Game: Far Cry 3
Released: 2012
Available On: Xbox 360 (Review), Playstation 3, PC
Genre: First Person Shooter
I was happy that I was finally able to sit down and finish Far Cry 3. I got this game early in 2013 and when I started playing it I fell in love with it almost instantly. The opening was creative and tense, the controls were fluid, and attempting to stealth around to take outposts was rewarding. However, more games came out and for some reason I just stopped playing Far Cry 3. It was put on the bottom of my ‘to play’ pile along with the likes of Sleeping Dogs, Darksiders 2, Nier and others. It was only a few days ago in the hustle and bustle of my busy Summer that I looked at my pile of games that I needed to play that I thought ‘hey, it’s about time that you stopped buying games and about time that you started BEATING games.’ Far Cry 3 was the first on my list to beat because looking at the game’s box art was enough to remind me how much fun I had with it originally.
Far Cry 3 starts with a bunch of privileged rich white kids doing privileged rich white kid things. In the middle of their extremely privileged rich white kid vacation they are recommended sky diving over Rook Islands. They think ‘hey! Sky diving seems like an extremely privileged rich white kid thing to do, we should do that!’ – Long story short, they do that and then fall right into the hands of a group of guiltless slave trading pirates led by the psychopathic Vaas. What happens soon after this is the privileged rich white kids end up losing all of their rich white privilege as they are broken and destroyed by all of these events. You play Jason Brody the only member of the group who is able to escape Vaas and it is your job to save your friends and get the hell off of this demented island.
Now somehow through all of this Jason has become some sort of super soldier. It is explained in a multitude of ways such as prophecy, tattoos and the like, but ultimately Jason goes through kicking ass, taking names, and reminding all of his friends of their rich white privilege.
The game controls like a dream, every movement you make is precise and fluid. This leads to absolute control over Jason during the cross island travels, combat and, most importantly, high stealth portions of the game. The combat isn’t much to write home about: you get a gun and in your first person perspective you squeeze right trigger and whoever is standing at the opposite end of your gun dies. The stealth is the most fun I had with the game. Throughout the game there are various outposts that you have to ‘liberate’ from the enemy pirates. You can do this with your guns blazing, or you can try to sneak and pick them off one by one until the last guy is wetting his pants thinking he’s being attacked by some sort of murderous Batman.
I like any game that lets you be Batman.
To further expand on the whole stealth aspect of the game, another amusing way to liberate an enemy outpost is to send a wild animal out to them to raise hell. In some outposts there will be a tiger trapped behind a cage and you can simply use your silenced sniper rifle to blow off the cage door and then laugh in sick amusement to the screams of your enemies.
This a perfect point that comes back to the story of the game. Far Cry 3’s story has some small similarities to the main idea of Spec Ops: The Line. This game and that game both made you, as a gamer, question your protagonist. It does this by making your character start with pure intentions and then start making questionable choices as you get further down the game. This all comes to a hard climax at the end of the game where you are faced with a choice that pits privileged rich white Jason against battle toughen nigh-psychopathic Island Jason. I’ve heard tons of people say that Jason Brody is a dick, and congratulations, you are saying exactly what the writers want you to say about him.
I also heard some people say that the story was garbage, but I enjoyed the whole thing. It was a literal and non-literal trip down the Rabbit Hole that caused me to question which actions were actions and which actions were merely reactions to the fever dream the high of the jungle was giving me. Once again, I’m using high both literally and non-literally. Vaas is an amusing villain, not as OMGWTFBBQsauce as some people on the internet made him, but the climax of the confrontation with him was very well done and invigorating. It felt good to finally get a chance to remove the thorn from my side that has been with me since the start of the game.
I have to give a very warm recommendation to Far Cry 3, it was tons of fun and one of the games I have had the most fun with from last year’s releases. It has a bit of everything: great scenery, fun exploration, amazing stealth and strong story. It also has a good power up system that gets you excited about upcoming abilities that you want to kick ass with. The co-op is fun to play through with a friend and it is a relatively easy and stress free 1000 points (if you are into that thing.) Most importantly though, it feeds right into my rich white privilege. Now excuse me, I’m going to go hang gliding.
Far Cry 3: 8/10
The Ubiquitous Gentlemen 