Far Cry 3 Review

Far Cry 3 effortlessly perfects what the previous installment in the franchise only experimented with. A fully realized gorgeous living world. One in which the systems in place only ever serve to entertain and rarely frustrate which given the scope and ambition of the game is an impressive feat. Far Cry 3 begins obnoxiously with a bunch of posh pop-collared assholes sipping sambuca and generally acting like complete douche-bags  bragging about their rich fathers. But it seems the island and its inhabitants have had enough of your character and his shitty friends as the game cuts to a wonderfully despicable villain named Vaas giving a fantastic monologue about how he intends to ransom you and then sell you off into the slave trade. From then on out Far Cry 3's story bounces from forgettable to intriguing but overall falls flat after the promising intro. Instead the fun is in exploring the island and combating its predators, both two legged or four.

One of the things Far Cry 3 does so well is implement many different systems and then let them run wild. Say you are given a mission to track down the local pirate leader. Along the way you trek through a jungle bustling with life and beauty, birds fly above the trees as light shines through the canopy, wild dogs bark in the distance. You come across a river, your target is in his camp on the other side, you pull out your camera a device which lets you tag enemies, you locate the leader but he is in the middle of the camp surrounded by attack dogs and thugs with guns. You distract some of them with a rock and snipe some of the unsuspecting enemies, the leader strays from the group you follow him hiding in the bushes but never crossing the river and for good reason as you notice the rather large crocodile lurking on the river bank. You lure the unsuspecting pirate leader towards the river with rocks, he notices the croc to late. The ferocious creature has its victim and your target by the waist and proceeds to drag the poor pirate to the bottom of the river thrashing violently until the water runs red. Mission Accomplished. Far Cry 3 is masterful in its ability to leave so much up to the living world and player choice and yet always maintain a level of enjoyment and polish that's rare among even the best games.

Far Cry 3 is a master stroke of open world design. It succeeds in making elements that are notoriously bad in all video games, under water sequences and first person platforming, highly enjoyable. There are some negatives as the AI of any one of the living things in the world can sometimes appear lost before realizing what it should be doing in a particular situation. Hunting which is a large part of the game as it nets you upgrades through a very rudimentary but highly addictive crafting system can be frustrating when after you have downed an animal it disappears or you simply cant find it. There is online multiplayer and co-op reminiscent of Left 4 Dead but neither are as well thought out and executed as the single-player campaign. Far Cry 3 offers a stunning world that is an absolute joy to inhabit, it is impeccably designed and polished with great thought given to every bit of the game and contains some of the best digital performances in a video game  Far Cry 3 bestows pure elation and is an experience not to be missed.

(5 out of 5)