In the words of the Mad Hatter, “There is a place. Like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it: You need to be as mad as a hatter.” Far Cry 3 drops you in a jungle filled with just that; a world of maddening adventure at your fingertips, but can you fully grasp what is being presented to you?

The Good

What a view: The graphics of Far Cry 3 certainly don’t disappoint. Sure, there are a few areas that could use a bit of a tune up like the underwater scenery, but for the most part large vistas and dense jungles makes for some great eye candy. The PC version of the game also sports DX11, ambient occlusion, and field of view adjustments (FOV).

The story is insane: Yes, there is quite a mad plot in Far Cry 3 and you will find yourself wanting more and more as you progress through the game. Gianpaolo Venuta is no slouch as he portrays Jason Brody with a lot of emotion to engage the player. At no point will you feel that the voice acting is boring or lifeless and this also goes double for Vaas , which is voiced by Michael Mando. After you play the game you will no doubt remember some great lines especially from Vass. “Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity?”

I have a gun and I’m Rambo: Far Cry 3’s game mechanics bring a lot to the table. You can level up and purchase new skills, which really assist the character to the point where you can start to get that Rambo feeling more and more without losing your sense of progression throughout the game. Furthermore, the crafting system is also managed very well.

At no point does it seem overwhelmingly challenging especially since most of the animals you need to hunt are market on the map for you. The only down side is that it seems you can’t avoid killing animals to craft certain items if that isn’t exactly how you want to play the game.

The Bad

I need to climb: There are some things like parachutes and gliding suits when you jump off of cliffs, which is nice. However, on the flip side there are times where you feel limited in being able to climb certain areas of the landscape. It would have been nice if the character had some sort of grappling hook or climbing animation that triggered to get over certain obstacles.

COOP: Unfortunately, the developers decided to take a more linear approach to COOP as opposed to the more open design in the single player campaign. This decision to present a more confined experience can be a real let down and it leaves you craving a more fun and less restricting area.

Online Bugs: Sure the singleplayer campaign may have its own issues of pesky bugs, but the multiplayer currently has some issues saving your stats. After playing the COOP with a friend of mine, we both lost all of our progression after leaving our session to change our load out.

After that, we both then tried to play in a non-COOP multiplayer game, which was also unsuccessful and caused both of our games to have this issue in which the windows cursor appeared and we were unable to click on anything. I later played the multiplayer portion on my own, and while it is rather fun, the server browser is also rather lacking. We are reviewing the PC version of the game, so things like a list of servers with ping is expected on most major PC titles.

Conclusion

What a mad world it is to travel through; Far Cry 3 definitely provides gamers with an excellent single player experience. Far Cry 3 has a decent story, some nice graphics, and great gameplay mechanics. However, things take a turn when it comes to the online experience. The COOP portion is too linear and unsatisfactory, while the multiplayer portion in general has some issues saving stats, but once you are in a game it can also be rather fun.

Overall, despite the online issues with Far Cry 3, the game is definitely worth the money just for the single player experience alone, which makes some things like the COOP and multiplayer bugs take a backseat. So, what are you waiting for? Grab an AK47, dive deep into the jungle, and get hunting; Far Cry 3 will not disappoint your appetite.