The Nerd Agenda: Far Cry 3 Review

Now before I start let me make something clear, when I first saw Far Cry 3 being demoed at E3 I was put off by it, I didn't like the way it handled, the way it looked and the way it played overall. Now that it has been released all I can say is that my mouth is full of crow and it is one of the best games I have ever played in 2012. More after the jump

Far Cry 3's total package is not uncommon, it has a lengthy single player, a well thought out multiplayer mode and a...cooperative mode which is disappointing to say the least.

The single player campaign like the rest of the game modes take place in the dense tropical jungles of the Rook Islands. The player character Jason Brody ,his friends and his two brothers are on vacation and they decided that the Rook Islands would make a perfect stop for the final leg of their journey. They skydived onto the island in hopes they would party in paradise. But all this is cut short when Vaas and his merry band of viscous pirates kidnap and imprison Jason and his group. Jason and his older brother manage to escape their jail cell and while Jason manages to escape the prison relatively unharmed however his brother dies at the hands of Vaas. Jason makes a pact to kill Vaas and rescue his friends and his remaining brother.

Along the way he discovers Citra and her militia known as the Rakyat who fight to take back their island from Vaas and his pirates. He also meets the real antagonist Hoyt Volker a sadistic slaver and drug kingpin who makes Vaas looks sane in comparison.

The overall story is pretty standard and feels very average overall, it's as if the developers looked at some cliche 80's action flick and ripped the story from there. The developers do try their best to push the boundaries of video game storytelling with plot elements such as rape, heavy drug use, the loss of family and friends and slavery. These elements when they do show up in the storyline feel like that they were put to good use but as the story goes on these elements are not seen as much instead the overall plot relies heavily on Jason wanting revenge upon the people that have wronged him and is largely because of this the story feels cliche and done.

The story misses out on several other points, for example the whole side story of Citra and her people liberating their island is barely covered. This was a huge mistake made by the developers, I wanted to see the people of the island being oppressed and then rise up to take their island back but all that there is are only few elements of resistance and even then they act like they care very little about the events going on.

However if there is one thing that the storyline does right is the interaction between characters. In the aforementioned death of Jason's eldest brother the game had me hold him in his final moments, I really felt connected with the character and as I stared into the eyes of my dying brother I wanted to kill the man that took him away from me. Even the less violent moments like interacting with Jason's friends feel touching and very real. Even the interactions among the NPCs felt very real, they will care and comfort each other after a escaping near death, they will weep, mourn and feel fear with each other.I love the fact when a developer takes the time to think about these NPCs and how they act with not just the player character but with each other as well. The fact that almost everyone in the game is acted with great ability just makes it a whole lot sweeter. Not many games handle the interaction between characters well and Far Cry 3 has just set the benchmark for that category.

Your brother shot in the throat and you try to hold in the gushing wound with little success, moments like this are some
of the best in any game.

As mentioned before many of the voice actors do a brilliant job in conveying their role to the gamer. Vaas Montenegro (voiced by Michael Mando) is perhaps the best of the bunch. Vaas is perhaps one of the most psychopathic characters ever to appear in a video game, everything from his movements to his tone of voice screams out evil. He will tease you as you are being burnt alive or running away from a hail of gunfire, his humor although very dark will give you a chuckle or two. Overall Vaas is an antagonist but one that feels human because throughout the story he will show anger, hatred but also vulnerabilities such as fear and addiction. You can also tell that Vaas was not born insane but was bred into it and to some degree this makes him a tragic villain as well. Another thing that he does well is the aforementioned body movements, very few games take into account on how a villain should move but Ubisoft has done a brilliant job with this. For example in the early moments of the game as Vaas is teasing the player character in his jail cell he actually has the gall to pop his head in between the bars to convey his hatred for the player character. It is these actions that make him a great overall character. One final thing that Michael Mando does right is his ability to convey the right tone of voice for Vaas' emotions. In the same conversation you can expect Vaas to be mellow and even lucid but then he will unexpectedly snap and then become calm again even if it is just to kick the player into a ravine.

Sadly though Vaas is hardly ever seen in the campaign since it is later revealed that he is not the main antagonist. Instead that role goes to a man known as Hoyt Volker(voiced by Steve Cumyn) and this is a man who has no inhibitions about killing nor is he subtle in doing so. He is far more insane than Vaas and in many ways this is what makes him a lesser villain than him as well. The thing about Vaas is that throughout the storyline he displays brief amounts of humanity trying to claw out of his insanity, you can tell that Vaas fears Hoyt much like how a dog fears an abusive master. Vaas also brings a sense of humor to the storyline albeit one that could result in the death of several characters. Hoyt in comparison has no humor, no humanity and nothing to like. He is a psychopath of the highest and purest caliber.

Another character that stands out is Dr Alec Earnheardt a drug addicted, very insane individual and the only professional doctor that you meet. Earnheardt is one of the many characters that consume drugs but unlike the rest he is visibly tormented by it because throughout the story we are told that the good doctor has a very tragic past and it seems that the drugs numb the pain of this trauma. But despite him being stoned nearly all the time he is perhaps one of the few protagonists that actually is very kind and caring because he still chooses to aid Jason and his friends without any question. Like Vaas his bodily movements also contribute to his overall character, he stutters, he pauses for no reason, he stares into space blankly and at one point he even comforts one of the NPCs much like how a father comforts his sick child. To some degree he is the anti-Vaas, he is insane yet he chooses to be kind and caring at the same time. To get into it deeper many of the characters on the island are insane in some way or another but Earnheardt's insanity is depressing if you take the time to learn about him, the player will feel sympathy for what he has gone through and despite everything that has happened to him he chooses to be the angel among the devils on the island which makes him along with Vaas the best characters in the entire game.

The player character Jason Brody is far more complicated to analyze. At first he is portrayed as a well to do party kid which as we all know is one of the best characters to play as (I am being sarcastic here) but then as the story progresses he evolves very strangely, at first he adopts a savior like persona trying to save his friends and younger brother from Vaas and Hoyt but then he devolves into a vengeful maniac motivated by nothing else to get revenge on the two antagonists. That is not to say he doesn't display humanity every once in a while, he will feel anger, sadness and even weakness at several times in the storyline but the fact remains that as a character he evolves and devolves so often that he is a hard character to like.

Those eyes just scream mental instability don't they?

Two other elements that have to be praised is the detail in the environment and the first person animation. The environment that the player is treated to is simply beautiful and awe inspiring. Even on the consoles it looks downright beautiful. There is also variety in the environments, there is your obvious tropical jungle paradise with beautiful beaches but there are also bunkers left over from the Japanese occupation of the island during the Second World War and caves which tend to be dark and unnerving, you just clutch to your shotgun and hope that nothing jumps out at you. There are also special parts in the game where you can use a hang glider to soar across the skies and truly take in the scenery or you could use it as a shortcut to make an ambush on an enemy stronghold.

The first person animation is also well done and it is a gameplay element very rarely done well in any game. When climbing up a wall you can see the player character use his legs or you can feel his body struggling to find a good mantle point, this deep animation is a great tool to immerse the player in the game.

The single player campaign of Far Cry 3 might be one the best experiences I have ever had in a game. The campaign storyline as previously mentioned is mostly a miss but the gameplay is far from being considered bad in fact the overall the gameplay is nearly perfect in its execution. But first let's talk about the weak side missions within Far Cry 3's campaign. The side missions will task the player to perform chores on the behalf of island's residents. Many of these missions however are fetch quests and the item or items that the player has to fetch tend to be found within walking distance of the mission giver and are even marked on the map. The unimaginative structure of the side missions make it far less fun to play compared with the other gameplay modes.

Throughout the single player campaign there will be several boss battles and for the most part they are uninspired and simple context sensitive minigames. Which is a huge shame because the first boss fight is a drug induced hallucination with a monster. I really wished the developers had gone a different path with these encounters.

See kids? This is why you should not do drugs.

Now that the bad aspects of single player have been explained let's move onto the good. The first thing that I have to mention is that the overall mechanics in the game, everything from crafting to hunting to exploration are done with great care on the part of the developer. Take for example the crafting of the game, for far too long games that have allowed hunting animals have done so because it is a way for the player to earn extra cash in Far Cry 3 however the hunting mechanic is closely related to the crafting mechanic. You can craft weapon holsters, bandoliers and even wallets from the animals you kill. It is a very deep mechanic and one that makes you want to hunt for animals, even the more dangerous ones like sharks and tigers in order for you to increase your ammo or loot stowage size.

The animals themselves also act very much like real animals, the herbivores such as deer, pigs and goats roam around the island innocently only to be mauled by tigers, jaguars and bears who stalk their prey. At one point in the game I was admiring a river with a NPC, this NPC was then ambushed when he got to close to a crocodile laying in wait by the riverbank. I did not know whether to laugh or be horrified at what had just transpired before me. The very natural behavior of the animals just adds to the hunting mechanic of the game, the herbivores will run scared if they feel threatened making them harder to hunt while the carnivores will attack you if you get too close and at times you will become the one that is hunted.

Yum indeed, dinner would be good tonight..

The crafting of medicine comes into play by harvesting different plants found around the island, these plants are used to make medical syringes which then can be used in a myriad of different ways from improving your skills in combat and hunting to your standard healing syringe.

The player is also given a camera which can be used to mark enemies from a distance so essentially this camera is used for recon rather than an actual camera...why the developers thought giving the player an expensive camera for recon would be a better idea than a pair of binoculars is anyone's guess. Joking aside it does work really well and helps a lot in many of the missions throughout the game. Another aspect that is fun are the takedown moves, these are essentially one hit kills with the knife should the player time his/her actions right without being spotted by any hostiles. These moves are satisfying in their execution and style and can be upgraded to be deadlier as the game progresses.

The player contemplates on which is the bigger threat, the gun wielding pirates or the bear from the depths of hell.

One other fun gameplay element is the outpost takeover, this will task the player to take over bases controlled by either Vaas' pirates of Hoyt's private army known as the Privateers. In order to liberate these bases the player has to eliminate every hostile force within the base and in doing so will hand back control of the surrounding area to friendly forces which in turn will make exploration within these liberated areas safer.

While this may sound simple to do it really isn't. Each outpost is constructed differently, some may be out in the open while others are surrounded by water. Some bases will have machine gun nests while others will have snipers high up on perches. It is the unique design of each outpost that will force the player to switch his/her tactics and this being a sandbox game you are able to take on every outpost as you please. The player can climb on a nearby mountain in order to get a better vantage point for reconnaissance or use it as a sniper nest or they can attack the outpost head on with a machine gun or they could stealthily insert themselves and take out the hostiles in the base with bow and arrow or they can even release a conveniently caged wild animal to wreak havoc in the base. The choice of attack is up to the player entirely and this adds to the replayability of the game.

There were few things that I disliked about the outpost missions, one is the fact that once you win over an outpost it stays in your control from that point on, the enemies do not even try to take it back which is strange because the friendly NPCs who occupy the outpost after its liberation mention in their speech that we all have to be weary of an enemy counter attack. I really wish we could have defended a recently liberated outpost against even a small attacking force and as mentioned before the liberation of the island has little impact to the storyline which is a massive shame because from what I could gather from the campaign's storyline the people of the Rook Islands were oppressed and killed off in such numbers it borders on genocide and having them not reacting to the liberation of their islands just puts a damper on things.

Another aspect of Far Cry 3 are the radio tower liberation missions. All around the Rook Islands are radio towers, here the player must climb to the very top of the radio tower and in doing so will not only show the player the nearby points of interest but doing so will reveal more of the map to the player and the more radio towers liberated there the more guns that will become free for the player to use. These radio towers are essentially first person platform sections which I loathe with a passion but the game tries its best to make these sections fun. Every radio tower has its own unique climbing paths, some require precise jumps while others simply require the player to climb onto ropes and ladders.

Then there are the Path of the Hunter and Assassination sidequests. The Path of the Hunter essentially asks the player to kill one or more animals with a specific weapon which is given to the player at the start of the quest. Some of these quests will involve the player hunting for one a kind creatures like a Golden Lion or a one horned buffalo, it can be quite fun in participating in the extinction of these creatures from the island but other than these special missions the Path of the Hunter is linear and can get quite dry.

The Assassination missions on the other hand asks the player to kill a specific target with a knife which like the Path of the Hunter missions sounds linear but the thing is that these targets are never alone and surround themselves with various minions. I like to treat these missions much like the outpost takeover missions, I go to higher ground, gain intelligence, move into the area where the target is and then I silently eliminate all the henchmen and go in with the final kill with a knife. Just like the outpost missions these assassination tasks can be accomplished in many different and creative ways.

Set fire to people and then shoot them as they run in agonizing pain...they are pirates..they had it coming.

Then there is the Path of the Rakyat missions which are immense fun, in these missions players have to beat the high score set by one member of the game's development team and these missions can range from shooting enemies with a shotgun to running them over with a jeep and there is even a mission where you rush through the jungle and kill as many enemies as you can with nothing more than a knife. The individual missions are linear but unlike the Path of the Hunter quest it is huge fun mainly because of the aforementioned variety in the missions and the fact that should you beat the developers scores you will have your name printed on a big rock in recognition of your success is a huge plus.

Other side acts include the supply drop and racing quests which tasks the player to hit various checkpoints along a predetermined path with the only difference being the supply drop task ends with you delivering a package to member of the Rakyat while the racing task is ends with a finish line. The racing tasks also tries to liven up things a bit by making the player switch vehicles mid race, for example the first leg of the race can take place through the dense jungle while the second leg is romp through the rivers which forces the player to jump into a water based vehicle mid race.

Then there are the more recreational activities such as poker and knife throwing. If you ever played a darts mini game then knife throwing is no different, all you need to do is select how strong your throw is, take aim and then throw your knife, this minigame is relatively simple to pick up but difficult to master. Poker is very fun and it is very forgiving for people who do not know the first thing about the game. All you need to know is when to throw in your cash and when to hold onto your cards. It is a very deep poker minigame and is the best I have seen since Red Dead Redemption.

The AI in the single player is very decent, the enemies in the game will react well to different situations. For example if you are attacking an outpost head on these enemies will sound the alarm in order to summon reinforcements. They are smart enough to conduct flanking maneuvers as well as set fire to the surrounding area which forces a player out into the open. That is not to say the enemy AI is perfect for example they react slowly when they find a body of their comrades and they also have a tendency of being blind and stupid when it comes to a player hiding right in front of their eyes. However in full on combat situations the AI is not to be trifled with because they are godlike with their shots, their aim is deadly to the point that they can shoot at you through a small crack in the fence and their grenades nearly always land at your feet. The reinforcements that come should the AI call for it are numerous and they tend to bring in jeeps and boats armed with machine guns so taking them head on can result in the player having a very long and difficult fight with the enemies. The combat situations get harder when you stop fighting Vaas' pirates and go after Hoyt and his Privateers, these men in comparison with the pirates are better armed and armored making for a greater challenge.

Rambo would be proud.

One final aspect that I enjoyed is the skill tree which are divided into 3 categories, the Shark which improves your first aid and Takedown skills , the Heron which improves your long range and mobility skills which makes it easier to traverse the island and the Spider which improve your stealth and survival skills. The skills within the skill tree are for the most part useful but there are some useless ones such as a skill that improves the cooldown rate for the machine guns but machine guns in general are few and far between and even then skilled players know to keep slow, steady and controlled bursts when manning a machine gun.

There are a few glitches in the campaign that I personally seen and been through. There were two occasions where I fell through the map forcing me to restart my game and then the there were other moments where the AI started doing stupid things like running on the spot and get stuck in between some trees. But these glitches were uncommon and did not hurt my experience overall.

So all in all Far Cry 3's single player is very deep and entertaining. The combination of brilliant gameplay mechanics, decent AI, a variety of sidemissions and open world make it a very good single player game and despite its faults is one the most fun single player experiences I have ever had. For those who are curious the single player campaign took me around 22 hours to complete and even then I have yet to do many of the other side missions so be prepared for a lengthy campaign.

From something truly excellent to something truly mediocre and that is the co-op campaign of Far Cry 3. You and up to four of your friends take control of four stereotypes namely the rough Texan, the Russian Mafia guy, the football loving Scotsman and the "I Don't need no man" African-American woman. The point that I am trying to make is that the characters within the co-op campaign are so unlikable that you do not even bother to remember their names. Their 6 hour or so campaign is nothing more than a vengeance and greed driven romp which becomes stake very fast.

The worst crime that the co-op campaign commits is the fact that everything about it is linear, you are not allowed to deviate away from the path set by the game and even if you try the game will give you countdown to get back onto the linear path or else be killed off automatically. The gameplay in this mode is nothing more than clearing out zones of enemies and bomb carrier objectives. There is also this really annoying NPC who the player is forced to take care of throughout the game. There are only two things that I liked about the co-op, the first is that the co-op and multiplayer shares the same experience meter so if you ever need help leveling yourself up for multiplayer just grind in the co-op for easy experience points. The other aspect that I enjoyed are the sections where you compete with your co-op partner in various tasks like gathering enough explosives to blow up an obstruction blocking the river or finding out who can kill more enemies with a sniper rifle.

Other than those two positives there was nothing else I liked about the co-op, it was dry, the story was very weak, the gameplay was linear, there were plenty of escort missions and none of characters were remotely likable. All in all it was a complete and utter let down in comparison with the single player campaign.

Our co-op heroes show little mercy for huts.

I did not want to end my final review on a bad note which is why I left the Multiplayer component of Far Cry 3 for last.

The multiplayer in Far Cry 3 is very solid to say the least, you have your very standard Team Deathmatch and Domination modes as well as two additional modes Firestorm and Transmission. Transmission mode is something like King of the Hill, players have to take control of these radio transmitters which apparently broadcast the propaganda of the team holding it and have to hold this position until the radio transmitter becomes dormant. These matches can get quite hectic as some of these positions are indoors and tight quarters so you can imagine the gunfights that would ensue. Firestorm is perhaps the most unique, most fun and perhaps the most cuss word inducing mode. Basically the objective is to set fire to the two supply dumps of the enemy team simultaneously (while protecting your own supply dump) and this will create a firestorm, the fire will spread across the map which will block paths, cause chaos and in many cases result in even more hectic gunfights. Once this firestorm has begun the teams must fight over the radio transmitter and hold on to that position in order to win.

Some important things to note about the multiplayer in Far Cry 3, you can revive downed teammates to not only score a bonus for yourself but it will also take away a point from the other team if the revive is successful. There are powerups known as battlecries that can be called upon by the players, these battlecries will aid your team in many different ways like giving them a health increase or improving health regeneration or even improve accuracy. There are killstreaks in the game though they are not as varied as the ones found in Call of Duty though they are fun in their own right. The Psyche Gas for example when dropped on an opposing team makes it hard for them to tell friend from foe. Also when the game has been finished the top ranked player of the winning team can choose the fate of the top ranked player of the losing team this can be anything from a simple teabagging to a gentlemanly handshake to a shot in the head the choice of mercy and punishment is solely up to the winning player.

The teabagging final move...an insult so great he might as well be dead.

Then there is the decoding mechanic, the more you play co-op or multiplayer games the more thumbdrives, CDs, DVDs and Hard Drives will be awarded to you. These objects will then be decoded with each object taking various times to decode with hard drives being the longest and CDs being the shortest. Once decoded it will give out various rewards depending on what was decoded, for example since the CD has the shortest decode time will just give small amounts of experience as an award while Hard Drives being the longest to decode will give out the best rewards. This decoding mechanic is nothing more than a way to make it easier to advance through the multiplayer and even if one were to ignore it they would not lose out at all.

There are a couple of weaknesses that the multiplayer has, the first being is that the maps are very large and nothing short of a full lobby would fill these maps. Many times I had to run around a massive map just to look for someone to kill. The second thing is the lack of multiplayer modes, I really wish we had a lot more variety other than the 4 we are given. In this day and age where studios jam in a dozen or so modes Ubisoft made the poor choice of giving the player little in terms of multiplayer variety. A great mode would task you to defend an outpost against an opposing force or even a simple capture the flag would have sufficed, hopefully new modes will be implemented in the future.

Finally there is a Create-A-Map option which basically has the player create either maps that will appear in multiplayer or a single player sandbox map where you populate the map in order for you to play around in. The level of creation is quite deep but requires an immense amount of patience especially on a console setting. I had fun playing around the map by doing stupid things like placing a crocodile of a beach chair and then shooting just as it was about to relax for a tan. This is a decent add on but it is only for those who have the creativity and time for it.

Far Cry 3 is chock full of goodness and is one of the best games I have ever played in 2012. Its single player is strong with hours of longevity, its multiplayer is fun and solid even if it does need a few more modes but this whole package is let down by the very poor co-op mode. However taking into consideration all the great strengths this game has with its disadvantages it is still a great game deserving of the Macho Man Award.