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Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
Available on PC (Reviewed on a Sapphire HD 7970), PS3 & XBox 360
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is a homage
to the action movies of the 80's that successfully revisits this era of
bad movies. From its limited colours to pixelated cinemas and over the
top acting, thanks to Michael Biehn (Terminator, Aliens),
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon almost feels like an 80's game if it
wasn't for the amazing graphics of Far Cry 3.
In the game, the year is 2007 (HA!) and
it's the future where mankind has been decimated by a nuclear conflict
with the player taking control of Sergeant Rex Colt (Michael Biehn),
a Mark IV Cyber Commando who is the last hope of humanity. Ordered to
visit a bizarre and hidden island, your goal is to investigate a new
terror that threatens mankind as you use your half human half Cyborg
powers with your all American attitude to kick some serious ass. You
even get to the save the girl! The humour is sometimes juvenile but once
again, it's a homage to all things bad and 80's.
At its core, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
is basically a modified version of Far Cry that allows you to perform
almost all the same facets of this game from driving vehicles to using a
variety of weapons such as bows and machine guns to take down your Ninja
enemies. You can customise weapons and even take down your Ninja enemies
with their own shurikens. Like the classic games of yesterday, it even
forces you to complete a tutorial in classic 80's fashion with some
great humour thrown into the mix.
So why the R18+ rating on Far Cry 3
Blood Dragon? The controversy over this rating revolves around a sex
scene that is actually quite laughable and really makes me wonder how
the Australian classification system could really give this game a R18+
rating. Weird! The violence is probably on par with Far Cry 3 so
the R18 rating really does my head in.
The missions in the game are quite diverse
and compliment the Far Cry 3 engine well from killing deadly
cassowaries, infiltrating enemy bases to saving scientists from the big
bad... the game has it all. Weapons can be upgraded and it's really fun
using the sniper or the bow in the game. By completing side quests and
finding collectibles, this allows you to upgrade your cache of weapons.
Enemies range from easy (Ninjas) to difficult (Blood Dragons) but
fortunately the Blood Dragons are quite stupid so you can easily sneak
by. All in all, it's just damn fun to play!
Graphics/Audio
Graphically, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is a strange looking game and
even though it uses the Far Cry 3 engine, everything has this
purple, almost pixelated haze to it. Although it gives the game this
great retro look, it does hide the lush and tropical areas of Far Cry
3. Character models are exceptional as are the dangerous Blood
Dragons with their laser attacks.
The cinemas look like they have been
directly taken from a game in the 80's with its almost LEGO looking
graphics and classic frame rate issues. When blended together, Far
Cry 3 Blood Dragon should have been the game that Duke Nukem
was. To compliment the retro look, the music sounds like a bad 80's
action movie and the voice acting is clichéd and quite over the top.
Final Level
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is easily one of the best parody games to date
with its retro graphics linked to 21st century gaming. The graphics look
spectacular on the Sapphire Radeon 7970 with its HD graphics and amazing
attention to detail. Although the gameplay has been done before, it was
still fun to experience a taste of the 80's and if you were not born
then or experienced the 80's, your enjoyment factor of this title will
definitely drop. The gameplay is sturdy and most gamers could easily
finish this title in around 5 hours, including side quests.
It's time to go retro folks... even with
the sex!
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