Review: Far Cry 3 is fun, but mostly wasted potential.

[Hermit]

To sum it up: They didn't develop the open world, sandbox element of the game. Instead, we've got very scripted story missions making up much of the game, which don't mesh well with the freedom of the open world that deserved more attention. It's fun to play around in but feels incomplete.

During the story missions, you're frequently forced into situations where you're stationary and just have to gun waves of blatantly spawned enemies down, escorting an NPC clearly determined to die making reloads almost inevitable, quick time event button mashing garbage, etc. etc. instead of being able to approach a mission your own way. And of course there are conveniently located heavy weapons and ammo piles where you'd need them. It's linear and you're practically guided through most of it by the game. Your character also spends a fair amount of time out of your control often being an idiot in cut scenes and getting himself captured only for your nemesis to find some non-fool proof method to kill you so you can escape and have the same nonsense happen again while he rambles about insanity.

The story itself is mediocre by gaming standards(AKA bad), though there were some amusing characters(with some solid voice acting) and missions. There's a good amount of blatant pandering to teenage male demographic, not that I'm entirely against "fan service" or over the top violence, but it wasn't done well enough for it to be excused. It also just didn't fit well with the attempt at a serious story, it wasn't like a Saint's Row sort of intentional over-the-top thing. It was ... awkward to experience.

The game world is beautiful and less irritating to travel through than Far Cry 2. There's more to do in it as well and it's more open, though like most sandboxes suffers to a degree from copy-paste. Raiding small pirate bases and hunting animals is fun, but becomes trivial as your character progresses - and you can't progress your character's skills or unlock new weapons until you progress through the mostly awful story missions. Sadly, ignoring the main quest isn't the best of options, especially considering it also unlocks an entire other island.

The exploration and survival aspect of the game are not handled well. Looting is unrealistic and dull with immersion breaking loot chests scattered all over the place with random sell-only junk in them that may as well have just been cash in the first place. The map also ruins much of the exploration by telling you where everything is - not that there's much to find other than some neat looking locations. You buy weapons and weapon upgrades, but many weapons will be unlocked by finding them on bodies or by completing non-story mission content.

As for technical stuff, the UI and controls suffer from consolitis. You won't be able to completely optimize your keybinds - at least not without finding tweaks outside the game's options. As I already noted the mini-map is...well basically it's a hand holder. It will show you enemies on the map, and there's no way to toggle this in game - you have to mess with a DLL file outside of it to get rid of it. The game also likes to remind you of many things you don't need reminding of, some of these messages come with sounds and are frequently re-shown so it can get quite annoying - also something you have to tweak game files to get rid of.

The combat is good, and weapons are reasonably varied and fun to use. For better or worse, you can use up to four of any type at one time without movement penalty(though heavy weapons suffer from lower accuracy while moving I believe). So yeah, you can sprint through the jungle with a sniper rifle, LMG, rocket launcher, assault rifle. Fire is neat, though a bit unrealistic in how easily it sets enemies and yourself on fire. Aside from such nitpicks, it's solid and polished FPS gameplay. The stealth is handled well and feels organic, as does their cover system that's one of the best I've seen in any game - you're never glued to walls or able to see beyond cover that clearly should block your vision.

There's crafting and a skill/character building system. You unlock tataus by progressing through the story - unfortunately - but gain points to buy them with by gaining XP. You can use gathered plants to craft a varity of drugs you'll administer via syringe that can heal you, enhance your perception, increase your durability or damage, etc. etc. It's a decent addition to the game, but it's not very deep. You'll eventually have every tatau, so your character isn't really defined by your choices in the end. Basically, don't expect this to make it into a good RPG - sadly it's not Fallout NV on an Island with better FPS gameplay.

[General Plastro]

引用自 VolkROOT：

still a better sandbox than 2. 2 was a big box but nothing in it but sand. whats the point? even burning down other kids sand castles gets old after a while.

Lol, true... but it would take effort to make something worse than FC2 :P

[Coarsan]

引用自 LifeCell：

Your opinion is very well thought out, the only thing I cant agree apon is that the story is magnificant, although the main character doesnt make sense, itd be more appropriate if he were a native of the island or something similar. The characters are interesting and the Action is constant. The sandbox is awesome because there is so much history spread out through the world. If you collect the memory cards and letters you find out so much, the island was plagued with strife and brutality during world war 2, no wonder the pirates took refuge there, the island was abandoned by the US and they had almost unlimited weapons and supplies. All of you that agreed with him obviously havent put much time into this game or you'd know that hte island is full of interesting content and fun gameplay. Story is important but gameplay is king. and this game people is chalk full of awesome gameplay.

The characters themselves are very interesting, and the plotting is fine, but the story doesn't really go anywhere other than giving you a reason to kill the next person, and no deeper themes are really explored. White guy lands on island, kills hundreds, believes he is a god (mostly because we're in control of him, Jason himself would get mauled to death by a boar in five minutes,) somehow rescues friends in spite of himself and them, choose your ending here. The closest we get to a theme is how violence affects Jason, but that's largely undercut by both endings, neither of which I'll spoil here. You're right that the history of Rook Island is itself interesting, but it isn't the story, it's just flavour text. The story here is Jason, his friends, and the Rakyat.

If the story itself weren't enough, the missions themselves, those things that are meant to be conveying this story to you, conflict with the regular gameplay. Moment to moment gameplay outside of the main quests in FC3 is actually pretty fun, but missions drop you into scripted sequences that clash with how the game is normally played. I think this is largely to appeal to the FPS market where scripted missions are the norm, but that's getting away from the point.

Let's think about the outpost liberation quests. There are hundreds of ways you could go about clearing an outpost, and you can approach it any way you like. If you want, you can go in guns blazing, or scout the area first and stealthily eliminate everyone, or snipe everyone from a nearby hillside. Heck, throw a rock, wait for everyone to group together and RPG them. It's left up to you. Story missions are a different matter entirely. Instead, in these you're often dropped into a space which is closed off from the rest of the world, with one possible entrance and one possible exit. Often, enemies will already know you're there, or there are so many clumped together you have no choice but a firefight. And that's just for gameplay, times where a mission decides Jason needs to get high are even worse, as the game just transforms into Corridor Walker 2012. They're very pretty corridors mind you, but still corridors. These clash with the normally open gameplay. Now, you might be having fun anyways, but the game has changed the rules on you when good design wouldn't have forced them to.

Story is not king, and gameplay is not king. They need to work together in order for a game that wants to have a narrative to function correctly. And while FC3 still has its moments, its not perfect, largely because it wants to have a narrative. It's not even present for any good reason either, it's not like FC2 was really harmed by not having a ton of story to give you, but here it's constantly getting up in your face and stopping you from unlocking skills/exploring the entire second island. Simply not having it would have eliminated a lot of FC3's faults.

I wanted to mention, I wonder if playing as Dennis rescuing all of these idiots would have been more interesting, although he begins to act pretty oddly around the half way mark. I still have no idea what was going on with him when he was drunk. Ah well.

引用自 LifeCell：

and this game people is chalk full of awesome gameplay.

It's chock full by the way. This game would be very odd if it were full of chalk.

引用自 Nya` NetcodeSource.com：

引用自 SpeedySpedBoy：

I disagree

As do I.

Cool, why?

[EnlightenedEmu92]

Far Cry 1 will always be the best, but this is leaps and bounds better than Far Cry 2. I for one am loving every second in this game and i think your asking too much of it. It's one of the best looking games on pc if you have the hardware, and runs smooth as butter. Yeah it can get a little repetitive but i think thats a lot on you and how you tackle the mission. I do hope there is some fully fleshed dlc however than expands the world and mission types

[Coarsan]

I want to butt in and say the game is still very fun. I'm not sure why some people are ragging on it like The Free man and Tox Laximus. As I've said, I certainly have my issues with the story, but outside of its narrative this is still a game that I can get a side mission in which I'm specifically told I need to light leopards on fire, or I can spend time hunting rare and endangered animals and turning them into wallets.

Now that I'm onto the second island, I'm really getting into the hit and run style for clearing outposts, where even if I get spotted I can lose my pursuers, run completely around their base in the time it takes them to realize they've lost me, and stab one in the back while chucking his knife into his buddy's neck. I'll actually be pretty sad once I've finished clearing all of the outposts since they never respawn.

FC3, it ain't perfect, but there's still fun to be had in here.

[Malrick]

I don't think the topic creator understands what immersion is. Hint: This game does it correctly.

[Malrick]

引用自 The Free man：

I agree, this game is a big pile of unfinished, unpolished crap with a pretty lighting engine and some decent dx11 peatures, I stress decent, and it is just an assassins creed clone it seems with the radio towers. SO glad I torrented this to make sure it was not a turd in shiny wrapping. I learned my lesson on hellgate london....NEVER AGAIN...only good parts are vaas the combat mechanics, the island is pretty tho I think the original farcry had longer view distances, and the hunting tho even that get old, and getting ambushed and mauled by water buffalos gets old...the stonewall perk is a necessity. I did like the RPG element to it in a MINOR fasion, though it even seemed a little washe dout. The gun system was very restricted, most guns allowed only 1 attachment if any. I give it a 3.5 out of 11=my little pony adventure time funland.

You are a pirate. Your opinion is invalid.

[mitc1111]

I think the open world game play is awesome. The game is almost worth the price just for the taking-ever-settlements alone. Scouting out a settlement, then planing how to take it over without getting hurt or sounding an alarm etc is great fun. And there are alot of these settlements.

I agree the story missions are a bit lacking, I'm still enjoying them. I like the combo of linear (story missions) and open world (everything else)

Much better than FC2.

[Donoghu]

引用自 Malrick：

引用自 The Free man：

I agree, this game is a big pile of unfinished, unpolished crap with a pretty lighting engine and some decent dx11 peatures, I stress decent, and it is just an assassins creed clone it seems with the radio towers. SO glad I torrented this to make sure it was not a turd in shiny wrapping. I learned my lesson on hellgate london....NEVER AGAIN...only good parts are vaas the combat mechanics, the island is pretty tho I think the original farcry had longer view distances, and the hunting tho even that get old, and getting ambushed and mauled by water buffalos gets old...the stonewall perk is a necessity. I did like the RPG element to it in a MINOR fasion, though it even seemed a little washe dout. The gun system was very restricted, most guns allowed only 1 attachment if any. I give it a 3.5 out of 11=my little pony adventure time funland.

You are a pirate. Your opinion is invalid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBH4g_ua5es

Sorry... couldn't restrain myself... ^_^"

[nya[dc]]

引用自 Malrick：

引用自 The Free man：

I agree, this game is a big pile of unfinished, unpolished crap with a pretty lighting engine and some decent dx11 peatures, I stress decent, and it is just an assassins creed clone it seems with the radio towers. SO glad I torrented this to make sure it was not a turd in shiny wrapping. I learned my lesson on hellgate london....NEVER AGAIN...only good parts are vaas the combat mechanics, the island is pretty tho I think the original farcry had longer view distances, and the hunting tho even that get old, and getting ambushed and mauled by water buffalos gets old...the stonewall perk is a necessity. I did like the RPG element to it in a MINOR fasion, though it even seemed a little washe dout. The gun system was very restricted, most guns allowed only 1 attachment if any. I give it a 3.5 out of 11=my little pony adventure time funland.

You are a pirate. Your opinion is invalid.

Not to mention he's going to be permanently banned from the community for that post, hope it was worth it.

[Ryouji]

^ iLOL'd.

[Hermit]

引用自 Coarsan：

I wanted to mention, I wonder if playing as Dennis rescuing all of these idiots would have been more interesting, although he begins to act pretty oddly around the half way mark. I still have no idea what was going on with him when he was drunk. Ah well.

I believe when Dennis said there was only one woman he wanted early in the game, that was Citra. He doesn't handle well when it seems you've gained her attention over him. My interpretation anyway.

引用自 Malrick：

I don't think the topic creator understands what immersion is. Hint: This game does it correctly.

No, it doesn't. You can elaborate further if you disagree, but there are many immersion breakers in this game. Being able to see enemies on the mini-map in game. Being able to see when they start to detect you and how soon they'll completely detect you. Having the map always shown in game as part of the UI at all even. Not being able to mark locations on your map. Having loot shown to you in an unrealistic way(diamonds on map) rather than having to search for it. Then there's the economy. You have an unlimited number of whatever guns you unlock. You can buy ammo and gun unlocks, but you can't sell ammo or guns that drop in the world. Instead they're more interesting in buying useless knickknacks in those shiny loot chests scattered nonsensically all over the map. The game spawns enemies out of nowhere on you throughout the story missions. The game gives you weapons, conveniently, at points where they're ideal for a mission. Animals don't die from headshots with even some of the more powerful guns. Various ammo/weapon/medicine containers requiring exotic animal skins to craft(Why do I need a specific skin to create a slightly larger lootbag?) - and you can't buy them anywhere. Etc.

All these things remind you that you're just playing a game rather than exploring an alternate reality. It's too transparent that it was all designed for you, the PC. The game frequently tells you how to play it, or even worse - forces you to play it a certain way.

Some of these features, admittedly, are convenient you may argue. It doesn't seem unreasonable, though, to wish for a toggle for those who are bothered by them.

[Zeroflax]

actually coarsan its "chalk-full" which eventually changed to "choke-full" and then to "chock-full" if your goin to correct someone, be sure your actually correcting them. I just happen to use the FIRST way of saying it. ;) good try though champ. Just so everyone is clear 200+ professional review sites and blogs gave this game 90% or higher, that speaks louder than any of you trolls.

[Coarsan]

引用自 Hermit：

I believe when Dennis said there was only one woman he wanted early in the game, that was Citra. He doesn't handle well when it seems you've gained her attention over him. My interpretation anyway.

I must have missed that bit of dialogue when I was playing before I turned subtitles on. I kind of assumed that's what they were going for, but missing/not remembering that bit of dialogue made it very odd.

引用自 Hermit：

No, it doesn't. You can elaborate further if you disagree, but there are many immersion breakers in this game. Being able to see enemies on the mini-map in game. Being able to see when they start to detect you and how soon they'll completely detect you. Having the map always shown in game as part of the UI at all even. Not being able to mark locations on your map. Having loot shown to you in an unrealistic way(diamonds on map) rather than having to search for it. Then there's the economy. You have an unlimited number of whatever guns you unlock. You can buy ammo and gun unlocks, but you can't sell ammo or guns that drop in the world. Instead they're more interesting in buying useless knickknacks in those shiny loot chests scattered nonsensically all over the map. The game spawns enemies out of nowhere on you throughout the story missions. The game gives you weapons, conveniently, at points where they're ideal for a mission. Animals don't die from headshots with even some of the more powerful guns. Various ammo/weapon/medicine containers requiring exotic animal skins to craft(Why do I need a specific skin to create a slightly larger lootbag?) - and you can't buy them anywhere. Etc.

All these things remind you that you're just playing a game rather than exploring an alternate reality. It's too transparent that it was all designed for you, the PC. The game frequently tells you how to play it, or even worse - forces you to play it a certain way.

A game doesn't have to be a 1:1 simulation of reality for the player to find themselves immersed in it. Now, you may not have been able to get into it and find a groove because of those elements you listed, but I can say I did find myself immersed, just as I have in other games. That said, while Malrick is right that the game is pretty immersive (for some), it's not the *only* thing that matters in a game. Being immersive does not a perfect game make, but this one is pretty enjoyable for it, even with its flaws.

引用自 LifeCell：

actually coarsan its "chalk-full" which eventually changed to "choke-full" and then to "chock-full" if your goin to correct someone, be sure your actually correcting them. I just happen to use the FIRST way of saying it. ;)

I can find no reference of it ever being "chalk-full", although "choke-full" was a thing so I'll take your word for it. Still, you can take yourself and your etymologically ancient idioms and put them were the sun don't shine. :D

引用自 LifeCell：

Just so everyone is clear 200+ professional review sites and blogs gave this game 90% or higher, that speaks louder than any of you trolls.

I'm sorry, are we suddenly discussing this game's Metacritic score? Because I fail to see what impact review statistics have on this discussion. Just because someone is critical of something doesn't mean they're trolling, and just because someone wants to get ad revenue doesn't mean a game is beyond reproach.

[nukeheal]

Not sure what OP means about not having any choice in game. I finished 99% stealthy using only knife or bow without anyone seeing me.

people complain about farcry3 only becasue you have had tons of other MMO side mission like in skyrim or saintsrow/gta.. activities.

Skyrim, Borderlands and Far Cry are the same games in my book. Open world offline MMO.

dont write review, write personal opinion. no community apointed you as thier official.

[General Plastro]

引用自 LifeCell：

actually coarsan its "chalk-full" which eventually changed to "choke-full" and then to "chock-full" if your goin to correct someone, be sure your actually correcting them. I just happen to use the FIRST way of saying it. ;) good try though champ. Just so everyone is clear 200+ professional review sites and blogs gave this game 90% or higher, that speaks louder than any of you trolls.

Also, please do know its a FACT that reviewer sites do get paid (no necessarly directly) to give out high scores, we had that case where one reviewer from Gamespot gave a low score to Kane & Lynch before launch and he got fired (guess if it you stand up to your opinion in the reviewing business, thats what happens). People should be aware that game reviewing isnt something that has set rules or anything like other awards (The Oscar, for example), so this practice can be done normally and will almost always find it way or another in the big companies (like Gamespot & IGN), because of the huge amount of advertising money (for both game makers/publisher and to said reviewer site) can make.

At the same time lets not forget said same "200+" reviewers gave a VERY high score to Far Cry 2, a game that is considered by many in the game comunity to completely suck compared to FC1, even most of FC3 reviews seems to think FC2 was huge sucess by going out and comparing it to FC2.

By the end of the day, "official" reviewing scores arent worth $%@¨¨, i usually try to experience the game first-hand and, if not possible, through youtube videos, i sugest at the very least you trust your friend's opinions first before resorting to reviewers.

引用自 POPE GTR：

Not sure what OP means about not having any choice in game. I finished 99% stealthy using only knife or bow without anyone seeing me.

people complain about farcry3 only becasue you have had tons of other MMO side mission like in skyrim or saintsrow/gta.. activities.

Skyrim, Borderlands and Far Cry are the same games in my book. Open world offline MMO.

dont write review, write personal opinion. no community apointed you as thier official.

I can surely tell the game has no options regarding the storyline, going stealth or guns blazing is a choice, much as shooting a Combine in Half Life 2 with either a Pistol or a Rocket Launcher is also a choice, but they both achieve the same thing (sure, you get bonus for going stealth, but the objective & outcome in the story is still the same).

I agree with you, Skyrim, Borderlands (the first one) and Far Cry 2 & 3 went that "MMO feel" and thats a reason i dont like any of these games, they lack compelling storytelling (at least mods & TCs can fix some of it in Skyrim) a usual characteristic of MMO titles.

Said characteristic is excusable in real MMOs since they have to deal with a million possible characters & mindsets, so they try to stay as much vague & "generic" as possible, but in a single player game said trait isnt excusable, since you have only one player and (speaking about BO1 & FC2&3 here) fixed characters, which then can provide a safe way to develop sidequests that can relate to the story/main character in a meaningful way & provide more plot development, since it doesnt have to deal with the variability of MMOs.

Also, i see no problem with writing "review", a review always imply personal opinion and it doesnt mean it has to be the representation of a community, it can be just that, one person reviewing the game.