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Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3

Murali Venukumar, a full-time marketing exec, part-time writer and a life-long gamer reviews Far Cry 3.

Platforms: Xbox 360 / PS3 / PC
Price: Xbox 360/PS3: Rs 2,799 / PC: Rs 999
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal et al.
Publisher: Ubisoft
Distributor: E-xpress Interactive
Genre: FPS / RPG
Age Rating: 18+
Rating: 9/10

The Clint Hocking led Far Cry 2 was the antithesis of everything CryTek’s original game stood for. The lush, limitless, tropical open-world setting was traded in for a more grounded story set in the depths of war-torn Africa. Your journey to capture the elusive gun-runner antagonist known as The Jackal seamlessly changed depending on which character you were using, and your experience was designed to evoke the works of Joseph Conrad and Friedrich Nietzsche rather than the fun, sci-fi shenanigans of its predecessor.

Far Cry 3 on the other hand, cobbled together by a cabal of Ubisoft Studios, does the smart thing and straddles a near perfect balance between the first two games. There’s a welcome return to colourful tropical climes along with a story that’s more summer blockbuster than the series has ever had, but with enough psychological trappings for much needed depth. As a seemingly vacuous American tourist on a holiday in the scenic Rook Islands, you’re tasked with freeing your friends and family, and bringing Vaas, the leader of the gang of pirates who kidnapped them to book. It’s a shaky premise, especially when the intro sequence doesn’t paint you or your chums in the best of lights. Persevere however, and there’s a decent story in there. But more importantly, Far Cry 3 is more than good enough as a game that you’ll want to stick around as long as you possibly can.

Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3

To be clear, Far Cry 3 is absolutely brilliant. After being handheld through a couple of missions, you’re let loose on the massive Rook archipelago to do as you please. You could hoof it, or use one of the game’s many vehicles to tool around looking for radio towers to climb. These towers make weaponry free in stores (thus allowing you to use money found in loot-boxes or off of enemies to buy upgrades and attachments instead); and reveal more of the map, including outposts to take back from pirate scum, to a number of side quests, races and points of interest. Taking an outpost over rids the immediate area of enemy influence, which means no foot or jeep patrols to deal with while you’re exploring. The good news for Far Cry 2 vets is that even when you do encounter a random patrol, they’re usually easy to take out — either on your own or with allied grunts who’ll join the fire-fight if they’re passing by. They aren’t as frequent or as irritating as they were in the last game, which can only be a good thing.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that you can take these outposts on in a number of ways, which also applies for most of the game’s story missions. You could either take the stealth route using your binoculars to mark enemies, and then utilising impressive stealth takedowns, silenced weaponry and your kickass recurve bow to thin the numbers; or just go in guns-blazing instead. They’re both perfectly viable options, and you’re awarded XP based on how skilful your killing spree was. Other variables you’ll need to deal with include alarms that the baddies can set off to call in reinforcements, or caged animals that can be ‘liberated’ and who’ll (hopefully) return the favour by eating the entire camp alive.

Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3’s simulated biosphere reaps its own rewards as well. The island’s many species of flora and fauna can be salvaged for a range of upgrades including increased weapon and ammo capacities, health syringes, and other buffs that heighten your senses and make you even more of a killing machine than you already are. The XP you earn from missions can be used to upgrade three tiers of skills, not only making you a force to be reckoned with but also tying into the story quite nicely thanks to that new Tatau on your arm. No spoilers, though.

As good as the story missions are, more so thanks to some really good characterisations and voice acting, the best parts of Far Cry 3 happen when you’re just out exploring and conquering each radio tower/outpost at your own pace. There’s a lot of incidental detail to the world, from old war emplacements to scenes of inopportune accidents that have their own mini-story to tell. There’s just so much to do and see that you’ll get sidetracked in no time and will love the game for it. The Dunia 2 engine is the star of the show, packing the world with detail, physics, weather, a day-night cycle and the stunning fire-propagation tech from Far Cry 2.

Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3

You can literally surround an enemy camp in a circle of fire and watch it spread, burning away everything in its path. The game’s scale obviously necessitates serious processing power. And while the visual and gameplay experience is perfectly fine on a console, it’s never going to look as good as it could on a high-end PC. Given an option, and assuming you have the rig to run it, picking the PC version would be wise.

Adding to the obscene amount of content in the campaign are a multiplayer suite of cooperative and competitive game modes (complete with XP and unlocks to be earned), and a full-featured map editor that’ll keep the community going for longer than most single player games with a tacked on multiplayer component could. The cooperative mini-missions stand out the most, especially since the objectives are designed to encourage co-op play and offer a self-contained story.

Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3

If you can only buy one game this quarter, Far Cry 3 should be that game. Player choice and freedom were clearly top priority for Ubisoft, and it shows. This is a game you’ll get lost in for hours — ATVing down hills, hunting sharks, collecting relics, and numerous other distractions that blend together to make the islands feel like a living, breathing world of their own. Aside from minor visual blemishes on the console versions, Ubisoft have hit the jackpot. Buy it now.

    Posted in : Gaming zone

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