XLNCE: Far Cry 3

Brutality, Blood-lust, and Badassery

The unique thrill of pirate skewering in Far Cry 3.

A PROFILE OF EXCELLENCE BY PETER FRANKO

....these are the three characteristics I found my Jason Brody developing within the first hours of the pirate slaughtering, hang-gliding, and P.E.T.A. disapproving animal massacre that is the basis of Far Cry 3. Though so far what has been particularly intriguing about this universe and its breed of immersion is the overwhelming feeling I felt when playing the game. This is because Far Cry 3 is the most bad-ass game I have played in the past year.

Throughout the game their are numerous pirate bases, filled with various sorts of well armed goons only to be taken down by you. Beforehand, if you get a lofty vantage point of the scene, you can use your in game camera to plot your moves. In this period of a base take-down the player has time to think. A decision as to whether they should release the wild tiger kept in its bamboo cage to rip the opposition to shreds, stealthily enter from the hole in the wooden fence to eliminate and drag guards one by one back into the brush, or go in for a full on assault. The decisive planning that is required to tackle these strongholds in a stealthy fashion makes for incredibly well crafted timing, and is what I chose every time.

Despite these fantastic mechanics, the real showstopper is the feeling you get during these sequences. Every base take-down is just as exhilarating as the next. This is most likely attributed to the sheer brutality that Jason can use. The satisfaction of shoving your machete through a pirate, grabbing his knife and hurling it thirty feet into the pirate nearest him is -- as odd as it sounds -- truly incredible. When the pirates find out that you've breached the perimeter  they'll attempt to sound an alarm calling in reinforcements. If you are a smart, methodical player you can disable these before a crisis occurs, but regardless, if they realize your presence it moves into the second act of the typical assault.

At this stage pirate guns are roaring, the hounds have been sent out to maul your brittle college-boy bones, and you have to act fast. In a story of my personal experience when playing a few hours ago, I had three baddies left all looking to put a bullet in my brain. One was firing from the top of a shack and the other two were searching for me along the outer fence. Fueled by this aggressive, animalistic blood-rage that comes with the game, I set my sights on our rooftop sniper, or for lack of a better term, my prey. I crept up from below the building. Reaching up I angrily shoved my blade through his chest, tossing him down to the muddy ground, sprinted up to his vantage point, spotted the two others, and using a recently acquired skill, leaped over the fence, cushioned my fall and my machete in the soft flesh of our first pirate and automatically piked his nearby compadre. Hearing the immensely satisfying stabby noise comparable to running a knife core deep into a watermelon and the tribal drum beat of a successful base take-down, I let out an instinctive howl of excitement and rejoiced in my now bolstered adrenaline.

This is the sheer satisfaction of playing Far Cry 3 is the defining aspect that makes this game so wonderful.

Far Cry 3's brutal badassness is honed to a perfection and manifests itself in the player in such a way to keep you entertained for weeks. That is why Far Cry 3 is truly, XLNT.