Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 stars2nd best game ever! (single-player) No spoilers here.
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2012
This review has no real spoilers, read without fear of spoilers. Best single-player games ever: 1. Skyrim. 2. Far Cry 3. 3. Deus Ex.
Far Cry 3 is a cross-genre game, Action-adventure in my opinion. It's very awesome, almost the ultimate game ever as far as single-player goes. I cannot speak for multiplayer as I have never played it multiplayer. It's a bit unfair to compare it to Skyrim as that is considered a RPG (Role-playing). The play area is huge, not quite Skyrim-epic huge, but like half (or 2/3) of that. The wide-openness and freedom to do what you want when you want is similar to Skyrim in that respect. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that Far Cry 3 is wide-open 100% of the time, just most of the time. I love the freedom to do things at your own pace (most of the time), and you can play mini-games for a change of pace and sometimes a change of gameplay/surroundings - but you don't have to - and that's so awesome.
Far Cry 3 is a pleasure to play , with it's lush vegetation that provides real cover-from-view from the AI bots (just like the previous two games). When they approach, simply back off quickly behind a rock or vegetation, and watch them search for you in vain. The AI is the best I have ever seen in a game, they have a limited range of sight, and when they half-detect you, such as when you wound (or shoot near) them with a quiet weapon, they concentrate their view on your direction, and can see at least twice as far. When under fire, they seek cover. Then they often also move toward your perceived location. They have no problems moving around obstacles in their way, and do so smartly. And when they are in groups, some will explore the flanks as well. When they are driving vehicles, they drive down the middle of the road (dirt roads), but then they get very near you they suddenly slow down, and it is easy to pass them on the right with a vehicle at that point. Most of the time they also drive vehicles well, though sometimes you see the result of crashes from driving mistakes - but not too often. After they (half?) detect your presence, it takes many minutes before they return to non-alerted (patrol) status. I do not get the feeling that they had stopped their patrols when I got too far away neither.
I also need to say often the game is a bittersweet love-hate relationship, frustration to the point where I want to throw something at the computer, and need to take a break from it. But I find myself playing it again the next day.
This game is nearly bug-free! It NEVER crashed nor locked-up on me. That is unheard of in PC games these days. When I got the game, it was seamlessly updated to 1.02 (if I remember right) by the required "Uplay" app (similar to Steam) when I first played it, and since then two more updates made it 1.04; but I never had any problems (many bug-fixes were multiplayer). The only bugs I seen were very minor and very rare, such as grass extending into thin air on a hillside. It requires online activation, but afterwards you can set Uplay to start offline, and therefore you can then play offline after the first install/start. There is no option to turn off updates, and if it detects one on startup you will have to wait for the download to finish first. If you are online Uplay shows 50 achievements (ala Steam) to get for FC3, and 4 "rewards" for 4 "actions." Two of these are in-game single-player advantages (a pistol, and a minor quest). One is art for your desktop (10 units), and I didn't really like the art (only 5 scenes); it is all based on mirroring in the middle - I found better FC3 scenes elsewhere (although not at my screen res). The other is "tattoo pack" for multiplayer use only. they cost different units per, and you start out W/20 units for just purchasing the game (not quite enough for the pistol which costs 30 - the most "expensive" item). You get more "rewards" for completing certain tasks in the game, as you do achievements as well. 6 achievements are multiplayer, co-op only. After completing the (single-player) game, I lacked 16 achievements; surprisingly there is no "achievement" for finding all the relics (120).
So many games nowadays force you to do exactly what the designer wants you to do, and when he wants you to do it; this game is mostly a change of freedom in that respect. However, the main quest line is very linear and does just the opposite, you are required to do certain things in a certain order, and there is no way to skip any of those things without "bailing out" of the main quest line to have to restart the quest line later if you want to continue. For most quests, you have console-type "checkpoints" you cross during the quests; if you fail at any point you first go back to the "checkpoint", but if you fail another time or two you go back to the last "savegame" point which can be at the beginning of the quest. Most quests give you the option of abandoning the quest when you press Esc, or restarting the quest. When you are doing quests, often your area of travel is limited (see the minimap for the area boundaries); the game will warn you if you stray from this, and then restart the mission if you stray farther or do not return.
There are no user-selectable saves, you choose one of three available savegames at the beginning of your single-player game and that's where your current savepoint resides for the rest of your game. You cannot save the game where you desire, but just about every time you buy/sell things, when you exit that buy/sell menu your game is saved. If you die, you will restart at the nearest radio tower or fast-travel site; usually with all the things you had before, and the health/armor level you had before you took the damage that killed you. If you are on a quest when you die, you (usually?) get the option of either retrying the quest or cancelling the quest with the ability to try again later in your game. When you approach the invisible boundary of an "outpost," your game saves, and if you die before taking the outpost (unless you abandon it completely), you will respawn at that point will all your items/weapons intact (and restored health and armor as well) - another thing well-done by Ubisoft.
The environment is drop-dead gorgeous, fantastically beautiful, and that's no exaggeration. It is so realistic all it is missing is smells (maybe that's a good thing in some areas) and the feel of wind on your bare skin. When you climb hills/mountains your vistas are awesome, although they can get a bit blurred as the game uses "post-processing" effects to simulate the moisture effect in the air to reduce your clarity of distance. And at most of those points you can go to a nearby hang-glider and glide to just about any point you can see that is lower. The controls are good for this, along with the use of vehicles; although the ATV (4-wheeler) is prone to oversteer which often causes me to flip over or careen over a cliff. Like Battlefield 1942, it is easy and seamless to jump into a vehicle and go for a quick ride to your destination, and jump out immediately into a firefight if there are baddies (or animals) nearby. The fire is well-done, a carry over from Far Cry 2. Too bad the buildings don't burn (even the wood ones don't burn!). Using the flamethrower is a blast although it's usefulness is very limited and can easily backfire. Sections of the vegetation burns, including palm trees. It leaves big black areas, and cinders in the vegetation remain - until you go far away and return. Most of the map is gorgeous like the original Far Cry was - but much bigger.
The driving of vehicles is so great there are two types of side-games that use them: Racing mini-games, and "supply-drop" quests. The latter opens up skills for you too, you have to race to a point within a certain time limit. And the game does not change during/after that, if you parked a vehicle somewhere it will still be there when you are done if you didn't die or restart the quest. I love the dune buggies! They are extremely fast and easily maneuvered, and don't tip over easily. You don't have to use the vehicles too much to get around the map like Far Cry 2. There are "fast-travel" points, ala Skyrim, where you can be instantly (if not in a quest area). It is up to you just how much you utilize the vehicles, you can jump in and take any parked vehicle, and you can "commandeer" any stopped vehicle that is piloted by a friendly. Any AI typically stop (temporarily) when you block the road. Enemies will often also get out of the vehicle and examine the area when that happens. Vehicles also accrue damage, and you can fix that with a repair tool, but it also takes up a weapon slot to do so - you have to have it pre-equipped. I prefer not to do so as I need all the (4) weapon slots for weapons. Vehicles will explode after being severely damaged, and that is very gratifying when shooting them with a RPG, and especially when a chain-reaction occurs within closeby vehicles - shredding all nearby.
The game mechanics are handled well by Ubisoft, although I wish the keys were a bit more flexible in the choices of key-assignments, and could use an <Esc> menu weapon choose ability too. When you attack, you are limited to whatever four "guns" (incl. flamethrower, bow, and RPG launcher) you have equipped at the last weapons dealer (the buy/sell places); and you are limited to only one at the beginning, you unlock more quickly as you progress in the game. There are also C4 explosive packs (which are key to destroying doors that block access to some "relics"), and anti-personnel mines. You are limited to the following slots for these: The "Q" key is reserved for medical health syringes (comparable to stimpacks or medipacks) and cannot be reassigned; and then you have "Z", "T", 7, and 8; and among these 4 you can assign them to any currently available syringes, rock throwing (default "T", for diversions), or the camera (default "Z"). The camera is used to mark hostiles for overwatch, where you can see them through obstacles, even through hills; and is also used in a few missions where pictures are required.
Each rectangular section of map you unlock using the radio tower has one or most often two enemy compounds ("outposts"), and until you "liberate" them the area is patrolled by the enemy, sometimes quite heavily. Once you liberate them they become a fast-travel point as well. They contain 1-3 alarm boxes (one contained none), and if you don't disable the box(es) they will trigger reinforcements if they detect ("see") your exact location. You are warned of this with the splinter-cell style HUD warning indicator, which give you early warning that you are about to be detected - so you can move to prevent it. This is not limited to outposts, and gives no warning for hostile animals (except the animal sounds).
And that brings me to the sound portion of the game. The sounds are well-done, and can be used to pinpoint the direction of an animal/sound origin. You can usually hear a vehicle coming before you otherwise detect it. They are also tracked on the minimap, which has a very limited range. Once baddies are marked, and often otherwise, they are tracked on the minimap as well. The sound is awesome, seems to be made from actual clear sound recordings, and the sounds are mixed into the sound world with realism. The music is great too, very splinter-cell-esque. The sound is a great part of the whole experience, and it would be a shame not to experience it with a great PC sound system such as I have.
There were two sequences which are part of the main quest line; that were "artistry in motion" (my own words). It was rendered on-the-fly, interactive (and somewhat linear), as I had to move forward to progress, and could look around. It was beautiful, the most beautiful interactive sequences I have ever seen on a computer! And the music was a non-dispensable part of the beauty. Well done Ubisoft! Everybody should experience this, and what a shame it is if you don't have a great sound system as it is a great part of it too.
Far Cry 3 has rich, colorful characters that for the most part are very well-played and the excellent well-done voice-overs are immersive and believable. The 3D modelling is definately not hollywood movie quality, but still very realistic - on par with the best games of late. There are dozens of unique voices, and I found no noticeable repeats except those of enemy guards - who only had about a dozen 3D sprites/faces as well. Often the friendly locals 3D sprites/faces (and voices, in side quests) were re-used quite a bit as well. For the most part, the friendly locals are speechless unless they are part of a current quest. The characters look as if they are moving in a believable human movement, without excessive looping, and the animals move realistically too - better than any other game that I've played. The animal 3D sprites are often photo-realistic looking. Damage is not modeled in people nor animals, but there is a blood-spray on the hits, that does not stick to the surroundings. Sometimes there is blood marks on the floor or ground, but it appears to be scripted, or just part of the area modelling. No footprints nor tracks are left by animals/people. These are areas that could use improvement (minor complaints only).
Otherwise the game is not without fault however, and most of those are subjective. For instance, I did not like most of the main quest line (except the beginning and the "mushroom-spore" sequence), and I wish there was a cheat to jump over most of them. The main quest seems like it was developed by different programmers, and although the surroundings fit in well the gameplay is noticeably different. Unfortunately, there is no way to reach the southern island, which is 1/3 of the game, without doing most of the main quest line. And even on the easiest setting (adventurer, 1 of 3), the main quest line is hard to get through (for me). It gives you prompts to press certain keys or mouse buttons, in different parts of the screen, and if you don't respond in one second you have to restart from the last checkpoint (or save if you fail more than about two times). Often it comes down to memorizing several buttons in sequence; but then I discovered you can do it just by pressing "W", "E", "C", spacebar, and mouse R/L keys/buttons simultaneously repeatedly until you get through it (my keyboard has "n-key rollover" ability). Although some main quests involve moving and shooting instead. It is also a drag to sit through a semi-long "cinematic" (it is actually rendered on-the-fly) over-and-over, waiting for the moments you need to press something. For our sake, Ubisoft, give us a way to skip these.
For the most part, I played on "survivor" difficulty (2 of 3). I found it to be well-balanced for my skill level on most non-main-quest tasks. You are free to continue to do the remaining side quests, or just continue to browse about at your leisure, after you complete the main quest line; if you choose that option. If you are just a simple run-and-gun action gamer, you may not find this game appealing - there are extended periods of non-combat (such as exploring/looting/restocking). This game is very well suited to people who prefer "sneaker" games such as Thief, Assassin, Splinter-cell, Deus Ex, and some players of Skyrim/The Elder Scrolls series. And by the way you will likely be killed numerous times by the indigenous wildlife (some are extremely dangerous), both above and below water, too.
One last note, the language is mature. It is gritty and realistic, not for those who taboo swearing. If you are a religious 'church person,' you might not like this - nor "killing" (fake) people. Killing "bad" people is required to advance the quests (and skills) in this game.
