Genre: First Person Shooter; Sub-genre: Sandbox
ESRB: M (excessive profanity, neon blood spray, unnecessary sex scene)
Estimated hours of gameplay (thorough play/quick play): 10/3
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
I want to start off by pointing out that this DLC is a stand-alone item. So that means you can get it WITHOUT having to get Farcry 3. No tricks or mods or whatever. It just runs by itself. Which is super great because after watching a majority of the gameplay in Farcry 3, I have zero desire to play it. It's completely overrated. So how does a boring game end up making a good DLC game? It's not because it's completely different. The gameplay is identical, just with a bunch of neon lights on everything. It certainly helps that this is an inexpensive and short adventure because the original has just as much content that Ubisoft just repeats over and over for four times longer gameplay. It's more than that, though. And it's simple to explain, really.
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| The cutscenes run a little long and are too advanced for 8-bit, but that's just nit-picking. |
Maybe there's something wrong with me. I watch games like Farcry 3 and Bioshock Infinite and hear about how good the story is. I see certain elements are good: characters, premise, arc potential. But the same thing always happens and I can only think to refer to it as "video game stuff." It happens too often when I'm playing a game and I get to a point where I roll my eyes and sigh, "So now I guess video game stuff is gonna happen." Like in Farcry 3, there are these weird hallucination scenes that stab HUGE plot holes and jump the player around the world like a tornado. And the latest Bioshock starts off with a Han Solo type guy extracting a well-read lass but then the whole world becomes at stake and several twists and continuity jumps later, I stop paying attention. You can assume I just like simple stories. But the thing is... I understand Rex Colt's character, motivation, arc, and how he gets from point A to point B in the story. It's a remarkably STUPID story, but at least it's meant to be stupid. I can't understand the pretentiousness of some writing in video games. I do have a criticism on it, though. It tries WAY too hard to be funny. I really, really would have appreciated this game more if it was just played straight-faced. We all got excited when we saw this throwback to 80's sci-fi movies. We get it. You didn't have to throw a hundred dick jokes and 4th wall breakers at us to make us laugh, Ubisoft. The end result is good, though. Being able to cheer on a character and enjoy each note of a story and smirk at the ending... yeah, that's all that matters. Don't be afraid of schlock, I say.
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| I do wish there was fully animated stuff like in the trailers. |
While the story and tone are completely different from Farcry 3, the gameplay is the same. The stealth, gunplay, and upgrades all fit well but being on an island liberating bases and doing the EXACT same side quests as Farcry 3 is where things felt awkward. This would have worked better as a purely linear story. All the side stuff just serves to beef up the gameplay hours given. Granted, it's kind of got a cute John Carpenter feel when I think about the dev's throwing a bunch of filters onto a Farcry level and calling it "post apocalyptic." But that's rather meta to be thinking about things like cutting corners and making it look good. The bottom line is, I hated moving about on the island because the hilly terrain slowed me down. And I could tell it was a tropical island under all that jazz. Which didn't have the same feel as a planet nuked into a barren wasteland. It doesn't matter, though, because as I said the side quests are boring. Once you get into the story quests, that's where you'll get to tear through a bunch of 80's labs and bad guy bases.
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| The guy on the left (main antagonist) and the love interest have no in-game models. Cutting corners, indeed. |
Conclusion:
If you want a cheesy 80's movie transformed into a modern video game, this is the place to go! Just don't let yourself get too dragged down by the superfluous sandbox content.
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