Far Cry 3: an excellent sandbox shooter. 10/10

April 15, 2014

I recently finished the single-player campaign of Far Cry 3. According to Steam, it took me 53 hours.

Wait, what?

Yes. 53 hours.

That’s a huge amount of time to spend on a single-player game. Something like 10 hours might be more typical in my experience.

But, FC3 did take 53 hours over many calendar months. I only played a few hours at a time. And to its credit, not a single moment of it felt like wasted time, too repetitive or boring or some such. It really is a great game. I’ve recently reviewed too many “meh” games here, that I would much rather not replay. But FC3 is one that I truly do recommend if you are a fan of open-air sandbox shooters.

Here’s a video to kick it off, that shows you the highlights of the game.

Now, I’ve played the previous version before. Here’s my review of Far Cry 2. The two main gripes that I had with FC2 were that you can never really secure an area of the map, and the long time it takes to travel between regions. In FC3, both of them have been definitively fixed. When you liberate parts of the island, they are liberated for good. And fast-traveling to previous known locations is as simple as opening the map and double-clicking.

Story-wise, there is no connection to the previous parts of the series. Gameplay-wise though, this feels very much like Far Cry 2 with all of its problems fixed.

When you start to play the game, it can seem overwhelming at first. You need to acquire weapons. You need to craft some syringes. There’s so much to do! Should I follow the stories or side quests?

I can only say, relax and enjoy, because that’s what I did to gain my 50+ hours of gameplay. I did do all the side missions and explored the island. I can recommend that you try to max out on your weapons and gear before proceeding with the story quests, because it then becomes more fun and enjoyable.