Far Cry 3 | Cheerful Ghost

Far Cry 3 - An Open World Dark Shootageddon

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Last year in June I picked up the Far Cry franchise pack for about $15. I had picked up Far Cry 2 on PS3 from a discount bin a few years earlier and really enjoyed that and decided that picking up the original Far Cry, Far Cry 2, Far Cry 3 + all DLC & Far Cry Blood Dragon for $15 was a good idea. I recently completed Far Cry 3(yeah yeah, I took my time) and wanted to talk a bit about my experience with the game.

Largely I enjoyed the game and if you are looking for a fun open world shooter with tons of stuff to do, you need to pickup Far Cry 3. One nice thing about getting it now on PC is the rock bottom price and the fact that it comes with all the DLC out of the... Read All Last year in June I picked up the Far Cry franchise pack for about $15. I had picked up Far Cry 2 on PS3 from a discount bin a few years earlier and really enjoyed that and decided that picking up the original Far Cry, Far Cry 2, Far Cry 3 + all DLC & Far Cry Blood Dragon for $15 was a good idea. I recently completed Far Cry 3(yeah yeah, I took my time) and wanted to talk a bit about my experience with the game.

Largely I enjoyed the game and if you are looking for a fun open world shooter with tons of stuff to do, you need to pickup Far Cry 3. One nice thing about getting it now on PC is the rock bottom price and the fact that it comes with all the DLC out of the gate. That said, I had a rough start with Far Cry 3 and you can read about that below.

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/2130/great-rpg-shooter-cliched-narrative

I stand behind my first experience with the game and note that I think my reaction was somewhat intended by the designers. I didn't realize it at the time but Far Cry 3 is an interesting game that mixes in satire and a meta story that puts a light on gamers and gaming culture that really didn't work on me to start. I thought the game was simply rolling with tired "white man saves the natives" tropes because it would sell to it's primarily white gamer dude audience. Whereas I am sure the game did well with white guys because the main character was a white guy if you pay attention to what is happening Far Cry 3 writes a compelling story about a protagonist that actually changes over the course of the game. Often we play shooters that have us do things that have absolutely no lasting world or character impact. Far Cry 3 differs in that your actions change how the characters you are trying to save feel about you. You actions also change the world you inhabit in very interesting ways.

The core gameplay is fun when you are not thinking too much about what you are being led to do. I sort of look at Far Cry 3 as Skyrim with guns but that's not a perfect analogy. You need to explore new areas to reach your objectives and to do that you need to unlock cell towers and bases. This can get tedious but since the game took me a year to complete, I didn't feel that as much as someone that may have played it straight through. The gun unlock and upgrade system is fun and I enjoyed sinking skill points into my character and see him progress.

Overall I had fun playing Far Cry 3 but when the ending credits rolled I didn't feel like I had accomplished much. By the end of the game your friends and family seem to be fearful of you and what I accomplished I didn't really enjoy doing. I kind of wish there was the "leave the Island and call the authorities" button but if you did that, many of your friends and family would have died. That said, Far Cry 3 has you reflect on your actions so does it make sense morally to kill thousands of people to save 5 or 6? If this were real life then i'd say hell no but then again, it's just a video game so it doesn't matter. Far Cry 3 is a solid shooter Island romp that might leave you a bit uneasy with what you are led to do but it has more life than the protagonists soul by the end of the game.

Great RPG Shooter. Cliched Narrative.

I love open world games. I can't wait for Fallout 4 and "yet another Skyrim game?" Yes please. That's why Far Cry 3 was the game I was the most interested to get in the last Steam sale. So when I saw the entire Far Cry franchise pack on sale for $15 I jumped at it.

To start things off properly, I installed the original Far Cry. I've heard great things about it and to date, haven't played it. After playing it for a few hours I can say I had a pretty good time and I now see why people hold it in high regard. That said, it's really fucking hard, the story isn't great and the play is a bit stiff. There was little to keep my interest in advancement so I didn't complete it,... Read All I love open world games. I can't wait for Fallout 4 and "yet another Skyrim game?" Yes please. That's why Far Cry 3 was the game I was the most interested to get in the last Steam sale. So when I saw the entire Far Cry franchise pack on sale for $15 I jumped at it.

To start things off properly, I installed the original Far Cry. I've heard great things about it and to date, haven't played it. After playing it for a few hours I can say I had a pretty good time and I now see why people hold it in high regard. That said, it's really fucking hard, the story isn't great and the play is a bit stiff. There was little to keep my interest in advancement so I didn't complete it, but I do see why people love it. For the time it was a beautiful, open world experience at a time where that kind of game wasn't very popular.

Originally I played Far Cry 2 on the PS3 I acquired from a Gamestop bargain bin sale and for the $5 I payed for it, thought it was great. Far Cry 2 improves on the Far Cry game play and graphics in nearly every way I can think of. That said, the version I picked up in the Steam sale is far superior to the PS3 version graphically and the game is still, very good. It's a fairly dark game as your start by picking a mercenary character to play as. You fly into a war-torn African country and complete for-hire jobs from two sides of the countries conflict. Over the course of the game, you hunt down The Jackal and attempt to stop him from arming both sides.

That said, I was more interested in Far Cry 3 and after a few hours of Far Cry 2 on PC I started Far Cry 3.

The first cut scene is the video above and as you can see, the game starts up with some bro worthy shenanigans. I was hoping there would be some kind of satirical element at play or a wink and nod to this kind of bro-culture, but it was played straight. It's as if the writers of Far Cry 3 are trying really hard to get "dat white guy" audience to love the game but it just comes off as some really bad version of some MTV reality show. That said, the intro sequence doesn't last forever and you are thrust into the part of the game where you can ignore the main story, because honestly, this game is best served that way.

It's not so much the intro sequence as the entire setup of the main narrative entirely. Basically the point of the game is that your are Whitey McDude on a vacation with your bro-squad living life to the X-treme when you take a totally questionable sky dive jump into a camp of pirates. The story does get sightly more interesting as you are called "a little bitch" by the pirate leader Vaas. Again, the games narrative gets more interesting when the super X-treme bro-squad get's imprisoned by pirates, if only for a minute. That said, the shit gets real fast and you escape the camp to later be knocked unconscious. You wake up in the hut of "one of the good island natives" and he proceeds to say you are going to save the island because you are a warrior. Nothing to this point proves you are a warrior, except deep down, this guy feels it. He then proceeds to tattoo you up and hands you a gun and you set out to save his people.

As much pandering as that is, I think this game might have been more interesting if you were some islander who got fed up with the pirates and decided to take action. But instead of that it's Whitey McDude on the case and does he ever look good in that plain white shirt and those tribal tattoos.

That said, if you ignore the story and focus on the gameplay that's where the game shines. The game is a fantastic open world extravaganza of interesting gameplay and great shooting mechanics. It's awesome to just simply walk around in this world as the art is so beautiful. As you walk around the island, wild dogs will chase other animals like pigs and goats. In fact, there are tons of animals on the island and experiencing them all is fun. Getting attacked by a shark for the first time scared the shit out of me so much I decided to take revenge by going on a great white killing spree with a Jetski. Jaws couldn't top the carnage I inflicted on his children and many sharks were lost.

Nearly every element of the game is upgradable by collecting some in game item and crafting it. For instance, if you want to upgrade an ammo pouch, hunt a wild boar and craft a better one from the skins. The game doesn't skimp on the gore as it shows the player taking out a knife and cutting up the animal you are hunting.

If you are looking for a really neat RPG open world shooter, Far Cry 3 is for you. If you are expecting a game that goes beyond seriously cliched plot devices you will be disappointed but there is a lot of awesome here to love. And if it's any consolation, Far Cry 4 drops the white savior main character and opts for something a bit more interesting. Because if there is anything i've come to expect is the next version of Far Cry should be a ton better than the previous one.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/18/2014 at 01:56pm

A bit of trivia: Vaas is played (VO and Mo-Cap) by Michael Mando, He plays Vic "the Dick" in Orphan Black, which is about as far from Vaas as you can get. Great actor.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3103126/?ref_=tt_cl_i8

A few questions for you--
1. How long did the game last you?
2. Did you also play Blood Dragon? I've heard it's basically an 80s campy extravaganza set on the same island.
3. Did you get any motion sickness from it? I played it for a few hours and the room was spinning. Apparently there's a fix for that but I haven't tried it yet.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/18/2014 at 04:04pm

1. Still playing it. I'll let you know total hours if/when I beat it.

2. Blood Dragon was part of the far Cry pack but since it came after FC3 I'll play it afterward. I played the demo though, it's fun.

3. No motion sickness so far.

Zach_Foster wrote on 07/18/2014 at 06:49pm

I played the original game on PC right after it came out. I was thoroughly impressed with the game and it more than held my attention for the amount of time i played it (probably a total of 20 hours) until i got a new game and simply moved on.

I played a little bit of Far Cry Vengeance on the WII and I'll say that the game was fun and fairly well built, but playing it on the WII ruined it for me. It was just too much effort trying to do all the controls it required while still trying not to get shot, so i didn't put a whole lot of time into it.

I believe i've played a bit of FC2 but i dont remember enough about it to comment. Haven't played FC3 but a friend told me that i should buy it for the sole purpose of playing Blood Dragon, even though i later found out it's a stand-alone game and you don't need FC3 to play it.

Sounds good to me though, next time i see FC3 on sale i'll give it a go.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/18/2014 at 09:05pm

Yeah, Blood Dragon is stand alone and doesn't require Far Cry 3 at all.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/19/2014 at 10:29pm

@Travis: OK yeah I got a bit sick after steaming it on my TV. When I sit down to play it "PC Style" without a controller things are generally fine.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/20/2014 at 03:33pm

How far had you gotten in the game, story-wise, at the time you posted this article?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/20/2014 at 04:12pm

Met up with the woman that runs the tribe I fight for.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/20/2014 at 09:52pm

I actually enjoyed the story, and I'd say that it does get much more interesting as it progresses. I remember thinking something similar when I started playing, that it was a bit heavy handed with the rich-kid American all of a sudden becoming a warrior, but there are twists later on that give it a little more depth, and offer insight as to why Jason Brody is being pushed to "save the island." It's definitely more Clive Cussler than Daniel Defoe, but I don't know that I'd go so far as to call it cliche.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/20/2014 at 11:55pm

Cliche, trope, whatever you want to call "white guy saves the natives" storyline. Ubi or Disney, it's a pretty trodden plotline. That said, it doesn't make the game bad OR the story bad, but the start of the game sort of rubbed me the wrong way. Like I said though, the game is pretty bad ass.

That said, maybe they will open things up a bit as the game continues. It's possible the game creators decided to do something pretty tropey and then do something different later.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/21/2014 at 02:11am

I haven't played it that much due to the aforementioned motion sickness issues, but I took the plot to be poking fun at the trope. It didn't seem to be taking itself seriously to me.

I could be wrong, or seeing what I want to see, but I found it enjoyable *because* I thought they were making fun of it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/21/2014 at 04:05am

They may very well have done that. Interesting if they did because it was, in my case, super effective

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The 80s Are Dead, Long Live the 80s

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. This is pretty much how I thought the world would end up by 2007. I mean, it's what we were lead to believe, anyway. Since it didn't, it's nice to know that the good kids over at Ubisoft Montreal have given us a portal into such a world. A totally radical world. Totally.

http://fc3blooddragon.uk.ubi.com/index.php

$14.99, and doesn't require the purchase of the original Far Cry 3. May 1st release, on all the usual suspects.

scrypt Supporter Post Author wrote on 04/12/2013 at 02:37am

The US site seems to be down, so I posted the link to the UK site. I'm sure they're fairly similar.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/12/2013 at 04:09am

This looks totally epic. Going to be picking up the FC3 GoTY for sure!

Will_Owens wrote on 04/13/2013 at 07:57am

The art style and gameplay of the actual game look pretty rad, but the tongue in cheek thing is getting pretty stale for me. I enjoy stuff from the 80s, but I also like the sincerity of it.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/13/2013 at 09:12pm

I agree Will. I also don't mind the nod to how campy it was, but I sincerely love the 80's too. The music, the movies(Breakfast Club, The Last Starfighter, etc) the vibe. Deloreans.