In between getting my Risa starships in Star Trek Online and getting my Rune Keeper his war steed in Lord of the Rings Online, I’ve been playing and enjoying Far Cry 3.
Far Cry 3 is an open world first person shooter/RPG game, in which you take out bad guys and wild animals on an island or two after you and your friends are captured by very bad guys. It is RPGish in that you gain skills and and crafting abilities with experience. Crafting is everything in the game. When you start, you can carry nearly nothing in your loot bag, ammo bag, syringe (for healing and buffs) bag, etc. You kill animals to craft better gear, which is mostly great, but sometimes frustrating. The animals in the game are not pushovers, either. The dogs attack in packs, the tigers and bears are tough, and snakes bite you while you’re sneaking through dungeons.
Guns, on the other hand, are plentiful, and more unlock as you climb radio towers to scope out the landscape (much like synchronizing in the Assassins Creed games). Combat is fun, but not always easy. Many side quests require you to kill your target with a knife, so sneaking is important.
A feature of the game I really like is that you actually have an impact on the world. As you capture enemy strongholds, the friendly islanders occupy them and the area around them becomes less dangerous.
The checkpoint system is hit and miss. Usually, it doesn’t take you too far back when you die, but there have been a couple of missions (so far) that were very frustrating because of how far back the checkpoint took you.
An unfortunate part of the game is that you kill the first boss (Vaas, the guy on the cover of the game, and a really bad dude) in sort of a drug-induced haze/dream sequence, so I didn’t get the satisfaction of putting a bullet into him and knowing he’s dead. I keep expecting him to pop up again at some inopportune time. During the first half of the game, he always has the jump on you, which was quite frustrating. I’ve just started the second part, which aims to kill Vaas’ boss, so we’ll see how that goes.
But if any of this sounds fun, get Far Cry 3 (it isn’t too expensive these days) and play it. It’s pretty great!