun even sets in the Northeast. That’s fucked up.
Why does it seems most video game companies think backwards when they make a sequel to their series, getting rid of nice features for crappy ones? You’d think they would want to ADD ONTO IT, not make the next game worse than the last!
I’m not saying FarCry 3 is worse than 2. But if it had the same useful features as 2 did, it would be even better.
So, that’s my opinion on FarCry 3. It’s still a must own, even for the $50 they ask for it. And I hadn’t even scratched the surface. There’s so much more to this game as you progress in the Single Player campaign.
And yes, there IS freeplay after completing the campaign, unlike in FarCry 2.