Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3 is a 2012 first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the third main installment in the Far Cry series after Far Cry 2. The game takes place on the fictional Rook Islands, a tropical archipelago which can be freely explored by players. Gameplay focuses on combat and exploration. Players can use a variety of weapons to defeat human enemies and hostile wildlife, and the game features elements found in role-playing games such as skill trees and experience. After a vacation goes awry, protagonist Jason Brody must save his friends, who have been kidnapped by pirates, and escape from the island and its unhinged inhabitants.

Ubisoft Montreal collaborated with Ubisoft's global development team, including Massive Entertainment, Ubisoft Shanghai, Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Reflections and Red Storm Entertainment. The game's development was partially restarted in 2010 after the departure of several key creative staff. The team evaluated the feedback for Far Cry 2 and identified areas that needed to be improved or removed. The team spent considerable time designing the island, which they described as the "second most important character" in the game. Inspirations were taken from films and TV shows such as Apocalypse Now and Lost, as well as video games The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption. Michael Mando was hired to portray Vaas Montenegro, an antagonist the team compared to Darth Vader.

The game was announced in June 2011 and Ubisoft promoted the game with various companion apps, webseries and crossover. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November 2012. The game received critical acclaim upon release, with praise directed at its characters (particularly Vaas), world design, visuals, progression, and gameplay, though the game's multiplayer modes received criticism. Despite weak pre-order sales, nearly 10 million copies of the game were sold. It was nominated for multiple year-end accolades including Game of the Year and Best Shooter awards by several gaming publications. It has also been cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. Ubisoft supported the game with downloadable content and released Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, the game's standalone expansion, in 2013. A successor, Far Cry 4 was released in November 2014. The game was re-released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in June 2018.

Gameplay

Fire spreads rapidly in the game's vegetation, which can be used to kill or distract enemies.

Far Cry 3 is a first-person shooter set on the fictional Rook Islands, a tropical archipelago somewhere in the Pacific, controlled by pirates and mercenaries.[1] Players control Jason Brody and can approach missions and objectives in a variety of ways. They can kill enemies by utilizing firearms such as assault rifles, sniper rifles, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and explosives like land mines and grenades.[2] Alternatively, players can utilize stealth to avoid the attention of enemies. For instance, players can scout an enemy's outpost by using a camera to mark the locations of enemies,[3] or toss rocks to distract enemies.[4] The stealth approach, which can be done by using silenced weapons and combat knives,[5] can prevent enemies from triggering alarms which call for reinforcements.[6] Skills are collected by gaining experience from completing missions and killing enemies, and are unlocked in three skill trees, themed as the Spider, the Heron, and the Shark. Each skill tree upgrades different aspects of Jason's abilities, with the Spider upgrading his stealth takedowns and hunting skills, the Shark upgrading assault takedowns and health, and the Heron upgrading his long-range takedowns and mobility.[7] As skills are collected, a tribal tattoo on Jason's forearm grows correspondingly.[8]

Rook Islands is an open world in which players can explore freely. Jason can travel using a variety of vehicles including dune buggies, all-terrain vehicles, cargo trucks, jet skis, boats and hang gliding. Later in the game, players will find a wingsuit that Jason can wear.[9] Jason will encounter different friendly settlements where he can shop for weapons and materials[10] and complete side missions including hunting quests and assassination missions.[3] Rook Islands is inhabited by a wide variety of wildlife including leopards and sharks, and the game's artificial intelligence (AI) enables the wildlife to interact with each other to simulate a realistic ecosystem.[11] By hunting different animals and harvesting their corpses, players gain materials necessary for crafting new items such as weapon holsters and ammo pouches.[12][13] Players can hoard green plants to produce syringes, which heal Jason when his health depletes during combat scenarios[12] or provide other gameplay advantages.[14] Players can climb different radio towers and remove their scramblers.[15] When they are removed, areas of the map are opened up, various points of interest are highlighted and players will unlock a new weapon and gain access to a supply-run side mission,[4] a timed quest in which players need to deliver medicines as quickly as possible from one place to another.[10] As pirates control the island, players can infiltrate and liberate numerous enemy outposts. Once an outpost is retaken, it becomes a base for the rebels which unlocks additional side missions for players.[16] It also become a location where players can quickly fast travel to and trade with vendors.[6] A patch was later released to allow players to reset outposts.[17] When exploring the game's world, unscripted events may occur, such as Jason being attacked by wildlife or pirate patrols.[18][19] Players can complete Trials of the Rakyat missions, which are timed combat challenges;[20] join different minigames including poker, knife throwing and shooting challenges;[21] and gather different collectibles such as relics,[22] letters,[23] and memory cards.[24]

The game features a four-player cooperative multiplayer mode, which is set six months before the events of the main game. The mode features five different classes: Warrior, Rusher, Deadeye, Saboteur or Bodyguard. Players can customize each class's loadouts and weapons.[25] In multiplayer, players can activate "battle cry", which boosts the team's health, accuracy and running speed.[26] The game includes competitive multiplayer modes including Team Deathmatch and Domination, in which two teams compete against each other to capture control points.[27] There is also Transmission, a Domination variant in which the control points are radio transmitters that change location. In Firestorm, a team needs to ignite two fuel dumps held by another team while protecting their own from being set on fire.[26] Killing enemies successively, reviving team members and utilizing battle cry grant players Team Support Points, which can be used to unlock perks like "psyche gas" which causes enemies to hallucinate all players as shadows.[28] The game features a map editor that allows users to create and share custom content.[29] Players can create their maps by customizing landscapes, and by placing buildings, trees, vehicles and units controlled by AI.[30]

Plot

Michael Mando provided voice and motion capture for Vaas Montenegro, one of the game's antagonists.

Jason Brody (Gianpaolo Venuta) is on vacation with a group of friends in the fictional Rook Islands between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, celebrating his younger brother Riley (Alex Harrouch) receiving a pilot's license. On a skydiving trip, they unknowingly land on a pirate-occupied island and are captured by pirate lord Vaas Montenegro (Michael Mando), who intends to sell them into slavery. Jason escapes with help from his older brother Grant (Lane Edwards), who is killed by Vaas. Jason is rescued by Dennis (Charles Malik Whitfield), an adopted member of the islands' native Rakyat tribe. Dennis recognizes Jason's potential as a warrior and gives him the Tatau, the tattoos of a Rakyat warrior. While helping the Rakyat, Jason finds one of his friends, Daisy (Natalie Brown), at the house of botanist Dr. Earnhardt (Martin Kevan). Impressed with Jason's prowess, the Rakyat allow him to be the second outsider to enter their sacred temple. After he returns the Silver Dragon Knife, a Rakyat relic, Jason is initiated into the tribe by priestess Citra (Faye Kingslee).

Aided by Earnhardt and CIA agent Willis Huntley (Alain Goulem), Jason helps the Rakyat retake their island from the pirates, while also finding and rescuing his girlfriend Liza (Mylène Dinh-Robic) and his friends Keith (James A. Woods) and Oliver (Kristian Hodko). After several encounters with Vaas, Jason learns Vaas is Citra's brother and betrayed the Rakyat to work for Hoyt Volker (Steve Cumyn), a South African slave trader and drug lord. Jason soon matures into a fearsome and skilled warrior and, revered by the Rakyat, begins to enjoy all the killing while growing more distant from his friends.

Citra has sex with Jason while he is under the effects of hallucinogens, after which she asks him to stay on the island. Deciding to remain, Jason bids goodbye to his friends and heads to Vaas's pirate base, discovering Vaas has set up a trap for him. Jason survives but then enters a delusional, dream-like state, where he must fight multiple duplicates of Vaas. He eventually reaches the real Vaas and stabs him with the Dragon Knife,[b] before collapsing. Jason awakens with Citra in the Rakyat temple and promises to kill Hoyt for her.

After reaching Hoyt's island with Huntley's help, Jason meets Sam Becker (Stephen Bogaert), Huntley's fellow operative, who helps him infiltrate Hoyt's personal army. During this time, Jason discovers that Riley is alive and a prisoner of Hoyt. With Hoyt watching them on camera, Jason beats Riley to maintain the ruse, though he reveals himself when Becker loops the video. Jason works his way into Hoyt's confidence, and he and Becker plan to kill Hoyt at a poker game. However, as they sit down to play, Hoyt murders Becker after revealing he saw through the looped video. Jason kills Hoyt and his men in a knife fight, losing half a finger in the process, and escapes the island with Riley.

Jason and Riley fly to Earnhardt's house to find it on fire. The dying doctor reveals that the Rakyat attacked the house and kidnapped Jason's friends. Jason confronts Citra at the Rakyat temple but she drugs him and captures Riley. Citra tells Jason that she has fallen in love with him, believing him to be a powerful warrior of Rakyat legend, and that she will "free" him. Jason dreams of walking a fiery path with the Dragon Knife, with Liza appearing as a monster in his dream. He awakens holding Liza at knifepoint and is given the choice to save his friends or allow them to be killed by allying with Citra.

If Jason frees his friends, Citra begs him to stay on the island while an outraged Dennis prepares to stab Jason for his betrayal. Citra jumps in front of him and is stabbed instead; proclaiming her love for Jason as she dies in his arms. Jason and his friends leave the island by boat, with Jason narrating that despite all the killing turning him into a monster, he still believes that in some place in his heart he is better than this. If Jason kills Liza, he and Citra later have sex in a ritual. Afterwards, Citra stabs Jason, telling him as he dies that their child will lead the Rakyat to glory and that he "won". The game ends with a still image of the boat and the Dragon Knife on the beach while the credits roll.

Development

Brian Tyler composed the game's original score.

Ubisoft Montreal served as the game's lead developer and was responsible for creating the game's single-player. It was a global production that involved multiple Ubisoft studios: Massive Entertainment created the game's multiplayer portion, Ubisoft Shanghai designed the missions and crafted the AI of wildlife, Ubisoft Bucharest provided quality assurance, Ubisoft Reflections assisted Montreal on the design of vehicles, and Red Storm Entertainment was responsible for making the PC version and the game's user interface. West Studio created early concept art for the game.[31] The game's pre-production started in 2008,[32] and more than 90 people worked on the game.[33] Far Cry 3 was initially planned to form a single cohesive narrative with the previous installments of the series, though this was abandoned when the game's development was partially restarted in 2010 due to the departure of several creative staff including the original creative director and narrative director.[32][34] On November 6, 2012, Ubisoft confirmed that the game had been released to manufacturing.[35] Far Cry 3 is the first game in the series to use the Dunia 2 game engine, a heavily modified and upgraded version of the Dunia engine used in Far Cry 2. The Dunia 2 engine was made to improve the performance of Dunia-based games on consoles and to add more complex rendering features such as global illumination.[36][37]

Gameplay design

The team avoided creating distinct levels. As opposed to traditional game design – in which designers carefully calculated where and how to place environmental objects on a grid – the team instead experimented with dynamic cover design and utilized an algorithm provided by the Dunia Engine to quickly procedural generate the layout of a large area. The team would then manually adjust the placement of different objects and test the output. By avoiding repeating patterns, this enabled the world to be unpredictable and realistic, and allowed dynamic wildlife and enemy encounters to remain fresh even when players explore the same area again. Spaces are created to be logical and grounded. For instance, some enemy outposts are sites of industries, crucial for the pirates to operate at Rook Islands. The team wanted players to believe that the spaces they explore "[exist] for a reason" within the game – not merely for gameplay purposes – and these efforts at creating a civilization helped increase the game world's credibility.[32] When creating the world's space, the game was inspired by The Elder Scrolls series and Red Dead Redemption in how these series reward players with progression. However, the team wished to avoid repetitiveness in gameplay, and created over 250 different hostile encounters and a system that remembers each encounter and only recycle it after extended play.[38] The team believed that this helped raise the diversity of the experience.[39]

The team evaluated the gameplay elements from Far Cry 2 and determined which gameplay elements they should include or improve. Weapon degradation and malaria infection were removed as the team thought that it made the game less fun. According to producer Dan Hay, Far Cry 2's world was barren and lacked reactions to players' actions. Therefore, the team decided to make the world more lively with the goal of creating "an actual civilization" for players to encounter.[32] In Far Cry 3, players' actions impact the game's world, with Vaas's influence gradually reducing after Jason liberates a hostile camp.[40] The world of Rook Islands was designed to be filled with opportunities and activities for players, enticing them into exploring so that they would not feel bored while traveling within the game's world. The team introduced side quests which allow players to learn more about the history and inhabitants of the islands. The world was designed to be empowering, so that players were free to do what they wanted in the world without being hurried into completing the main quests.[41] The team also attempted to increase the accessibility of travel by improving the game's driving mechanics and introducing fast travel points.[42] Within each mission, players can freely choose their playstyle, whether they choose to eliminate enemies using stealth or firepower,[43] Hay believing that the game respects players' choices. He also believed the team had crafted a meaningful open world,[32] and Rook Island was considered to be the "second most important character". According to Jamie Keen, the game's lead designer, the world was both "alluring and repulsive" and players will "feel seduced by the place and all the people in it". Inspirations were taken from media including Apocalypse Now and Lost.[44] The team decided to return to an island setting, like the first Far Cry, as a narrative decision made during the game's early development. The team believed that the setting mashed well with the story they wanted to create, enabled them to create a world filled with variety, and helped inspire a sense of isolation and discovery.[45]