This may contain spoilers for those who have not yet played/completed Far Cry 3
If you have eyes, or ears, and pay any amount of attention to anything gaming related, you already know that Far Cry 3 came out back in November. If you pay closer attention to any type of gaming media: websites, blogs, reviews, you'll also know of the controversy that some discovered throughout the story line. Having just recently finished the game myself, I understand where these complaints and observations are coming from. The complaints most commonly expressed are that this game is just another typical "Let the white man come on in and save the day." While I totally understand why people felt like that, mainly because that is a very strong plot line of the game, I'm apathetic in a sense because we deal with this issue quite often. While grasping at the quasi-social issue of the white man saving the day because the natives just aren't strong enough, I found myself way too often being thrown out of the game play experience. Having addressed the issue most seemed to have with the game, I'm going to go on with my own issues in the game.
My issues with the game itself don't come from wonky controls, weird visuals, or bad game play (none of which Far Cry 3 suffer from), but instead it comes from the downright terrible characters that inhabit that entire gaming world/island. I pound my head against the nearest wall while asking myself how Ubisoft could create such awful avatars for what appeared to be a fantastic game. I was given plenty of fair warnings from multiple parties before I purchased the game, including from my local Gamestop employee who spat out while handing me the game: "You'll love it, but all the characters are total douches". After playing the game for a certain amount of time I was able to ascertain that the main group of characters in Far Cry 3 are just your typical "College Bro" types. By "a certain amount of time" I mean the end of the game's opening video sequence.
The "group" is essentially a bunch of college aged friends (with wealthy parents) who take a vacation tour of Asia and end up on an island where, as quoted from the game "You can do whatever you want, for a price." and naturally the group jumps on this proposition. The characters include Jason Brody (your main character), his brothers Grant and Riley, his girlfriend Liza (perhaps the most tolerable, save all the crying she does), and a few other various friends thrown in there like extra herbs and spices that just kind of ruin your favorite dinner. The most atrocious character, possibly because you spend the entire game as him, is Jason. Starting the game trapped in a camp with a deranged psychopath (or light-hearted, endearing fellow depending on your viewpoint) on a mysterious island with your ex-army brother Grant and missing compadres, may seem like an exciting jumping off point, however considering the end result 5 minutes later, it all seems very contrived. There is a window of time, roughly 45 seconds to a minute where Jason's brother is murdered in front of him, and when Jason kills his first ever victim by shoving a knife through his throat. At this point Jason takes the appropriate 10 seconds to gasp in horror at what he has just done, and even drops the "Oh my God, what have I done" line, or something equivalent. This however, is just the start of the blood that Jason will spill, and the innocent college kid who just wanted to go on a vacation with his brothers, girlfriend, and company turns into one of the most vicious and brutal killers I've ever seen in a movie, television show, or other video game.
These character development traits are starting to become utterly ridiculous and quite frankly need to be put to a stop if developers ever want the player to be able to connect to a character ever again. As a college student myself, I found all of these characters (except for one of the villains, Vaas) to be completely unlikable with no way to connect to them. Scratch even the connectable part, just likable. I don't care if I can't connect to a character such as Brody in this game, or Master Chief in Halo, or Corvo Attano in Dishonored, but I should be able to actually like and tolerate the people that I have to control or be, for at the very least 15 hours. Far Cry made this task damn near impossible. I found myself very often pressing the mute button and enjoying the game much more until I realized I would miss audio cues of an impending attack by a pack of Komodo Dragons. Far Cry 3 turns this college athlete Jason into a mass murder machine in roughly thirty minutes with no breaks in between. I have such a hard time believing this guy went from tossing/kicking/hitting footballs/soccer balls/baseballs to shoving a machete through a man's chest, while drawing out his pistol and shooting his 4 fellow cronies in their heads during a 4 second time frame. Rant all you want about adjusting to conditions, however this isn't the only example of this happening (i.e. Tomb Raider) in very recent times. I beg of you developers, let us like your characters, we really want to, but some times you make it oh so difficult.
Now, despite the rant in the above 4 paragraphs, I believe that Far Cry 3 is an absolutely beautiful and amazing game. The game play is incredibly fun, from hunting to creatively finding ways to take over enemy outposts. The ability to play this game as a run-and-gun like Rambo is there, as well as the option to take an almost Sam Fisher-esque approach to levels by pulling enemies down off of ledges, or putting well placed arrows between their eyes. Visuals and audio are phenomenal, the only place needing improvement being the voice acting. There are definitely great times to be had, even with a some what lack luster story, there is at least 20 hours worth of missions, plus much more time in finding collectibles and unlocking weapons. Overall, Far Cry 3 is definitely worth being checked out.
Here's a tip to all of those making video games: likable characters are one of the most important things in a game, when you're forcing the player to inhabit those characters.
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