Well looking at my last post complaining of how bad Heroes 6 was and the theory about Ubisoft pooching the product like all big companies; Far Cry 3 presented those words on a platter and asked if I would like salt with my dinner. Ubisoft's kick ass organic sandbox game, though not without it's quirks, is a solid good fun game with excellent PC development. The main NPC's in cut scenes are VERY well done. The body language...the voice inflections...the personality...it is like they are real people. To say it is well done is actually an understatement. I'd say it is genius. Normally I wouldn't even mention it...but it is so good that, in this case, I had to.
After the intro missions, in the wilderness, it is a fight for your life. Shoot a gun and 20 pirates drop out of the trees knowing that a rebel (namely you) had fired a gun and exactly where the location of the gun shot. News flash guys; an AK 47 fired by a pirate sounds exactly like one that is fired by a rebel. This makes hunting in the beginning quite hard. You need a bigger ammo bag to carry ammo. You need better holsters so you can carry more than one weapon (not all firearms). Specific pelts are used to create specific levels of containers for each category and you can't skip any (oddly enough) but it does make for a decent game mechanic despite the flaw in logic. Despite the difficulty, it is very fun and rewarding starting with nothing and working your way up. All my favorite games have that aspect.
If you hang glide, be sure to look straight down. Some trees are three dimensional...others are one sided that pivot to whichever side you are to them. You can't see this so well from the ground but from the air it's pretty apparent. Hang gliding, Off roading with a variety of vehicles, Seado'ing, parachuting; this sandbox is full of cool toys to get around with. If you happen to use the hang - glider in a certain area...don't worry...there is a tribe of stealthy island Oompa Loompas that will have it set up again when you come back.
Some of the skills are fairly suspect. There is one skill that allows you to melee kill two guys who are standing next to a climbable ledge if you are below them...it might be cool if it actually ever happened: That two guys happened to be standing next to each other on
what happened to be a climbable ledge
and you happened to be below them...
and it happened to be in your best interest to do that.
In other words it's a useless skill. There are 3 trees to branch out into but you must play the main mission to unlock the next batch of skills to put points into. Personally, I would prefer that all skills are unlocked in the beginning which allows for more versatility of allocation...changing the experience and adding to the replay value.
Logical story cohesiveness was a little flawed. In the night club you are calling your brother 'Vince' but 'Vince' was later given to a guy who was in the night club partying with you...who was later written out of the story. The written dialogue said:
"No no...he didn't say 'Vince, I'm not buying'...
he said 'Bitch, I'm not buying'"
No. That doesn't work. Nice try though. You don't call your tougher older brother that looks out for you and you respect 'Bitch'...even jokingly that's not kosher.
Yet I think 'Vince', The pal with a bag for a hat, was somehow there at the end. Maybe the Island Oompa Loompas rescued him.
Another bug is when you are rescued by Denis, you are taken to Amanki village. Now you have to understand that the rebels have been at 'war' with the pirates and have been on the losing end of said war. The pirates control everything except for this village and a stronghold to the South. In fact, you need to look both ways before crossing the street outside the village, or you are likely to be run over by a gang of pirates in a technical.
So this village has got to be lined with machine guns, traps, mines and bunkers, right?
Well...would you believe about 200 patio lanterns, no visible guns at all, pretty women in sexy clothes. They are dancing, having casual conversation and a barbeque. Their last ditch defense is a fucking LUAU! The pirates know where the village is (as said in a radio conversation) ...there is also 2 roads 30 feet outside the village that the pirates use on a regular basis. This does not compute.
The feel of the game is great in the beginning. You've got this great shopping list of skins you need to get and pirates and animals seem to be chasing you all around the jungle...encouraging creative solutions. Later on, at it's worst, it feels like grinding. More bases...more towers...more relics... blah blah blah. The boss fights are more like quick time events (push a button now when the computer tells you and succeed...otherwise die). The 'Bosses' had more dimension to their personalities than in most games:
Vaas is a troubled guy in desperate need of therapy. He wants to be part of the group but also resents the group. Feeling like an outsider all his life, he joined Hoyt to make a break for himself. He needs a captive audience when he talks...and nothing has his attention more than someone tied up in a cage...with their fate at his disposal. Remember that there are 2 acorns that fell from the tree he came from!
Buck is a sexual predator. He is the very definition of how personality can blind you to someone's actual character. The main protagonist (Jason) seems to have 20/20 on him the whole time. Most of the time you are doing jobs for Buck, you wonder if he is just joking about keith...and that Jason is mistaken about him. Buck is, IMHO, the best played character in the game. This guy creeps you right out...despite his great personality. Brilliant!
Hoyt is an aggressive capitalist. Fear and terror keep his people under control but it's kind of lonely at the top. As far as he is concerned; Slave trading is a business. He has commodified people to be nothing more than product. His mercenaries are like his pets that he trains to do his bidding. Because he has the power over others, he feels that he is worth more than them. In some ways he is the ultimate warrior of power politics. Trading, killing, and torturing has become a way of life for this guy. The scary part? People like this are out there in the world right now.
These 'Bosses' make sense. Lesser games would have the 'Bosses' be so rude to the player so that when it comes time to kill them...the player feels compelled to reload after and kill them in exciting, new and creative ways.
There are a ton of mini-games; Racing, Supply delivery, knife throwing, shooting... there is a combat challenge with different variable each one. There is hunting with specific weapons that can be really interesting.
I bought this game on sale for $23. It is worth many times that in entertainment value. 9/10
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
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