I’ve got such a huge backlog of games right now it is almost offensive, starving kids in Africa with no games to play and all that, So i am working through them except for a few heavily anticipated games that i had to play as soon as the download finished.
So today I am still finishing up FarCry3 and thought it would be a great place to start, largely in part due to it containing one of my favorite missions in any game to date. Almost aly gamer now has at least heard of the mission “Kick the hornet’s nest” in which players must burn pot fields in order to get the attention of the drug lords at work on the island.
This mission is FUN, a lot of the time games these days have everything broken down to the mission-objective- objective complete. structure and sometimes it doesn’t work, or missions run too long or too short, or feel unimportant in the grand scheme of the game.I don’t think any of us like those missions that drag on and don’t advance the story at all and it feels like they only added them to make their gameplay time longer, especially when it doesn’t add to the story at all. That is definitely not the point here. To me this mission is a shining example of exemplary story, gamplay, pacing, and ambiance coming together.
You start this mission with a new weapon, a standard tactic in video games, ” here’s a mission to go play with this new toy we gave you just now, have fun”. I sometimes cringe when i enter this scenario because so often it’s just an opportunity to plow through a few rooms of mindless enemies with some ridiculously overpowered weapon you’ll most likely never find ammo for again, or lose right after the mission ended.
I honestly walked into this one with really low expectations, then i read my objective, ” burn the pot fields” eh that sounds pretty cool i thought to myself, but my hopes weren’t really all that high.
With low hopes i rounded the first hill and the main character’s dialog triggered and i knew my mission had begun… That was the last time my face wasn’t locked in a grin until i got the mission complete popup and was sent back to town to find something else to do.
Really, this mission is THAT good, especially if you are a dubstep/ skrillex fan, as soon as you start your spree of pyromania, a spectacular reggae/ electrohouse/ dubstep song starts playing, and just keeps building as you burn more and more, after one or two pot fields your character is completely toasted, shouting out phrases faster than a drunk chick at a college party, and the Song scales into full swing into what i can best describe as a barrage to the senses that you can’t help but immerse yourself in.
Do yourself a favor and just watch this quick play through of the mission, or if you have the game go do this yourself again.
Beyond this mission there are tons of great things about FarCry3, the graphics are stellar, the characters are engaging, and some of the best looking i’ve seen thus far in gaming. (i have played crysis 3 and they are about equal) The missions are fun, the story is genuinely great , and it just has some really incredible moments that really bring the game over the top for me.
Side note on my love of FarCry3, something i should really put out there is that the jungle setting really triggered my Nostalgia goggles in reference to the original CRYSIS, I’m not sure if it was just the jungle setting, or the similarity of the buildings and CRYEngine3.
That’s it from me on FarCry3 for right now, i might speak of it more once i finish the game.
Lord Aoshi's PC Perspective 