Dealing with backlog: Far Cry 3

I first heard of this game when Toni played it in 2013. Then I bought it during the Steam Summer Sale of 2014. I'm very, very new to FPS (only FPS I've played before is Bioshock), but I thought that it could be worth €5 to try it out :P

Although the game was hard on me from the very beginning, despite having it set on the lowest difficulty, I came to like it a lot, to the point where I bought the rest of the series (minus Primal) on a weekend sale a few weeks ago.

My liking it came to a halt when I realised that the game wasn't quite so open-world as I'd like it to be. I had planned on liberating the whole place, doing all the side quests, and picking up all the collectables before doing the main quest. Unfortunately, the map was divided into two islands and I couldn't get to the second island before progressing through the main quest. That kind of killed my buzz a little and so I went on a week-long break from Far Cry 3. But in the end I really enjoyed the game. I died way too many times to count, and I used way too many health shots, and maybe I got annoyed at the game a fair few times, but none of that ruined the game for me. The many plot twists at the end made for a memorable experience (most of the game was very memorable tbh), and all the characters were likeable.

So, the story. You're Jason Brody. Partying in Asia (probably somewhere around Malaysia) with two brothers, girlfriend, and three friends. You decide to go sky diving from a plane and land on a beach with your friends. You think the island is uninhabited. You get taken captive by pirates to be sold as slaves. You end up in the same cage as your older brother Grant who convinces you to try to escape and rescue the others. You escape together, but just as you're leaving the camp Grant gets shot and the pirate leader gives you a chance to get away. You run for your life, almost drown, and wake up in Amanaki village where you're introduced to the way of the warrior and the ways of the island and the Rakyat. You're an insecure kid having to learn to be a warrior and survivor, your brother is dead, and it's up to you to save your friends.

I have nothing to complain about when it comes to the story. Nothing at all. My favourite quest in the whole game was when you were tasked with destroying the pirates' drug fields, with a flamethrower or Molotovs. While inhaling the smoke. High as a kite with a flamethrower. It was awesome! xD

The only complaints I have is that the all the optional things get a little repetitive. But they're optional so they can be skipped. The game is published by Ubisoft so of course there's an inordinate amount of collectables. While I skipped all the loot containers after a while, I did like collecting the relics and the letters of the lost. The story told in the letters of the lost was really sad and relating to the Japanese Civil War which took place at the same time as WW2. Out of the sidequests my favourites were the Path of the Hunter ones, though they got ridiculous towards the end. Hunting leopards with a flamethrower? Bears with a pistol? Wth?! xD Though I was sceptical towards them in the beginning I really did come to enjoy the Trials of the Rakyat. I never tried to beat the high score. I just did them to have done them and did my best during the time I had. Mostly they were a lot of fun. Especially the one where you used a car to kill as many enemies as possible. Drive them over!!! Whooo!!! xD The one where you used an RPG to take down as many helicopters as possible was a lot of fun too.

One thing that really struck me throughout the whole game was how pretty it was. This game is from 2012, but it's still so pretty.