When things inevitably turn to a fire-fight you have an enormous range of weapons to play with and upgrade. Everything from a bow and arrow, to a flamethrower and yes; Far Cry 2’s amazing fire tech returns. Not to mention you will have access to grenades, Molotovs, mines and C4, right from the start of the game. As amazing as all this stuff is, what’s going to blow you away are the animals.

Nothing will be quite the same as the first time you shoot a cage to sick a tiger on some pirates and sit back from afar to watch the insanity unfold. That tiger will ‘fuck their shit up’. This of course extends to you as well; travelling through the wild or seeking big game like deer, you’ll have to worry. The game’s animals will react realistically and maul you if they get the chance. Fighting a group of Komodo Dragons can be as difficult as fully armed pirates.

Photo courtesy of Ubisoft

Exploration

The RPG in Far Cry 3 runs pretty deep and you will be hard pressed to not gleefully spend hours building Jason into your own personal brand of predator. The crafting system is beefy and tied to nearly every element of the game; want to carry more guns, money, items, syringes, ammo? Skin the requisite game and craft your new holster, pouch, rucksack wallet etc. There are tons of items and gear to craft, and at times you might be comparing the depth to your favourite RPG. The health system features the returning first aid element from Far Cry 2; when you want to heal and you have no syringes you will endure a gruesome first person first aid that usually involves bandaging a nasty gash or biting a bullet out of your arm. Crafting syringes is just as deep; across the game-world you will encounter plants you can harvest and recipes you can use to craft healing syringes as well as stat boosters that range from more underwater breathing time to insane sprint speed.

Photo courtesy of Ubisoft

RPG Elements The game’s progression system is based on XP and allows you to gain abilities/ tattoos in several disciplines. If you do even half of the side quests you will max your tree, so building a character isn’t quite as picky-choosy as a traditional RPGbut it is just deep enough to keep you invested and yearning for that next “must have” take-down. Nearly everything in the game nets you XP adding incentive to all the exploring.