I’ve played the Far Cry games ever since it’s very attentive AI enemies would locate and kick my ass for making the mistake of shuffling through the not-high-enough high grass. Since then, it’s blossomed into a full on sandbox style FPS with Far Cry 2. Now FC2 was OK, although I still have yet to beat the game because it simply got too repetitive for my tastes (the curse of any big sandbox title is the tendency to fill the empty spaces with repetitive grinding that makes the game redundant and boring). Still, after seeing some of the previews for the 3rd in the series I decided to give the game a try.
I’ve put in about 10 hours so far, and from my POV the game’s biggest weakness is that it was published/developed by Ubisoft. Nothing like trying to play your new game and getting the pimp hand because yet again their back-end DRM infrastructure has broken. I’m sure that might dissuade a handful of software pirates but like gun control and Obamacare – it just ends up hurting the folks it was intended to “help.”
FC3, like many other shooters released over the past few years has decided to incorporate many RPG style features such as leveling, skill trees, crafting, and looting. When a friend asked me to describe the game in a few words, I replied “It’s Skyrim with machine guns.” Of course, I got bored with Skyrim after committing a paycheck worth of time to the game because it became too redundant and boring. I’m not quite there with FC3 yet.
You start the game on a tropical paradise overrun by pirates. You and your friends were there on vacation, and ended up being captured then held for ransom by the pirates. With the help of your older brother who’s a soldier on leave, you escape and the game begins. Immediately you’re approached by the indigenous people who have been struggling to overcome the pirates and regain control of their homeland. Your skills expand through the addition of a “tatau” which is a tattoo on your arm that illustrates your choices on the skill tree and identifies you to everyone as a warrior for the islanders.
It’s not hard to start making money, collecting weapons, crafting syringes from plants (health, other boosts) and other accessories with the skins of various animals roaming the massive landscape. Want to carry more weapons? Kill some animals and craft a larger holster. More ammo? More health? Better armor? That’s right. You start with the ability to carry 1 gun and a pathetic amount of ammunition and health syringes. While stealth is key to many of the games missions and other tasks – it isn’t necessary. At least it isn’t so necessary that it is annoying and distracts from gameplay (ie Deus Ex, Splinter Cell, Dishonored, etc…) They make stealth fun. Sure, you can just run into a stronghold shooting, but you can also do it from a distance with one of my 2 favorite weapons – a silenced sniper rifle or the recurve bow. Accomplish the task without being detected, and you get various bonuses like the ability to carry even MORE ammunition…. YEAH!
I’m not bored with it yet – even though it took me 2 nights of play to return to Minecraft for a break from the action… It’s still worth the price of admission.
