Far cry 3 puts you in the shoes of Jason Brody and into the massive Rook Islands. You and your friends ends up in the hands of a group of pirates led by the insane Vaas Montenegro who murders your brother in cold blood. Fed with vengeance, you hunt and kill your way up the very hostile yet paradisaic Rook Islands. The plot is nothing game-changing, but its super cool nonetheless. It ploughs you forward through the campaign.
The Rook Island as I mentioned is massive to say the least and there is a ton to do here. Jason Brody and friends came here for adventure and that's exactly what you get served well THAT and more. Far Cry 3 promises open ended gameplay and its vast and varied as opposed to the Far Cry 2′s drab African Savannah But a lot of mechanics from the original has been carried over to Far Cry 3 most notably the Fire mechanics. There are different alternatives to complete an objective and ergo its one of the best open-ended game out in the market now. RPG elements comes aback and gives you skill points for almost everything you do which can be invested in the Skill Tree. These skills are distributed through 3 tabs: The Heron, The Shark and The Spider, which you will acquire as you progress. And unlike other RPG element-merged- FPS, it does make a huge difference. Once you acquire all these skills, verging close to the climax, you either feel like a one man army at times or someone edging close to insanity.
Far Cry 3 has superb character development. You as Jason Brody initially is revolted when he sees his brother kills someone and he is further shocked when he makes his first kill. Though as you progress through the campaign, you learn new skills, you get more driven with a lust to kill, with vengeance to the point where you sacrifice certain stuff.
Characters oozes personality. Never before were NPC characters so memorable. Vaas, Citra, Dennis, Hoyt, Sam, Buck; Hell I remember almost everyone in the game. Superbly voice acted and mo-capped, these are some of the characters that could be considered classic. "Did I ever tell you the definition of INSANITY?" says Vaas in one sequence. After Heath Ledger's legendary Joker, Michael Mando's portrayal of an insane, merciless, sadistic 'Vaas Montenegro' saturates everything a perfect Antagonist should ever be. And that's exactly why the reason Vaas, the game's antagonist ended up on the box art rather than the protagonist Jason Brody in an action pose.
Enemy AI could be considered good and bad. They don't just stand there while you snipe them off, the moment they find a fallen comrade, they run off to set the siren on and they flank you from all sides. And then there were also instances like them running straight towards you giving you a chance at making an easy headshot coz while these morons run they somehow tend to forget to shoot at you. You can either go stealthy taking off each enemy or go in guns blazing. If you are playing in the latter style there are tons of arsenal at your disposal ranging from pistols to rocket launchers. Though much more fun is to go stealthy. Love the camera feature, used for surveillance. You can tag enemies with it and monitor their movements and take them off with your trusty Bow and Arrow (which by the way is super cool) or distract them tossing a stone, isolating them and going in for a very pleasurable melee kill. You can loot them too. Far Cry 3 is indeed, as I read somewhere, SKYRIM WITH GUNS.
Just like Assassin's Creed there are Radio Tower laid all around the island. Climbing on top of it and activating them unlocks & marks key points and items on your map. The Radio Tower climbing itself could be considered a mini-game which actually felt a lot like platforming and deeper you go into the plot these tower become more complex to climb.
I just could go on rant about the graphics. Far Cry 3 has some really sweet graphics which can be only defined as 'Orgasmic'. Comes with a catch though, it can only be enjoyed completely with a DX11 graphics card. I was unable to turn on anti-aliasing and other features and the game, although gorgeous to look at, still had something missing. Add to that the soft shadows around the characters was a bit distracting. The animations felt smooth and authentic. The island itself is populated by lush forests and greenery and the ocean. Wildlife is another thing I loved, I spent hours hunting animals in the island. These animals can then be skinned with which you can craft ammo pouches to loot sacks. You can also craft medical/combat/hunting syringes harvesting from plants spread throughout the island.
Music is another thing which I enjoyed. A pure mix of tribal music immixed with adrenaline pumping music in action sequences. Composed by Brian Tyler, Far Cry 3′s soundtrack is a thoroughly enjoyable one, even when you are not playing it.
Far Cry is an uber-polished game with very high production values which can be seen throughout the game. From flawless voice acting to action- stealth blended gameplay. It is without doubt the best singleplayer campaign this season. And a true cinematic experience at its best. Despite being distracted from the main plot by a whole ton of things to do in Rook Island, I took immense pleasure in playing Far Cry 3. I clocked in more than 17+ hours in Far Cry 3 and I am still nowhere near to be done with it. I'd recommend it to everybody out there. You are never going to forget this 'getaway' anytime soon.
