Video Game Review Part 1: Far Cry 3 (PS3)

One of the best bang for your buck last generation video games that every gamer should play at lease once.

Attempting a review of a video game of this magnitude is a challenge. To suggest that a mere review can capture all of what Far Cry 3 has to offer is insulting. With that in mind, my opinion of Far Cry 3 will be beamed directly to your yearning retinas in two parts. In part one I will focus on the game as a whole as I normally do, covering the good, the bad, and whether or not this game is worth your money. In part two, I will cover Far Cry 3's campaign, multiplayer, and map editor modes further in detail.

So sit back and relax, dearest reader, and allow me to be your guide for the evening through one of the most impressively comprehensive video games to have ever grace mortal kind. Where shall I dare to begin?

How to Tokyo Drift Over Sumatran Tigers: A Beginner's Guide

Oh this is a great spot. Just to give you an idea of what sort of video game we are dealing with, in just five easy steps, this helpful guide will teach you how to enjoy one of the many impressive attractions Far Cry 3 has to offer!

1. Using the rather well thought out map, locate the tiger symbol circled red in the inset image.
2. Hop in any old jalopy strewn about the island and head over to the area marked by the tiger symbol in the map. With plenty of cars lying about, rarely will you find yourself sprinting around the over world for hours. The bad news, though, is each vehicle drives like a segway on ice. 
3. Once you find a tiger, though, mash the accelerator and right before impact press the emergency brake button until you've crossed that smug tiger's face off of the endangered species list. Tigers are cocky creatures and will stupidly stand there, essentially begging for it, taking your shit until you actually nail that sucker right in the stripes. So go get 'em tiger! I hate myself.
   
   
   
4. Protip: The stripes are where tigers are most weak.
5. Kill all witnesses.

The Island is Your Playground

After you've spent some time killing every living creature in sight (because you will), there are a wealth of missions, side quests, caves, and collectibles to keep you busy. Far Cry 3 takes place on Rook Island, an archipelago that spans a total of 8 square miles in single player. Comparatively speaking, that's not much compared to Rockstar adventure games but once you consider the sheer amount of stuff Ubisoft crams into this area it's insane. Features range from cascading waterfalls hidden in mountain tops to deep underwater caverns, each beautifully crafted to hide goodies for you to find. This favorable stuff-to-area ratio makes the world feel much larger than it actually is and helps the fun meter stay turned to 11 throughout the experience.

For example, let's say that you tire (OH HO HO!) of drifting over tigers for whatever unearthly reason you may have, worry not! You can then sneak past patrolling pirates to reach a mountain's top in order to search for a hidden collectible pinpointed on your world map, only to find a murder of wild cassowaries between you and your prize. They try their best to gut you like a pig and because you didn't bring you flamethrower, you are forced to make a leap of faith off of the nearest cliff's edge, deploying your wing suit to glide to safety... or right in the middle of a murder of pirates that welcome your arrival via Molotov cocktail.

This happens much more often than it needs to.

Or, you can do what I find personally fun, repeatedly play side missions with objectives such as "Run over as many people as humanly possible" and "See how many people you can blow up with this infinite ammo rocket launcher". What is great about the variety missions and treasure hunts is that almost anything can happen in the time between them, and you have full reign on how to react. In other words, if you are ever bored with this game after only ten hours of gameplay then its your own damn fault. That's the beauty of having such variety in gameplay, you are bound to find something that you enjoy doing. Hell, you can even play poker in game if you're into that sort of things and have no friends.

Visually Well Hung! 

While you are busy doing all of that hunting/exploring/burning stuff, you will be treated with visuals so incredible that it gives life itself a run for its money. Maybe not, but Far Cry 3 really does shows off what your platform of choice can do. Needless to say, the PC version packs the most visual punch but even on the PS3 the visuals are quite nice. Admittedly, the game paused to load the next section of map in the middle of my gameplay around four or five times throughout the experience, and there is some screen tearing to be had, but all is forgiven considering the performance this title demands from the console.

The visual impact makes it easy to get lost in this world, and its a true shame that Ubisoft inexplicably provides players with an in-game camera with no ability to save or to share the photographs you take in-game. But, of course, that is why you do the right thing and buy the PC version if your rig can run the title. Be sure to watch the embedded video and to click on any of the images in this review for larger views of game footage.

But How Did He See Me From So Far Away?! Ugh, Goddammit

Alas, no matter how much I wanted this game to be perfect, it simply is not so. There are few issues here and there that I will expand on later in part two, but the major drawback has to be liberating those goddamned outposts. Offering an insane amount of freedom, Ubisoft needed a constant challenge for players to sink their teeth into lest they feel lost with total freedom. For Far Cry 3, that means pirate outposts. These are camps where you must attack and repel the occupying pirates for the benefit of a fast travel location, a vehicle spawn point, and access to the in-game weapons store. What could possibly go wrong?

You know damn well where this is going.

The difficulty involved in liberating one of thirty-four outposts is completely ridiculous. Sure, I am terrible at video games, but your enemy outguns you, outnumbers you, and worst of all they each have 20/20 vision and pinpoint accuracy. Worse yet, how stealth in this game is a complete joke. On too many occasions I would set up with a sniper rifle overlooking an outpost only to be spotted by the enemy within seconds of firing my silenced weapon. Once this happens, every pirate in the area is up my ass faster than I have time to fiddle with the over thought weapon select screen.

While not impossible to come out on top in these heavily one sided situations, its best to take a stealth approach and avoid the confrontation all together. Which would be great if silenced weapons were actually silent. I image the design choice to make silent weapons work only sometimes was meant to provide unexpected challenge to gamers, but in a game that's already content rich, what's the point? Furthermore, why the shit aren't my silenced weapons motherfucking silent?!

Worth Buying?

Never mind that, though. You are most definitely better at playing games than I am and the challenge involved with taking over outposts provides a huge sense of accomplishment once completed unless you are me.

Ultimately, one of this game's greatest assets is its ability to awaken the sense of adventure inside of you, rewarding the explorer in us all if we are willing to answer that nagging voice in our head asking "What's just around that bend I wonder? Keep going. Keep exploring." While it has its few flaws, Far Cry 3 sets the standard of what video games should provide to gamers: freedom to have hours of fun in a world void of gratuitous restraints. This is a game that ever gamer needs to play at least once. Period.

Well, not really "period" because here is the link to the PART 2 of the review.