Zack Gill
Copy Editor
Every once in awhile, a video game comes along that manages to be both profoundly stupid and awesomely entertaining.
Ubisoft’s “Far Cry 3,” an open-world first-person shooter, features some of the most tone-deaf, borderline-offensive storytelling in video gaming this year, as well as some baffling design decisions, while simultaneously providing the player with the best sandbox gaming experience since that of 2011’s “Skyrim.”
“Far Cry 3” portrays the player as Jason, one of a group of young, beautiful 20-somethings that travels to the third world basically to get hammered and do crazy stuff. Unfortunately, Jason’s brother miscalculates the group’s skydive, landing Jason and crew on an island controlled by pirates and sex traffickers.
Jason escapes the clutches of the psychotic pirate lord Vaas, but his friends aren’t as lucky — especially Jason’s aforementioned brother, whom Jason watches get shot in the head by Vaas. Jason escapes into the jungle, where he meets up with a tribe of locals who initiate him into a mystical line of warriors. Jason then vies to rescue his friends from the clutches of drug runners and slave traders, slowly losing his humanity as he becomes better and better at killing.
If this sounds implausible and asinine, that’s because it all is. “Far Cry 3” is almost insultingly dumb. Occasionally, it allows for a harrowing moment or two, but for the most part, “Far Cry 3” is about as intellectually stimulating as a Steven Segal film. This makes it even funnier, then, when the game begins to have pretentions about itself. At times, “Far Cry 3” seems to attempt to convey some sort of insightful message, vaguely decrying first world excess and privilege. Really, though, the writers of Ubisoft Montreal just threw everything against the wall for shock value. Almost none of it sticks.
The gameplay, however, is a lot more memorable. In fact, “Far Cry 3” just might have some of the most addictive, sublime gameplay of the year. Like other open-world titles, players can do story missions or undertake many side quests, which include hunting, liberating various safehouses, finding radio towers, and engaging in various battles.
Lots of smart, intuitive design decisions make “Far Cry 3” a joy to play. Players can easily fast travel across the massive map by liberating enemy outposts. This saves much time wandering through the jungle.
The game packs a lot of challenge, too. Story missions are more similar to heavily scripted “Call of Duty”-style levels, and they provide a change to stalking about in the jungle.
Some decisions in “Far Cry 3” are less successful. “Far Cry 3” puts a heavy reliance on hunting and crafting. While hunting big game can be fun, crafting decidedly is not, trapping players in menus and taking them out of the game. “Far Cry 3” also forces players to use a poor stealth system, instigating the ire of players through dreadful enemy artificial intelligence.
All in all, “Far Cry 3” is for any action fan who owns a console. Transcendent design overcomes the game’s many poorer elements. “Far Cry 3” is rated M for Mature and is available now for the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
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