Far Cry 3

pro

Definitely one of the strongest intros of the year. From the very first frame to the craziness that is Vaas to you carefully sneaking through the enemy camp scared shitless. Far Cry 3 will have you hooked from the moment it starts and far off into the beautiful jungles, mountains and caves you are destined to explore. It is a captivating story of desperation, hope and struggle that sees Jason grow as a person and adjust to the setting in which he finds himself. An island filled to the brim with animals, cool characters, exploration, side quests, challenges and adventure will have you spend an obscene amount of time in a world that feels fully realized. It is no sprawling city, but it feels like how I would imagine an inhabited island would do.

pro

Vaas. Probably the villain of 2012. No other bad guy in recent time has motivated me this much to get the better of him, and at the same time be endlessly fascinated by him. I found myself anticipating every encounter never knowing what he'll say or do, but at the same time all I wanted was to push him off a cliff. He is a tropical Joker. Did I ever tell you what the definition of insanity is?

pro

So much great work has gone into making you be Jason. The game never lets go of the first person view, and always pushes on to keep you immersed. Running through the jungle and tripping will have you stumble and reach out to break the fall as you hit the ground. Run a car into something and you will steady yourself by holding on to the nearest frame of the vehicle. Just a simple thing like swimming forwards, backwards and turning in the water is all animated naturally with the proper things you'd do with your arms and hands. Brawling with animals, rolling in the water with sharks, climbing and jumping down on unsuspecting enemies all looks gorgeous. This might seem like trivial stuff, but it adds up in a game that seems relentlessly polished.

pro

There is finally a point to crafting. Picking up flowers to make various syringes that will heal you, increase your stamina and make you hold your breath longer are some of their uses. There are more that can help you in combat and survival in general. When you run out of space for your money, weapons, loot and medicine, you can hunt down and skin animals to create bigger wallets, holsters and bags. The bigger the accessory, the more exotic the animal. Sneaking around the bushes with nothing but a bow is exciting and fun.

pro

It always feels like a living, breathing world. Scouting out an outpost from a nearby cliff, I suddenly see the camp attacked by wild animals. Chaos ensues as molotovs are thrown, houses are set on fire and people get mauled by animals. I casually walk down taking over the outpost without even firing off a shot. These moments happen all the time, creating set pieces along the way that would have been scripted in other games. The world turns on you as well. Moving slowly between the trees closing in on a deer and holding your breath when you're suddenly torn out of position and the whole screen fills up with the face of a tiger. It's exhilarating and fun.

pro

Even though the co-op campaign feels a bit tacked on lacking the polish the single player campaign got, it is still a fun and frantic 4-player adventure with a bad story and lots of great firefights.

con

The last third of the game is almost a disaster, severely undermining the progress you've made through the game thus far. It also underplays and skips ahead on certain key moments throughout the game. Moments that would have benefited from being more fleshed out. It is a shame when the pacing in general is so good.

con

Not enough Vaas. Sure, you get to see him quite a bit, but we are still far from a point where it is too much. There are other characters taking up screen time that could easily have been donated to Vaas. This would also have fixed a lot of the problems I have with the last part of the game.