OSCAR COOPER
For me, this game was the Beach (the book not the film) and Apocolypse Now all wrapped in a great looking FPS, a near perfect combination.
I had a mixed bag of experiences with the Farcry series, the original xbox and pc games attracted me to a certian extent but nothing to make me fall out of my chair, people would ask me if I have had played Farcry and I'd say yeah just to get them to move on even if I hadn’t looked at the version they were talking about, if they quizzed me on what I thought I'd say "they aren’t bad shooters" what I mean to say is that none of them really stood out. But Farcry3 came along and slapped me in the face.. hard.. then called me a little bitch. The franchise is well known for its first person sandbox play style with some good looking environments thrown in.This was standard stuff back then in a world full of Halo's, Call of Duty's and Battlefields. The market was swamped and still is, so Ubisoft needed to pull some serious shit of the bag to get this sequel noticed by anyone in my opinion. So along came farcry3, now ubisoft aren’t a studio that normally go out on a limbs with creativity, they like to play it safe and by the book to avoid any flops, as one of the larger industry names flops just aren’t an option and looking back Farcry3 does take a few risks but not too many. I was reluctant to sit down with this game, I had twenty games just like it in my collection or so I thought. But the PR started to creep in, first was the footage of the actor that plays character from the box art, it was one of these youtube promo videos that pops up when browsing, I was stunned to see that they lifted the facial expressions and body movement over the to the in-game model with great accuracy. I was hooked and I wanted to learn more about the workings of this game, I searched on and came to a live action mini film with the actor Micheal Mando playing Vas the villain and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as the player character (the dweeb son from Kickass). It was bloody awesome, violent, crazy and frightening, not low budget by any stretch, well worth a look, The Farcry Experience is its name... go check it out.
The amazing Vas just chilling with some mates
So, on to why I enjoyed this game so much, its pulling power exists in both its open world-ness and story. It has a questing set up which isn't new to the series but its played out very well in this case. A bit like Just Cause, you are a man alone on an island that has various military installations positioned through out. Its up to you to venture out and tackle them, its a great idea and they act as mini objectives spicing up the main quests and giving the player some freedom. The mechanics are a mixture of stealth and balls to the wall gun play, you go in to the guard infrsted camps with the best intentions, sneaking in the grass like a panther and bringing down each enemy silently and with out fuss. Obviously this doesn't always work as things get more and more crowded towards the center of an installation and killing without being seen becomes too tough. But being spotted isn't a bad thing, the game flips its mood and bullets begin to fly and all hell breaks loose. The developers had totally catered for this play style also, with a slide to cover move and a whole arsenal of explosive weapons at your disposal things/people just start blowing up. Crazy bandits run at you with machetes and Molotov's only to be met with a precise shotgun blast to the face as you pop out of cover. Its hugely satisfying and massive amounts of fun, the environment and plants, trees, birds and weather effects really add to the feel of tropical warfare, thinking about now, it very much harks to the scene in The Beach with the weed fields and the AK47 wielding guardsman. The main quests are nothing you haven't seen before, still very good in their own right, with the story giving you good incentive, it tells the tale of a normal city boy slowly slipping into being ruthless killer. The wildlife deserves its own mention, I was totally amazed at the effort that went into each creature, the designers making each movment look brilliantly realistic. Tigers, Komodo Dragons and rabid dogs are just some of varied wildlife coming your way. I was attacked by a very well rendered shark while nipping to a small island without a boat and it scared the crap out of me, I got to shore and machine gunned it to death from the beach, how many games can you say you did this in a game (maybe GTA5 but this came out first).
It features different types of transport (the hand glider is an exceptionally good experience) and to top it all off a very solid multiplayer co-op mode with its own set of missions (less said about the competitive online the better). Feature include in-game challenges with leader boards, weapon attachments and colours/designs, medicine and animal skin crafting, great fire physics (just watching a blaze you started with a burning arrow spread over the entire enemy camp is bliss), power-ups and highly aware AI... I mean what a list! But none of this equals the real jewel in the crown, Vas the villain from the off set of the game. An incredibly fleshed out psychopath, totally warped and mental but still as sharp as a tack. He's the games Cornel Kurts, and if you don't know who I'm referring to you shouldn't be on my website. He's dialogue and facial animation and body language makes him so believable, the hazy drug induced sections give the game that 60's Vietnam setting. He could quite possibly be the best in game villian ever seen. Farcry3 was a real surprise for me and I always find myself thinking about it and how much depth it has and comparing it to titles that have come out since. The soundtrack theme tune is also fantastic and firmly puts a cherry on top of an already delicious cake, if you like Metal Gear, Splinter Cell conviction or even Batman Arkum Asylum, this is up there with the best of them. Well done Ubisoft for backing such a colourful and close to the bone thriller of an FPS and lets hope to see more like it.
Regards Oscar