Far Cry 3 Review
Welcome to the jungle, we've got guns and big game hunting
Now that you can see where you’re going and armed to the teeth, time to pick a fight. Most of the confrontations in the open world take place when storming enemy outposts. If you choose to attack head on, chances are the enemies will sound the alarm and take cover, which means that things can get heated very quickly as reinforcements arrive. Still, it’s a practical approach and certainly gets the job done fast. Players can take cover in first person view, and enemies will do their best to stay in cover and flank. Once all enemies have fallen, the outpost falls under control of the Rakyat (the militia faction of the island that Jason has aligned with for mutual interests). This means the surrounding area becomes almost free of any enemy presence, and that gives the game a huge sense of progression (unlike Far Cry 2’s endlessly respawning foes). But at the same time, an opportunity for some dynamic gameplay is missed as enemies will never attempt to re-take an outpost.
If you’d prefer the stealth approach, the good news is that Far Cry 3 handles this gameplay style just as well. By couching in tall grass or bushes, Jason is able to remain invisible to the enemy from a distance, and using your photo camera as a make-shift binocular, you can mark all enemy targets just by looking at them for a moment. From there, they will remain marked and visible through walls as you move in for an attack. Using melee or silenced weapons, with a little patience it’s always possible to clear a camp without setting off any alarms. The only downside is Jason’s inability to pick up or drag already fallen bodies (though you can at least unlock a skill that lets you drag them after a melee attack), so you must move quickly to avoid any of your victims being found. Far Cry 3 does a great job at letting players make a real choice between a stealthy predator or a gun-blazing soldier, with both approaches featuring well-designed mechanics to support them.
All of the outposts you take over become fast travel points, and thanks to their generous number, you’re never too far from your target location. It cuts down on a lot of the travel time, but even if you do find yourself in the middle of nowhere, cars in the game are scattered overly generously. They still handle rather awkwardly, and also hilariously bad by AI, but it gets you places faster. Once an area is free of enemies though, there are still plenty of activities to partake in.
The open world of Far Cry 3 is a joy to explore but not simply because of its impressive size and variety, but because of many valuable things to do. Hunting and gathering make up a large portion of the open world gameplay, and they both carry a purpose. Collecting the various plans allows Jason to craft injections that vary in function, from simply restoring health to improving your senses and abilities. In the heat of battle, these limited-time abilities can be very beneficial but are mostly optional. Hunting is not only fun in itself because it’s both exciting and dangerous, but also because it’s critical to your character progression. From the materials gathered via hunting animals (of which there are plenty and of every variety) you can upgrade your inventory to hold more items, guns, ammo, money, etc. So while hunting and upgrading your inventory can be considered a one-time experience, gathering is a more of an on-going task to keep yourself stocked up on boosts.
You can also embark on a number of optional side quests. These are often brief, but provide a nice bonus to your bank and net extra materials. Hunting missions provide you with a specific weapon and a general area to hunt a rare animal, while assassination missions are like miniature outpost takeovers, with the goal of eliminating a specific enemy in a guarded area. Everything you do in the game contributes to your experience bar – from hunting and gathering to side missions, kills, and story progression. The XP earns you skill points, which can then be used to learn a new skill in one of the three trees. The unloackable abilities include everything a typical shooter/RPG mix requires, such as running faster, healing better, firing more accurately, etc. Progression is quite well paced, though it depends on how much open world gameplay you choose to embark on between story missions, meaning you’ll be able to unlock a majority of the skills in all trees through a single story playthrough. The skills you choose to unlock then appear as tattoos on your arm, and that’s just cool.