My top games of the decade. Number One.

In the next few posts, I will be discussing my top games of the decade, I was originally going to do this as one post, however I tend to ramble so that idea was scraped…

Far Cry 3.

Afterwards you are rescued by one of the game’s protagonists who introduces you the basic mechanics of the game. He teaches you how to live off the land using the skins of animals and plants to upgrade your weapon holsters and ammo capacity, as well as medicine. This was one of the highlights of the game as all the animals had their own habitats across the islands. If you wanted the best experience, you needed to explore and go off the beaten track rather than sticking to the linear path of the story. Sometimes, the carnivores of the island would even be hunting the player which added to the immersion during this portion of the game.

The plant exploration was not nearly as interesting, there were different species of plants, but that was such an unimportant factor that I never even bothered to look. The plants were used to craft syringes to enhance gameplay, giving you certain buffs and I found a lot of the syringes to be rather redundant as you could play through the entire game without using more than two, the healing syringe and the hunting syringe.

You are also taught about the different styles of play to progress the game. Using stealth and tactics to your advantage by throwing stones to lure enemies away from your position, or using the foliage to hide from them or using brute force and shotgunning your enemies whilst wearing padded armour. Stealth was my personal choice as it felt incredibly rewarding to take your time and gain extra experience points by completing activities without being detected. The main activity being enemy strongholds which are a staple in the Far Cry franchise.

The game changed my outlook on video games forever. I didn’t really understand the concept of different play styles at the time, as I was quite young when I picked this game up, but Far Cry 3 opened this up to me. That for me, changed how I saw games entirely which, in my opinion, is an incredibly high praise. It felt so rewarding playing it slowly and taking your time rather than brute forcing your way through, it even started my obsession with the minor things in video games such as gathering collectibles. In Far Cry 3 there are vasts amount of collectibles, all incredibly rewarding, gathering a certain amount of Dog Tags from fallen soldiers or gathering sacred totems, these all gave you unique and powerful weapons to use throughout your playthrough.

The collectibles were scattered across both the islands, however it didn’t stop there, each island had sub-regions with their own collectibles making exploration feel even better as you were rewarded for obtaining them. The game also had fairly minor side missions, such as freeing slaves or eliminating high value targets, this rewarded the completionist. Something which I very much am.

Now as I have rambled about the gameplay, let me get back to my opinion about the story. After you are taught the basics you find your way to a shroom loving doctor, from there the game gets…interesting. It goes a lot deeper down the rabbit hole, than rescuing your friends and getting home. As you progress through the story, Jason becomes more confident in killing and surviving and is gaining a reputation as the Island Warrior which grabs the attention of a tribal cult living on the inner island.

They believe you to be their prophesied warrior who will defeat the islands evil, starting a new group of “sacred” warriors. It goes a bit off the rails if I am to be brutally honest. However, it is still compelling. Especially Vaas. I would of been content if every cutscene was just Vaas. He is a “basic” villain, a deranged psychopathic henchman working for a mysterious benefactor tasked with trafficking holiday tourists and growing “The Good Kush.” He is played so wonderfully by Michael Mando, that every line he delivers is pure gold. He had a fantastic monologue about “The Definition of Insanity,” it is now a very famous gaming quote. Vaas, for me, was enough to keep me playing.

Then Vaas dies. 😦

Far Cry 3 is a solid number 10, it would of ranked higher, but the “main” villain is boring. After Vaas had been defeated the second island opens up and you must defeat the newest villain, the mysterious benefactor called “Hoyt.” He was no where near as interesting as Vaas was, if I were to compare it to a spectrum, Vaas and Hoyt were complete opposites in terms of compelling villains.

He was a mobster at best, after defeating him I felt underwhelmed after having Vaas as the main antagonist for the previous 10 hours of gameplay. The plot goes deeper than just this though, as once defeat and the islands saved, the tribal cult offers you a choice, leave with your friends or kill them and stay as their warrior. This took me by surprise. I had grown so fond of all the characters along the way that this choice was brutal, but I guess, it encourages multiple playthroughs, wouldn’t you say?

Overall, whilst the “main” antagonist was a huge let down, the gameplay and overall story of the game were not too affected in my opinion. The gameplay mechanics were delightful, the characters were all acted and portrayed so well, that this made it an easy choice for my top ten. Having only just been introduced to this franchise I then went onto playing many of the other games, but none of them caught my interest as much as ‘3’ did. It will be a staple to which all other Far Cry games will be compared to, for me.

Harry.