Far Cry 3 is an open world first-person shooter video game developed mainly by Ubisoft Montreal in conjunction with Ubisoft Massive, Ubisoft Red Storm, Ubisoft Shanghai, published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game was released on November 29, 2012 in Australia, November 30 in Europe, and December 4 in North America. A stand-alone expansion titled Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was released on April 30, 2013.
The game kicks off with its protagonist, a blue-eyed American boy called Jason, being shown having the time off his life with his mates and his two brothers on holiday in an island paradise. In montage the player sees them doing shots, leaping into rock pools and skydiving.
The camera then pans back to show this montage is being shown on a camera phone that’s being held by the group’s captor, a twitchy, erudite psycho called Vaas Montenegro, who has a smile similar to that of a boa constrictor before it swallows its prey.
Vaas, by the way, is one of the best villains created in gaming in the last few years. Intelligent, charming and utterly insane, he’s as likely to casually stab a helpless captive through the heart as he is to wax philosophical on the nature of madness.
Vaas heads up a colourful list of slavers, pirates, criminals, perverts and nutcases who Jason finds himself ranged against in his search for his friends, once he escapes Montenegro’s clutches in the early stages of the game.
As Jason explores the tropical island environments, racking up an impressive number of corpses, he transforms from scared First World brat into an unhinged killing machine, tossing vestiges of his humanity to the four winds in his quest for alpha male supremacy.
Game Play
Equipment is controlled by a simple system. As missions are completed, new items are unlocked to be purchased or crafted by Jason, using the pelts of various animals found around the island. When scramblers on radio towers are removed, areas of the map are opened and weapons in the shop are made free. As outposts of Vaas' pirate group are attacked and retaken, the vicinity around the outpost becomes safer, it unlocks new side quests for that area.
Skills are collected by gaining experience from completing missions and killing enemies, and are unlocked in three skill trees, which correspond to the Spider, the Heron, and the Shark. Each skill tree upgrades different aspects of Jason's abilities, with the Spider upgrading his stealth takedowns and hunting skills, Shark for assault takedowns and health, with the Heron upgrading his long-range takedowns and mobility. As skills are collected, the tattoo on Jason's forearm grows which is made up of several different tribal designs resembling the three animal skill trees.
The game also includes a variety of side-quests. One such side-quest involves the player hunting the many different wildlife species on the island for upgrading purposes. There are some rare hunts that the player must undertake to reach the highest level hunt upgrades.
