Far Cry 3: When Ubisoft used to make good games.

Far Cry games over the years have been slowly declining from their high-flying days. The franchise is still popular today but the popularity and love Far Cry 3 got from the gaming community is second to none. If you ask fans of the series, most of them probably say that it is their favorite game of the series. So we ask the question, What did Far Cry 3 do differently to make it so memorable and iconic?

When Far Cry 3 was first released in 2012, The series wasn’t as big as it is today. Far Cry 2, The predecessor to Far Cry 3,  was a great game with a promising core concept.  But what Far Cry did right was that it took all of the ideas and game mechanics that worked well for the game and removed all the things gamers hated about the game. We will talk in-depth about what Far Cry 3 did right in different aspects of the game.

Storytelling

The Far Cry 3 storyline was perfect for what the game wanted to be. The story compliments the journey of the player throughout the game really well. The annoying rich kid you start playing as slowly fades away and all you’re left with is a badass killer. You play as Jason Brody, a typical rich kid who gets trapped on a tropical island. With your brother killed and your friends held hostages, it is up to you to rescue them and take revenge for your brother. The game does an excellent job of transforming the character. When you are upgrading your Jason Brody, you feel like you are transforming into someone else. The character completely changes by the end of the game connecting with the island and the people in it.

All these elements in the game give a feeling of conquering the forest in all its forms. The story of this game became the blueprint of a “Far Cry game”. All the later published games are somewhat induced with the Far Cry 3 DNA.

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Game mechanics

The reviews for Far Cry 3 tell you that players loved to play the game. The game mechanics were a major component of this. The movement was fluid, the big map didn’t stand in the way of being fun as there were cars, jet skies, and even hang gliders which gives you freedom when you travel across the map. On top of that, you unlock fast travel points when you clear an outpost. Clearing outposts is a big element of the game and it felt amazing to do that. The game encouraged you to clear an outpost stealthily. Clearing an outpost with only your bow and some rocks still feels good.

Even when you are roaming around the map, you are finding stuff that helps you in your playthrough. The crafting system encouraged you to look for plants and animal skin as you go along. These all combined make exploring the map quite addictive. You don’t feel like you are stuck doing the same thing over and over again. Something modern games should take note of.

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Villains

Far Cry 3 already had an amazing story, and if you add a villain played by a brilliant actor, the character becomes iconic. The game introduces Michael Mando as Vaas Montenegro, A psychotic pirate who wasn’t even the main villain but touched so many hearts that it eclipsed the main villain and arguably the main character, one of the most iconic villains in a video game. Every time Vaas was seen in the game, his presence was felt massively. He was like a chill dude in one moment and completely different in the other.

The performance was acknowledged by the developers and they made sure to show off his portrayal of the character. The developers tried to implement that iconic villain style into their latter games of the series with varying level of success. But arguably no one has touched the level of fame Vaas did. The character did return to Far Cry 6 as a DLC called Vaas: Insanity further giving evidence of his iconic quotes. If you ask players what they love about the game, Vaas would probably be the average response.

Far Cry 3 was a perfect blend of the open-world first-person shooter which at that time there weren’t many. The game was a turning point for the series and Ubisoft as well. It reminds people of a time Ubisoft was making good fun to play games.

Nowadays, Ubisoft doesn’t hold the top charts when talking about open-world games and it is kind of a meme to say Ubisoft open-world game. But we shouldn’t forget that Ubisoft made one of the best open-world first-person shooters and at that time was a leading developer of the genre