$20 Game of the Week: Far Cry 3 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)

Far Cry 3 is perhaps one of the most improved sequels of last generation. While Far Cry 2 wasn’t a bad game, there were several key issues that held the game back from being a true classic. Far Cry 3 manages to fix most of these issues, and while it introduces some new issues of its own, they are hardly anything deal breaking. Playing as Jason Brody, you and your friends make your way to a tropical paradise, only to find out that it’s a haven for a ring of pirates and mercenaries who engage in, among other things, human trafficking. Captured by a madman named Vaas, Jason must find his friends and escape the island. After barely making it out of Vaas’s camp alive, Jason meets the Rykat, a tribe of island natives who can help him destroy Vaas and his men.

Like its predecessor, FC3 is an open world first-person shooter. Players will wield a variety of weapons as they travel throughout the Rook Islands. However, every mile of the island is dangerous. Mercenaries and pirates travel throughout the island, and even the wildlife is out to get you. Thankfully, you can kill the animals, and skin them to make new items. This is necessary too, as there is only so much players will be able to hold, and you’ll need to craft new holsters and wallets in order to hold more equipment. In a mechanic borrowed from Assassin’s Creed, players can scale to the top of a radio tower, activate it to reveal the secrets of the surrounding area, then zipline back down. This is also necessary too, as not only does it reveal more of the map, but you’ll earn free weapons from the weapon dealers throughout the island, and these are weapons that you’d normally would have to buy otherwise. It’s best to do this so you can spend more money on ammo and upgrades rather than new weapons. Speaking of which, there are vending machines scattered throughout the island that will allow players to refill their ammo and access weapons and upgrades they already unlocked. The best part? THE WEAPONS DON’T JAM ANYMORE!!!

As I said earlier, all the issues that FC2 had are fixed in this entry. Hated having to travel dozens of miles after a mission to the nearest bus station just so you can get some more ammo and weapons at home base? Well, now there is a fast travel feature that lets players travel to areas they already visited. Hated the omnipotent AI that opened fire on you soon as you entered the area making stealth all but impossible? Well now enemies act and react more realistically, and stealth is a key component of the game if you choose to utilize it. Hated how the only currency was diamonds and how they were hard to find? Well, now, currency is money, and it’s quite easy to find. In fact, you’ll find junk items whose only purpose is to sell for cash. Remember how you’d clear out an outpost and return 5 minutes later to find the whole place re-staffed? Well, in FC3, once you clear out a checkpoint, you permanently claim it for yourself, or rather the Rykat. You then gain access to a safe house, ammo refills, and vehicles. Of course the outposts are bigger now but it’s worth going through the trouble of clearing them out. Remember how you couldn’t do much in the way of interacting with the wildlife you find throughout the game? Well, I hope you’re fucking happy now.

Finally, remember how you’d pick a weapon up off a dead enemy in FC2 only to have the goddamed thing jam in the middle of a firefight? Well, THE WEAPONS DON’T JAM ANYMORE! Yeah, I know I said it before, but it’s worth mentioning twice. There are now upgradable abilities that will help give players an advantage in fighting, exploration, and hunting/crafting.

Of course not everything is all good about this title. For one thing, the storyline smacks of the ‘great white chosen one’ trope. There’s even a ‘magic negro’ that helps Jason out and gives him guidance. Thankfully this entire trope is blown to hell and back towards the end of the game. I’m not the type to scream ‘RACISM!’ at everything, nor am I gonna get all SJW on ya, but in an industry that catches enough slack for having most of it’s main characters as slack-jawed white males, it becomes suspect. I’m just saying though, that if all the Rykat all have these tattoos, why is Jason the only one who gets super powers with his? As I said though, this plot device is violently deconstructed throughout the game, and UbiSoft has addressed this criticism in this game’s sequel. Besides, it’s not like I have to deal with fucking malaria again.

This wouldn’t be such a bad thing in of itself, but however, the guy I’m playing as, Jason Brody, is WHINY, LITTLE, BITCH. As a matter of fact, his whole crew are a bunch a whiny millennial douchebags. If it wasn’t for all the fun I’m having shooting and killing everything in my path, hunting animals, upgrading my weapons, and burning down weed farms with a flame thrower, I’d be tempted to leave these asshats to their fates and let them get sold to some sheikh in Dubai or something. Out of all the characters in the game, Vaas is the most interesting. It’s similar to the Jackal in FC2, where the villain is more interesting than any of the protagonists. That’s not by default either, Vaas is so crazy and insane, it’s just so awesome to watch him on screen.

Still, even with these flaws, the actual gameplay of FC3 is more than enough to make up for any shortcomings. Along with single player, players also have access to a map maker and online multiplayer, including a separate co-op campaign. While it shares nothing in common with either of its predecessors (besides being an open world FPS), fans of the series will once again enjoy Far Cry’s brand of combat and exploration. They’ll enjoy it even more so now that there is more to do and see.