Post by Bardv on Jun 16, 2014 20:57:19 GMT -5
I just beat Far Cry 3 today and I feel like I need to talk about the experience.
As far as First Person Shooter games go, Far Cry 3 did deviate from trend in some good ways. It does try to balance cover based elements with the pacing of FPS's like Half-Life where you look for healing items. You are pushed to move from cover at times to avoid getting ganged up on and to maybe find more grenades/armor/drug needles, as hiding will only heal you so much. The vehicles were also pretty cool because sometimes walking across the sandbox world at a snail's pace gets boring. So like, the vehicles encourage you to not always indulge in the fast travel system, but also prevent traveling from getting totally tedious. Also, the hanglider is rad as hell and you totally should've been given the flightsuit earlier on.
But like, I felt that the sandbox aspect of the game was just meant to drag things out artificially, especially when you factor in the crafting system. Basically, the only way to get extra weapon holders/ammo packs/healing items is to harvest animal skins/plants from the jungle and its reeeeaaaaallly boring. Like, there is no real way to know what animal will show up in what place and all you can do is wander the jungle and hope you get lucky enough to find a deer. And the plants are totally useless too with the exception of the green leaves, which make the healing items. The others do things like raise fire resistance or whatever but aren't really necessary in any way on any of the mission. And a lot of the animals will just attack you out of nowhere, like, as though they knew exactly where you are, and they tend to be total damage sponges. Liberating outposts and stuff is kinda fun, but getting mauled by random tigers while you're trying to sneak is not.
But this is all dodging the game's most significant problem, the problem being that its sorta kinda REALLY racist. Like, I'm not a social justice warrior or anything, but I'm surprised I never heard an uproar over the implications this game raises. The main character, Jason Brody, is a white american 20-something year old who is trying to rescue his brother and friends from human traffickers, and joins some warrior cult to do so. At the beginning of the game, Jason EXPLICITLY says he never held a gun before, but somehow he IMMEDIATELY becomes a more effective soldier than anyone on the island. All these pacific island people needed to win their war was a single white american savior. Somehow, their leader, a skimpily clad jungle woman named Citra, can just IMMEDIATELY tell that you are the chosen one too upon your first meeting, presumably because she's never seen anyone as white as you before, and by the end of the game wants to have your perfect Aryan child even though you only really talk to her like 4 times. Also most of the island's inhabitants look basically the same? Like, each faction (Civillian, Warrior, Pirate) has about two models for each so all the non-white people essentially end up looking identical and its kinda uncomfortable.
Later in the game you learn that the 'true power' on the island behind the pirates is a crimeboss named Hoyt. While the pirates that you initially fought were islanders lead by a man named Vaas, Hoyt's minions, who are apparently vastly more dangerous than Vaas's are all very white American/European mercenaries, and its constantly driven home that Hoyt is SO much more dangerous than Vaas somehow.
And at the end of the game, Jason and his friends leave the island as Jason laments his actions. Like, he's apparently angsty over killing all the drug addled pirates and genocidal mercenaries for some reason, but its okay because he's a 20 something American white boy who was only on the island for like a week or so anyways, so it's pretty easy to forgive him. Like, the game KINDA pretended it was presenting a moral dilemma with his character, but totally fell flat. Its hard to really hold a grudge against someone whose only crime was destroying a human trafficking organization. Like, some games have dumb plots, but this plot was so dumb it actually held back my enjoyment of the game. And the game TOTALLY shoves it in your face, because the cutscenes are not skippable. In fact, pressing start only PAUSES the cutscenes, like you should be so engrossed that you need to PAUSE that shit so you can grab a drink or something. You can tell the game's writer(s) seriously thought they were writing something deep, as they constantly throw literary references at you via Alice in Wonderland quotes or mentioning Things Fall Apart to remind you that they are literate.
Like, if they really wanted to present a story where the protagonist had gone 'down the rabbit hole' and had done some awful things, why not let you play as someone more interesting? Like, that is implied to be the EXACT scenario behind Vaas, the game's initial antagonist, and he's a far more interesting person than Jason the fratboy is. I feel like the game should have been more extreme about the moral circumstances you're under (let you play as Vaas) or not have even tried at being a plot-based game at all (just literally make it into a Rambo video game).
Anyways thats my rant on a game thats like 2 years old feel free to express your opinion I might come back to bitch more as more thoughts enter my mind.
As far as First Person Shooter games go, Far Cry 3 did deviate from trend in some good ways. It does try to balance cover based elements with the pacing of FPS's like Half-Life where you look for healing items. You are pushed to move from cover at times to avoid getting ganged up on and to maybe find more grenades/armor/drug needles, as hiding will only heal you so much. The vehicles were also pretty cool because sometimes walking across the sandbox world at a snail's pace gets boring. So like, the vehicles encourage you to not always indulge in the fast travel system, but also prevent traveling from getting totally tedious. Also, the hanglider is rad as hell and you totally should've been given the flightsuit earlier on.
But like, I felt that the sandbox aspect of the game was just meant to drag things out artificially, especially when you factor in the crafting system. Basically, the only way to get extra weapon holders/ammo packs/healing items is to harvest animal skins/plants from the jungle and its reeeeaaaaallly boring. Like, there is no real way to know what animal will show up in what place and all you can do is wander the jungle and hope you get lucky enough to find a deer. And the plants are totally useless too with the exception of the green leaves, which make the healing items. The others do things like raise fire resistance or whatever but aren't really necessary in any way on any of the mission. And a lot of the animals will just attack you out of nowhere, like, as though they knew exactly where you are, and they tend to be total damage sponges. Liberating outposts and stuff is kinda fun, but getting mauled by random tigers while you're trying to sneak is not.
But this is all dodging the game's most significant problem, the problem being that its sorta kinda REALLY racist. Like, I'm not a social justice warrior or anything, but I'm surprised I never heard an uproar over the implications this game raises. The main character, Jason Brody, is a white american 20-something year old who is trying to rescue his brother and friends from human traffickers, and joins some warrior cult to do so. At the beginning of the game, Jason EXPLICITLY says he never held a gun before, but somehow he IMMEDIATELY becomes a more effective soldier than anyone on the island. All these pacific island people needed to win their war was a single white american savior. Somehow, their leader, a skimpily clad jungle woman named Citra, can just IMMEDIATELY tell that you are the chosen one too upon your first meeting, presumably because she's never seen anyone as white as you before, and by the end of the game wants to have your perfect Aryan child even though you only really talk to her like 4 times. Also most of the island's inhabitants look basically the same? Like, each faction (Civillian, Warrior, Pirate) has about two models for each so all the non-white people essentially end up looking identical and its kinda uncomfortable.
Later in the game you learn that the 'true power' on the island behind the pirates is a crimeboss named Hoyt. While the pirates that you initially fought were islanders lead by a man named Vaas, Hoyt's minions, who are apparently vastly more dangerous than Vaas's are all very white American/European mercenaries, and its constantly driven home that Hoyt is SO much more dangerous than Vaas somehow.
And at the end of the game, Jason and his friends leave the island as Jason laments his actions. Like, he's apparently angsty over killing all the drug addled pirates and genocidal mercenaries for some reason, but its okay because he's a 20 something American white boy who was only on the island for like a week or so anyways, so it's pretty easy to forgive him. Like, the game KINDA pretended it was presenting a moral dilemma with his character, but totally fell flat. Its hard to really hold a grudge against someone whose only crime was destroying a human trafficking organization. Like, some games have dumb plots, but this plot was so dumb it actually held back my enjoyment of the game. And the game TOTALLY shoves it in your face, because the cutscenes are not skippable. In fact, pressing start only PAUSES the cutscenes, like you should be so engrossed that you need to PAUSE that shit so you can grab a drink or something. You can tell the game's writer(s) seriously thought they were writing something deep, as they constantly throw literary references at you via Alice in Wonderland quotes or mentioning Things Fall Apart to remind you that they are literate.
Like, if they really wanted to present a story where the protagonist had gone 'down the rabbit hole' and had done some awful things, why not let you play as someone more interesting? Like, that is implied to be the EXACT scenario behind Vaas, the game's initial antagonist, and he's a far more interesting person than Jason the fratboy is. I feel like the game should have been more extreme about the moral circumstances you're under (let you play as Vaas) or not have even tried at being a plot-based game at all (just literally make it into a Rambo video game).
Anyways thats my rant on a game thats like 2 years old feel free to express your opinion I might come back to bitch more as more thoughts enter my mind.
