The 5th Best Thing I Played This Year

Far Cry 3

When Far Cry 3 was coming out in late 2012, I had a fair amount of doubts about it. I'd previously played Far Cry 2, and I really liked the ideas behind the game, but it was marred by repetitive mission structure, uninteresting terrain, and an annoying amount of re-spawning enemies that made movement around the world a severe pain in the ass. Far Cry 3 seemed to me to be making all the same mistakes: The open world element in 2 had resulted in the majority of its flaws.

Something, Something, Definition of Insanity

When it was met with overwhelmingly positive reviews, I was pleasantly surprised. Further investigation into the game resulted in me seeing what people were talking about. The flaws that had held Far Cry 2 back were largely gone, and a fantastic story with one of the best villains to ever grace videogames put the icing on the cake. Far Cry 3 made for an insanely fun romp around a beautiful environment. Unfortunately, the game suffered from power creep, and resulted in your character quickly outgrowing the tense, rock-hard combat that gave Far Cry 2's fighting great part of its charm.

Despite this, Far Cry 3 is a great piece of entertainment, a fun way of shooting some dudes in the face. Much like its predecessor, it didn't quite hit its mark head-on, but it got closer, and its mistakes were a lot more forgivable and it overall made for a considerably more enjoyable experience.

It's worth mentioning that competition for this slot was fierce: Far Cry barely knocked out BioShock Infinite. It ultimately gained the place when I realized that BioShock obviously wanted you to think about its plot, which proved to be a mistake when said plot crumbles apart when thought about too hard.