Far Cry 3 certainly knows how to do an opening. The game begins with a bunch of rich kids enjoying the high life on a tropical island paradise before being abruptly cut short as we're captured by bloodthirsty pirates who plan to sell us into slavery. We escape into the wilds of the island, where a local tribe of rebels take us in, initiating us into their warrior caste and unleashing us back out against the pirates.

The premise might sound a bit banal but Far Cry 3's strengths lie in how it rips us back to reality and reminds us that our situation is hostile and grim, with expertly done mood-whiplash moments as the game flips from exploring a beautiful island to harrowing and gut-wrenching story beats.

The writing is clearly the main draw here, but the FPS gameplay is no slouch either. Far Cry 3 wants you to engage with it stealthily, with an emphasis on exploring the island and hunting animals to gain experience and craft equipment to make your character into a Rambo-style powerhouse, and it's a satisfying loop.

It does fall apart a little bit in the latter half of the game unfortunately. The difficulty ramps up slightly more than I think is comfortable, the island loses some of its lustre once you've explored it, and a generic final villain muscles onto the scene and makes for a bland encounter. Still, for fans of strong writing, Far Cry 3 remains a great game.

This was my first walkthrough of this game in 6 years, I guess. This time I completed it with a perfect 100% score. What can I say. Interesting story, works great as a fantasy built on parallels with Alice in Wonderland. But I don't think I buy into "white saviour" myth more than needed.

As for gameplay, it's pretty much decent, although no need for money and exp when I get to the second island. Therefore, there wouldn't be any motivation to collect the collectibles, if I wasn't going for 100%. And the actual collecting process is tedious af. The side quests are all boring shit, including those from the boards. Love the skill and hunting mechanics. Nice weapons. Stealth — not so much, but it was improved in FC4. The only thing I sincerely fucking hated was the wing suit/parachuting, because it's badly programmed, and I died more from trying to land than from the actual gameplay on the hard difficulty.

Also, fantastic score by Tyler Bates and great soundtrack (Make It Bun Dem is a masterpiece) compilation. The summer vibe is unique. This game is meant to be played in July, although I've finished it just now in February. I too need a little bit of summer during winter 😉

The Far Cry Game that popularised the series. Refreshing after playing the mess that was Far Cry 1 and 2. This being one of the first and best Ubisoft open world formulas before the formula got stale didn't hurt the game either. The main character sounds like Anakin from the Star Wars prequels based on his tone and pattern of speech so I never took him seriously. The love story line and bad ending/choice are laughingly bad as no real connection is built between the two and Jason changes too quickly to be believable. Every boss fight is a terrible quick time event knife fight as well. But besides those points, the game holds up well and is pretty fun to mess around with if you are not sick of the standard Ubisoft formula yet.

Good for its modern day price as of 2023 (dirt cheap).