At Gamescom this year, Ubisoft was setting people loose in Far Cry 3's open world for the first time, letting us just jump in and play around in the game's vast island without any crazy pirate kings tying rock to our feet, scripted tiger-stabbing or hallucinogenic cut-scenes. It's been very revealing, and an awful lot of fun. Keza MacDonald (UK Games Editor) and Mitch Dyer (Associate Editor) decided to pad-pass and see exactly how flexible Far Cry 3 actually is. This is what happened.
Keza: So Mitch and I played Far Cry 3 for about an hour and a half at Gamescom. It didn't feel like an hour and a half. It felt like about 40 minutes and we only realised that we should probably stop when it became apparent that the Ubisoft stand was pretty much about to close.
Mitch: We just kept getting lost in the world. It's super easy because there's a lot to do. Not even in terms of side-quests, but the stuff that happens during diversions or random events. I wasn't sold on returning to an island in Far Cry 3, but I love this place. It's the craziest place where the exciting, hilarious stuff keeps happening. We yelled a lot, Keza. A lot.
Keza: Mostly at wildlife.
Mitch: Animals are my favorite variable. Zebras were so passive in Far Cry 2. Now komodo dragons, buffalo, and boars affect what you do in really significant ways. I mean, I shot a tiger and then it got mad and pounced on an innocent bystander. A shark ate me while I was diving for treasure. You need to watch your back.
...a boar started head-butting the enemy reinforcements.
Keza: I think we can safely assume that Far Cry 3 doesn't take itself as seriously as Far Cry 2 - it actually reminded me a bit more of Just Cause. I was rescued in the middle of a failed raid on a pirate holdout by a pack of boar who came by and started head-butting the enemy reinforcements. Afterwards, I got a bit too close to a buffalo, and it kind of looked at me funny for a second and then chased me around the map until I found a truck and ran it over. I loved Far Cry 2, by the way.
Mitch: Obviously.
Keza: Seriously one of the best games I've ever played. But this is not that, in terms of scope and political ambition.
Mitch: Yeah. People in Far Cry 2 were deeply awful, but not necessarily evil. Here, the characters are cut-and-dry good or bad. I'm fine with that, but it takes away some of the tension in the open world. Now I have friends, a faction that takes control of enemy outposts. I used to love the fear of rolling up on enemies. It was me against the world, and I wasn't that much better than any of them.
This is also a little more like a video game than Far Cry 2 was. You need to climb towers to fix your radar in each area -- very Assassin's Creed. You're taking back the island from the bad men so the nice people can live in peace. I've never been into that aspect of Far Cry 3, but I love exploring this world as much as Far Cry 2, if not more so because it's even less predictable.
Keza: That unpredictableness is something I haven't experienced in a shooter for a long time. Not since... well, the last Far Cry, really. You'll be wandering around having a bit of an explore, and pirates will just roll past in a jeep, or you'll find yourself in an unexpected face-off with eight deadly komodo dragons that you totally thought you could take but turn out to be much faster than they look.
It has clearly taken some of the best things about Far Cry 2, though, like the natural, impressively reactive way that the environment works. For instance, fire spreads. We accidentally set fire to a pirate outpost, for instance, leaving it ringed in flames and making what would have been a pretty minor firefight seem a whole lot more dramatic.
Mitch: I’m glad fire propagation is back. I thought I’d miss malaria or weapon jamming this time around – it’s all I think about when Far Cry 3 comes up in conversation. But I didn’t even think about these awesome inconveniences. I was too busy enjoying the assassination side quests – I love the tribal connection to them, which forces you to kill your target with a knife. It’s brilliant, encourages stealth, or challenges you during firefights.
A buffalo chased me until I found a truck and ran it over.
Keza: I found a hang-glider and crashed it into a tree.
Mitch: With grace. We only saw a small slice of the map. Ubisoft said it was 1/20th, which looked about right on the map’s scale. Even in that tiny portion – what, like a square kilometer? – there were all sorts of different places. Cliffs to climb, caves to explore, beaches, outposts, centuries-old structures in the sides of valleys…I really enjoyed being on this island. After so many scripted mission demos, I expected to hate Far Cry 3 for not being Far Cry 2, but I’m in love with it now for similar reasons I adored Africa.
Keza: I think there's a lot of credence to Ubisoft's claims that Far Cry 3 is properly open-ended in terms of the way you play, and the way you approach things like outposts. Between us, over the course of an hour and a half, we managed silent assassination, all-out carnage with everything on fire, terrorising a pirate outpost by setting free a caged tiger and letting it just go mental on the bad guys, long-distance sniping...
Mitch: I'm out of breath just reading this.
Keza: Oh, and of course hunting and stalking silently with a bow. Or, um, firing an explosive arrow at a shark, which was kind of overkill. The weaponry selection allows for all of these approaches, and in this open-world setting you never feel funneled towards one way or another. I mean, in such a short time with that game we've come away with stories. That's a very promising sign.
Mitch: I wonder what would have happened if we let that bear loose in the pirate camp and set it on fire?
Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He tries to say "Far Cry 2" out loud once per day. That's not a joke. Watch him try on Twitter and IGN.
UK Games Editor Keza MacDonald enjoyed all of these lovely Far Cry 3 events on her birthday. Wish her well on IGN and Twitter.
Source : ign[dot]com
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