Far Cry 3: It's no beach vacation!

     Everyone loves a nice vacation on the beach right? Well that's how things start out in Far Cry 3. The story puts you in the role as Jason Brody. You go on vacation to an area called Rook Island with some family and friends. All is perfect until your group is kidnapped by a gang of crazy and seriously violent pirates. You are able to escape but must find the rest of your friends and help them escape...that is if they are even still alive. The first main enemy you encounter is the pirate gang leader Vaas. Needless to say he is crazy. However, Vaas is just one of the bad guys you'll run into throughout the story. The story does a really good job at character progression. At first Jason is timid and scared to fight back. You soon realize you are everyone's last hope and you'll see Jason's attitude, thought process, and abilities change. The environment really seems alive and dangerous. Besides carefully maneuvering around pirates, you'll also be watching out for animal predators too. The single player story alone makes this game great.

     You are thrust into a large tropical open world and must find ways to better equip and train yourself in order to survive. This comes in the form of two main factions. The first is that there is a wide variety of wildlife on the island. You will be able to hunt and skin animals, and then use their hides to craft items. These items range from allowing you to carry more ammo, weapons, money, and items in general. You will also be able to harvest plants to craft syringes that give you health and various other boosts. The other way you will advance your skills is by of course completing objectives and killing the pirates. The more creative you are the more experience points you'll earn. Once you level up you can unlock different abilities from three different skill sets. It's a nice rpg element that enhances the game.

     The weapons are plentiful in the game and cover basically every type of weapon you've seen in games. There are assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, pistols, grenades, mines, etc. Each gun you will be able to purchase different attachments and even different colors. A nice feature is that when you kill an enemy you can loot the body and find more ammo, money, or other items you can sell at stores. Two big parts of the story that you will continually work on is capturing outposts and reconnecting radio towers. The towers will open the visibility on a zone of the map. When you capture an outpost you then open up a fast travel spot and a store to buy/sell items at. You will also find a variety of vehicles and other modes of transportation to help get you around the island.

     Graphically the game is very good looking. The environmental colors are bright and the island looks beautiful. The lighting effects on the water, trees, and weapons is great and makes the whole game more believable. There were some times that there was a little bit of pop in but nothing that ruined the game. Sometimes the character models looked a little off, but overall they looked good. The voice acting is great and each character is unforgettable and slightly over the top but in a good way.

     Besides the main story there is a lot of other things to do in the game. Each time you capture an outpost or activate a radio tower you will unlock special mini missions to earn items and experience points. These mini missions consists of killing a specific pirate, hunting a certain animal, and taking medical supplies to certain spots. There are also other missions, racing, and combat challenges to complete. If you're a treasure hunter there are hidden relics, computer files, and letters scattered all over the island. So there is plenty to keep you busy. The nice thing is that you can go back to complete these tasks even once you finish the main story.

     The multiplayer in Far Cry 3 isn't bad, but it doesn't really make your jaw drop in amazement either. There are your standard modes like team deathmatch, capture the flag, etc. Much like other online shooters you will rank up and unlock weapons and skills for your character. The maps are quite different from each other but I found a lot of the maps to be a little lacking and cluttered at times. There is a co-op mode that allows you and three other friends to team up to complete missions. The co-op mode acts as a little campaign with four different characters to choose from. The map editor is back and allows you to create some pretty cool maps that can be shared and played by other people online.

     Far Cry 3 is a game you play for the single player story and Ubisoft did a great job with the story. The characters are great and you begin to really like or hate certain characters. The detailed open environment is fun to explore and the rpg elements add more depth to the game. The multiplayer is a nice touch but other than the co-op missions I don't really see myself sticking around with the competitive modes very long. Besides that, Far Cry 3 is a must play game if you're looking for a compelling story and an adventurous/dangerous romp on a tropical island. Now it's time to put some sun screen on, kick back, relax, and....uh oh, here comes some pirates and a tiger!

Final Verdict: 9/10

Written by: Alter Ego 83