Game review: Far Cry 3

I'll be the first to admit: I haven't been nearly as active on this blog as I should have been lately. Blame work, if you must blame something. Also, blame the fact I've been doing my best to catch up on games I never played properly in the past now that I've built a monster rig (and a feature on such games is on the way). But, for the past three weeks or so, you should also be blaming Far Cry 3.

Now, you're probably familiar with the franchise started by Crytek all those years ago. You'd be excused for not thinking very highly of it, though. Far Cry 1 was, frankly, a major disappointment. Overhyped because of revolutionary (at the time) graphics and AI as well as an open world environment of a tropical island, it was nevertheless marred by the camp plot that ditched realism for an Island of Dr. Moreau bad rip-off. Be that as it may, it sold. A lot. And after some "creative disagreements", the franchise was given to Ubisoft Montreal to continue. 

And continue it they did, with 2008's Far Cry 2. Thematically, the game had quite a few similarities to the previous iteration, but plot-wise it was its own beast entirely. Set in 50 square kilometers of a fictional african country torn by civil war, FC2 followed the story of a mercenary trying to track down and kill the Jackal, an arms dealer in the middle of it all. FC2 kept the open-environment and gritty realism, even knocking them up several notches, and ditched the island look and most of the greenery. What FC2 added to the mix was immersion: you never, ever, ever stopped looking through your character's eyes. Even maps were handheld. And it also added, for real, what Far Cry 1 had promised but failed to bring to the table: dynamic approaches to situations. There were a gazillion ways to go about accomplishing a goal, lighting stuff on fire and letting nature do its nasty work not excluded.

And Far Cry 3 takes the best of both worlds, adds some hallucinogenic drugs to the mix and shakes violently into a volatile, rainbow coloured goo.

Immediately while trying to write this review, I ran into a big, big problem. There don't seem to be any screenshots online that do Vaas a shred of justice. I mean, look at this. For someone who seems to be one of the most charismatic villains of the last few years in any game genre whatsoever, the screenshots all portray him like some sort of constipated baboon that's at the same time, extremely horny. So, instead, let's look at the introduction of the game together. The glint in his eyes, the smirk as if it's all a big joke you've failed to get, the way he talks...you know from the get go this is one insane motherfucker. 

The disappointing thing is, Vaas is the main baddie of the game for 2/3 of the game, when the stage is set up for going after his boss, Hoyt. And if you feel Vaas looks dangerous, wait till you see Hoyt. Colder, more calculating, Hoyt is Ras Al Ghul to Vaas' Joker to your Batman. But as dangerous as Hoyt is, he's nowhere near as disturbingly enticing or charismatic as Vaas.

The story goes, you're a privileged American youth by the name of Jason Brody, having an awesome vacation on some tropical islands with your two brothers, your brother's girlfriend, your girlfriend, and three more friends, two of which happen to be a couple. A real Brody Bunch, so to speak. 

You skydive into an island and then it all goes south: you're taken hostage by modern pirates lead by Vaas, to be ransomed and/or sold into slavery. You escape and are taken in by Dennis, a social reject who found his place on the island among the Rakyat, a tribe of native warriors who seem keen to welcome outsiders in their inner circle, lead by the subtly crazy Citra.

Thus begins a tale of rescuing your friends one by one, while at the same time doing a bit of background soul searching and discovering your true self as a born warrior, supported by a cast of really well voiced and animated characters, like the aforementioned bunch, the villains (including Buck, who likes to f...) and supporting characters such as
Dr. Earnhardt. The tale takes you places, progressing at an interesting pace for the most part with minor twists and turns and even a couple of big ones, even making you do things you really didn't think you'd have to do. Subjects such as violence, drugs, change, relationships, power, even rape: nothing seems to be off limits. It all results in a positively fucked up choice at the end, which can be very hard depending on how invested you are in the story by the time you have to make it. The main story, however, cinematic as it may be, is merely the tip of the iceberg.

The island feels huge, and having all this environment and not filling it with stuff to do would be a real shame. Good thing they didn't pass by the opportunity, then. Let's attempt to explain how this works (a shitload of info incoming). 

*Most of the things you do in the game (including killing enemies impressively , ie, stealthily or instantly) will give you an amount of xp. Each time you level up, you'll have the choice of spending a skill point on your mystical tatau (a fancy tattoo given to you by the Rakyat) to gain new abilities or enhance existing ones. The path of the Heron focuses on range and mobility, the path of the Shark (bizzarely) focuses on healing and destruction and the path of the Spider focuses on stealth and trade. The tattoo will be visibly changing on your character as you level up.

*The game has a relatively simple but effective crafting mechanic that allows you to craft medicine, combat, hunting or exploration-boosting drugs or containers.

*This is achieved by collecting Yellow, Crimson, White, Green or Amber leaves for the drugs and medicine, and skinning the animals you kill for their leather for the containers.

*Each container requires specific materials, so you can't just be killing boars at the beginning area and you'll be set. You want to be carrying 4 weapons at the same time? You want to have a larger ammo capacity? You want to have a larger rucksack? Hunt, motherfucker! 

*The island(s) is(are) peppered with towns and camps, some controlled by the Rakyat, some by the pirates, some independent.

* The island is unofficially divided into regions depending on the radius around  pirate or Rakyat controlled camps.

*Rakyat regions offer relative safety from pirate patrols and roamers, as well as shops to sell loot or buy/acquire the impressive arsenal you'll be carrying around, which is also customisable with scopes, silencers and even paint jobs.

*Pirate regions have regular hostile patrols and roamers but, once the main camp is neutralized, it will become a Rakyat region. Once taken, this will also unlock Wanted quests and/or Hunter quests.

*Wanted quests will require that you kill your target with a knife, which depending on their posse might require some really creative stealth.

*Hunter quests require you complete a hunt with a specific weapon, and later ones will have you hunt the rare animals that are required for the top-tier containers.

*The map is obscured by sabotaged radio towers, which you'll have to climb in a display of daredevil platforming to get back online. Each radio tower fixed will, on top of revealing part of the map, permanently unlock a couple of weapons at the shops for free instead of having to buy them.

*The islands have a healthy dose of minor quests (old lady and the plane crash, shudder), as well as races and supply runs (glorified races).

*There's a whole lot of relics scattered around the islands for you to find, as well as pirate memory cards, as well as letters from the Japanese soldiers stationed there during WW2. These are, of course, just collectibles, but at least one skill will need 5 relics found to become obtainable.

*The game boasts an impressive array of weapons, from pistols to heavy machineguns, from flare guns to flamethrowers, from the silent bow and its special arrows (incendiary or explosive) to the acetyline torch required to fix damaged vehicles. Oh, and also a lot of vehicles. And ziplines. And gliders. And later on, even a wingsuit. 

*The whole island reacts dynamically, sometimes to your favor, sometimes not so much. Start a fire, and it might spread towards an outpost and create enough chaos so you can take advantage of the situation. Release a predatory animal in captivity, and it will attack whatever is close to it. Shoot a tire of a patrolling jeep, and it might veer of course and down a cliff. Then again, it might just all go tits up.

The screenshots pretty much speak for the themselves here: this is one of the most beautiful games you'll play for a few years. I can't really know how well it scales to lower end computers, having only tried it on a really low end one and the current monster rig. On a AMD dual core running at 2,1Ghz with 4GB of RAM and a Radeon HD4750 with 512GB of RAM, the same is unplayable, even at the lowest possible settings. On an i5 at 2,2Ghz with 8GB of RAM and a Radeon HD7770 with 2GB of RAM, it's smooth even on the highest possible settings. Be warned, this will squeeze everything it possibly can out of your graphics card. But, oh me oh my, it's definitely worth it. The island, characters, foliage, wildlife and effects are so beautifully rendered they will leave you gasping at the screen. The indoor environments seem to detract from the overall wow factor, but then again, you won't be spending that much time indoors. Screenshots from the console versions look understandably less impressive than PC ones, but still pretty damn impressive. 

The audio also surprised me: crisp and clear, you can actually tell what's going on in the general area just by listening closely. Is that a firefight I hear way off in the distance? Sure enough, it is. Was that a low growl? Sure enough HOLY SHIT A LEOPARD ARGHLLLghglhlhlhl! No sound is just filler here and it all serves a purpose, from the tiniest sound effect to the mostly pitch-perfect voice acting. Music only kicks in at specific bits to enhance that cinematic feel, and it works beautifully. Keep your ears pricked for "Ride of the Valkyries".

All in all, Far Cry 3 is the shining jewel in the franchise, and one of the few sequels that managed to surpass every single game in the series before them in every single aspect. Do not pass it by.