360 Review: Far Cry 3

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Insanity Personified

“I think the knowledge came to him at last – only at the very last. But the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude – and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating.

“Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn’t touched. I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror – of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision – he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath:

‘The horror! The horror!’” – Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

There is a beautiful chaos to the natural world. It is both complex, yet simple. Serene, yet savage. Cold, yet truthful. Some people, who live their lives in equaled, measured days safe in the comforts of civilization, will never witness its brutal spectacle, its physical beauty, and its noble and harsh truths. To survive, you must adapt. But to adapt, you must survive. While man may think himself the apex predator, place him in the woods, in the jungles, in the darkening forests far from the trappings of civilization and you will know the fallacy of that boast. If he is of equal measure with the natural world, should he survive this crucible of life, he will emerge more, and less, than what he was. He will be a master to a natural force. A warrior. One who is worthy.

But if he forgoes the lessons and refuses to accept the ordered chaos of nature; should he shun its brutality, its beauty, and its truth, then he is lost. He simply becomes nothing more than a cautionary and sad little tale of failure in the face of something greater than himself. Something as old as time. Something both beautiful, and violent, in the lessons it attempts to teach us. That within us lies the potential, if we are brave and cautious and worthy enough to seek it, to become something more than what we are.

It simply lies buried in our nature.

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Down the Rabbit Hole

“And from right to left along the lighted shore moved a wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman. She walked with measured steps, draped in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. She carried her head high; her hair was done in the shape of a helmet; she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gifts of witchmen, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step. She must have had the value of several elephant tusks upon her.

“She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul.

“Her face had a tragic and fierce aspect of wild sorrow and of dumb pain mingled with the fear of some struggling, halt-shaped resolve. She stood looking at us without a stir, and like the wilderness itself, with an air of brooding over an inscoutable purpose. A whole minute passed, and then she made a step forward. There was a low jingle, a glint of yellow metal, a sway of fringed draperies, and she stopped as if her heart had failed her. She looked at us all as if her life had depended upon the unswerving steadiness of her glance” – Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

I’ll say it right now; for the record, I don’t like Jason Brody. This soft, sheltered, one percent’er should’ve been the casualty in his own story. Instead we are made to experience the world through him, through his eyes. We are made, I think, to somehow grow and learn and like this unlikely hero. To root for him and carry him on our shoulders. That he is, in some way, the every man hero. That he is Ubisoft’s answer to the question, “If you were put in this situation, how far would you be willing to go, what would you be willing to do, to survive?” I get that part Ubisoft. I see the narrative hook you tried to sink into me with the attempt.

What I don’t get, or particularly like, is the fact that he is thrust, dumped, and abandoned upon us with no real emotional weight, with no real narrative thrust. Jason Brody is not the humble every man. He is not from humble origins, from humble beginnings. Someone who knows what it means to struggle and fight and sacrifice every day of their lives to eat, to live, to provide a roof over their heads.

There is nothing appealing about Jason Brody’s rise from spoiled rich kid to warrior paragon of righteousness, this every man hero personified, that it should have been. Because it all happens in less than five minutes of the story’s narrative instead of feeling more organic and realistic. At best, he is a blank slate, an empty avatar, the proverbial void in the storyline. A void that, had it worked, would have been filled in by the player, by their defining him in ways that become a personal and intimate journey. A journey that changed in how they molded him as a person, as a character, and push him to the ends that they wish.

But to me, he is nothing but an empty, unlikeable shell. Dead weight in a story that he is attempting to champion. The one character that should have been the defining lynchpin, the most emotionally engaging center to the story. But in the end, simply turns it into an almost unplayable mess.

I would have been just as content to spend the game watching more engaging, more interesting characters like Vaas, visit upon him every kind of twisted bit of torture his cold hard truth can muster upon Jason without killing him in the end. I wanted Jason to physically suffer; for his pride, for his foolishness, for his stupidity. They are three traits I have little understanding and even smaller patience for.

Jason Brody encompasses all three traits simultaneously. How do I know this? Simple. It is shown to us in the first two minutes of the game. And why do I feel like these traits carry on in the forty hours I spent with this man? Simple yet again. He carries on throughout the entire game like some whimpering, whiny little boy. You’d think that after the fifth or sixth creature he skins he’d stop pouting and complaining about it in this whining nasally voice, “Ugh. Oh Gawd, this is disgusting…” By the tenth time I heard it, I had to physically shout at the screen for him to balls up, quit complaining, and shut the f*$k up. He didn’t hear me of course. And went about whining throughout the entire game.

So for the record, I hate, with all my heart, the very concept of Jason Brody.

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Dysfunctional Functional Narrative

“They were men enough to face the darkness……Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed ’round him – all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. There’s no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is detestable. And it has a fascination, too, which goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination – you know. Imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate.” – Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Which is why I find it so fascinating (but ultimately not surprising), that Jason is merely the shadow being cast by the brilliance of the game’s supporting characters. Hoyt Volker, Vaas Montenegro, Citra Talugmai. These are just three of the defining characters, the reasons and the moments in the game, that made me see it through to the end. I was loved, hated, feared, and envied by these creatures of code brought to life by a phenomenal voice cast.

I was tempted by their dark promises. I was enraged by their senseless violences. I was chilled by their menacing whispers. If there is but one reason to play this game, then these three examples of what to expect this game to give you on a character driven level is all the reason you need to experience Far Cry 3’s otherwise vapid and by-the-numbers storyline.

To that extent, I find it utterly baffling that some must meet such wildly questionable and ambiguous ends. Ends that left me shaking a head that was filled with unanswered reasons as to the hidden metaphors behind them. Secretly however, I am hopeful, cautiously hopeful, that with one such….questionable conclusion, that we may yet see them again in the future (please Far Cry 3 DLC, you are my only hope). For the moment at least, I will say for the record that Vaas, my dear and psychotic friend, Ubisoft did you a grave injustice.

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Unwanted in My Skin

“There were moments when one’s past came back to one, as it will sometimes when you have not a moment to spare to yourself; but it came in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream, remembered with wonder amongst the overwhelming realities of this strange world of plants, and water, and silence. And this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect.”– Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Can someone please explain to me, while I travel upon this dark and depressing thought, why the only race capable of righting the world’s wrongs has to be a white man? That no matter where, no matter how, no matter why, the only person capable of saving the day has to be Whitey McWhiterton? The only guy who, despite the cultural and ethical growth of our own planet, is the only person capable of tucking you in at night, scaring away the boogeymen, and saving your ass from certain oppressive death. I am growing so tired of this cliche’.

I find it amazing that, despite an industry that is trying to make greater strides to be more all-inclusive as it possibly can, especially towards female gamers (who, according to some genre polls, can account for almost 49% of game’s sales), they have such a spotty… hell… more like shoddy…. track record for racial inclusion and diversity in their gaming protagonists.

Anyway, I know not everyone came to hear me rant and rave and lament about ideologies that I am (currently) powerless to change within the gaming community. You came to hear about a review. So, without further ado, let’s get on with the show, shall we?

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The Beating Heart

“They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force – nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind – as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness.

The conquest of the earth which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea – something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to…”– Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Far Cry 3 is  technically brilliant, if at times slightly flawed. The visuals are the hallmark of the game. To climb the highest parapet I could find, watching the sun settle down over the distant misty borders of the sea, watching the shadows splinter across white sandy beaches as the moon rose and sliver-lit the waterfalls and little shallows across my view. I was amazed at how primal, how unspoiled nature can be. And saddened by the encroaching fingers of a humanity that didn’t care.

The HUD is minimal, but functional. Inventory can be a little pain to deal with, since it’s limited in the beginning but can be expanded upon over time with the proper crafting ingredients. And changing/utilizing items are simple command functions; press A to use, Left Bumper to switch weapons, etc etc. Even then though, I’ve noticed it can be a little unresponsive during high frame rates (ie. during a heavy firefight for example). But nothing that becomes problematic.

The audio work is beautiful; the voice work is rich, the organic environmental sounds; the hiss of some unseen predator, the soft and hollow whisper of wind in your ear, the unseen primal life deep in the jungles of Rook Island, all of it good. But the hallmark of the entire experience is Michael Mando as Vaas. My GOD that was absolutely the best thing Ubisoft did for Far Cry 3. The two go together like chocolate and peanut butter. My hat’s off to you Ubi, for making that happen and sharing it with the rest of the world.

Too bad I can’t say the same thing for Jason Brody.

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Story-wise, I’d give Far Cry 3’s uninspired main story a 1, if it wasn’t for the strong and noteworthy performances by the secondary character cast. There is also a lot to do here in Far Cry 3, beyond the simplistic story points. So I have to point that out. Beyond hunting and gathering and crafting, you can pick up any number of sidequests that allow you to progress (if not properly mature) on the path of the warrior. Things like bounty hunter missions, special hunting and “Target” missions with specific requirements (ie. kill X targets with only your knife. Kill the target without being spotted, etc).

There are other, slightly arcade-ish missions, like the timed speed runs that have you on all sorts of vehicles where you need to reach a certain destination before time runs out and so forth. They’re all optional, of course, but they do tend to give more content to the paper-thin story.

There have been some noticeable glitches, some texture marring, some slow down when the action gets heavy (ie. during outpost/hideout shootouts with a dozen pirates or so all on the screen at the same time). But from what I’ve heard Ubisoft have tackled the problems head on, and in an expeditious manner. They’ve also taken a lot of customer and player feedback for their recent updates, offering a higher degree of difficulty, and fairly cheap DLC packets that are all optional to the storyline. It’s good to see Ubisoft actively listening and acting so quickly after the game’s release. To be honest, it’s quite refreshing.

On the DLC front, you’ve got the Monkey Business, Lost Expeditions, Warrior and Predator packs that introduce you to new characters, new weapons, additional animals to hunt down, and additional weapons content for the game’s multi-player.

There is a stand-alone DLC expansion, Blood Dragon, however the two titles (beyond reusing certain vehicular assets) are in no way connected storyline wise and Blood Dragon can be enjoyed as a separate entity.

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Final Thoughts: Despite Ubisoft’s attempt at trying to make the “every man hero” moment work, with Jason Brody in charge it fell amazingly flat exceptionally fast with only a boring and uninspiring story to backbone this weakness. The only saving grace is the game’s exceptional visuals, near phenomenal secondary cast, and plethora of side activities contained within it. This is, of course, only my opinion.

If you can perhaps find some hidden meaning, some common thread buried deeper in the tapestry than what I saw to give some unquestionable truth to Jason Brody’s character and to his story, then by all means play on my friends.

But, if you are like me and see only the things that I have given you, and you see simply the shallow nature of this man creeping into the exceptional. Then I beg you, gentle reader.

Turn the page.

One Response to 360 Review: Far Cry 3

  1. Zombiegamer300 says:

    Hey Wastelander75! You know when I started this game I had nothing but low expectations. I did not follow the game pre-release so I missed the hype. Going into to it expecting it to have a bad story I was not as upset with the main character. Not to say I dont see your points. I did not finish the game (my curse, i almost never finish games) so i can not speak to the ending, but the plot seemed painfully played out. I agree the most memorable moments of the story were Vaas! I remember thinking to myself I hope to GOD no one is that crazy, but there might be! Overall i enjoyed the game. If you like Zombie island I would say you would like this, or Visa-versa. I bet you loved the stealth a lot more than the stealth in Metro 2033! This was one of the few games I enjoyed more stealth than chaos.

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