It's a smartly designed open-world game with a ton of stuff to do, and the random acts of hilarity that occur out in the jungle will constantly leave you with unique stories you'll be desperate to tell your friends. If the story had made good on the strength of its initial premise, Far Cry 3 would have been shoo-in for best game of the year.

As always, it will not be perfect for everyone, but it is highly recommended for anyone who likes games and an obligatory choice for fans of the genre.

All of it is entertaining, and it gives you a sense that the island is little more than your plaything- a feeling that's only emphasized as your skills increase and you become a badass cross between Turok and Rambo. It's for that reason that Far Cry 3 comes across as a fresh experience and ranks up there as one of the best shooters of 2012.

Far cry 3 is a great free roaming FPS, full of missions and side quests to embark on, and above all everything we do is perfectly tied in the overall progression of the protagonist.

The freedom and power is intoxicating. [Jan 2013, p.74]

Tighter and more accessible than Far Cry 2, the third outing is a master class in open world shooting. [Feb 2013, p.59]

It offers a very good story and vast freedom of action and lets you dispose of enemies in various, often sophisticated ways. But there's more – tropical islands with their intriguing mysteries, superb acting, crafting, additional challenges and broad possibilities of character development. This game is everything Far Cry 2 was supposed to be. [CD-Action 1/2013, p.38]

Far Cry 3 is the broad shooter that was missing in the current season, the game that many were waiting for and that meets the expectations of two years of grueling waiting.

Far Cry 3 gets so many things right about why we play first person shooters, that I really am having a hard time knocking it too much for the few things it gets wrong.

Far Cry 3 is an excellent game, marred mainly by some irritating design elements and an inconsistent story that often defaults to generic "tribal" cliches to make an impact.

Who cares that some of the secondary activities are a terribly run-of-the-mill kind of affair? Between the skill tree, the unpredictably busy AI and the chaos nature tends to bring to the encounters you'll live through some of the most dynamic firefights in recent memory. It marries an immaculate stealth model, which couldn't work better if this was a third-person game, to a satisfying gunplay. A combination that will please more player types than Dishonored on the one hand and something like F.E.A.R. on the other ever could.

Far Cry 3's plot is a bit silly and inconsistent, its AI a bit dumb and predictable, and the world works in a suspiciously similar way to Assassins Creed, but it's great fun. And perhaps even more importantly, these days, when as gamers we're so often left feeling short-changed, it's also overwhelmingly fantastic value for money.

It's a game about man's tenuous dominion over nature. It's about thinking for yourself, about adapting or dying and about having fun doing it. It's a reminder of all the bad things people say about Australian wildlife, and you get to see it without getting sand in your boxers. So where the bloody hell are you?

Far Cry 3 is one of the most interesting games of the year. The single-player mode is a great mix of a big sandbox and an atmospheric story with interesting characters. There are some mistakes here and there, but all in all everyone should be satisfied - sandbox lovers and fans of good storylines alike. What's more, the multiplayer isn't something added just because it needs to be - it's a great, big, rightful mode focused on cooperation (an additional co-op mini-campaign that borrows character progress from the standard multiplayer is a welcome bonus). Far Cry 3 is a package full of pleasant surprises. An insanely good game.

A huge sandbox that promises a lot and absolutely delivers on every promise. Developed characters, great missions and a living, vibrant world makes this one trip you will not forget. Ubisoft could have easily been satisfied with just delivering a great solo game, but it throws in a great co-op and multiplayer with potential as well. This just became one of the best shooters of this year.

When the story isn't standing in its way, Far Cry 3 sees enormous success with its wide-open world and all the numerous things there are to do therein. Ubisoft has created a mechanically ambitious, exciting game.

The surprise is there: even though we'd have thought that Far Cry 3 would have been a "crazy open world shooter". It is, but it goes far beyond that in its depiction of its main character: the island. It's generous, enticing, well-designed and well-crafted - the only less-interesting part being the multiplayer, even though there are some very nice ideas there as well.

Ubisoft again brings extraordinary fun and indisputable meaning to the open world genre. Far Cry 3 has its frustrating oddities, but they are surely forgettable with a product this good.

This kind of freedom is exhilarating; I only wish the AI posed more of a challenge.

Madness is the name of the game indeed, and you can feel it in every fiber of the game. The characters are crazy, the graphics are crazy good, and the developers must be crazy to have put such an amount of content into a hybrid fps. Far Cry 3 is a colossal title, one that will keep you occupied for a while, and not the bugs, nor the kinda repetitive structure of many of the sub missions are enough to ruin the fun.

Far Cry 3 is an exceptional FPS with fun mechanics and excellent characterization. Unfortunately it wastes a fair number of opportunities offered by its huge open-world background. Plus, the secondary activities are not as fun as they could have been, and the island is too extensive to be interesting in the long run. Anyway, this game has surprised us.

Basically, I suggest ignoring the multiplayer and concentrating exclusively on the excellent sandbox of the single-player game. When Far Cry 3 invites you to come stay with it for a long vacation, take it up on its offer. This is a great example of how to do an open-world shooter right, and for me it's been one of the nicest surprises this year.

Far Cry 3's single player story may have its ups and downs, but it's still an incredibly in-depth action experience. It's combat and open-ended gameplay is engaging and well-designed, and there are plenty of incentives to explore the game world to see what you can find. The multiplayer modes, while not as detailed, are a nice extra feature that's just as enjoyable as the single player campaign.

So yes, if you can deal with some rather heavy themes which range through drugs/murder/prostitution/domestic abuse/slavery/rape, then Far Cry 3 is something you should absolutely buy. It's got flaws, but none of them change the fact that it's a fascinating exploration (both physical and analytical) of a beautiful environment that hides a rotten core. And if you're not into that, then hey, it's also a really good open-world shooter.

Despite a few technical quirks (seriously Ubisoft, patch the save system), a slight shortage of non-cutscene NPC interactions and the occasional lack of constant threat Far Cry 3 is a triumph that stands out from every other shooter released this year.

Far Cry 3 is important for the same reason as Far Cry 2. It's a shooter that considers shooters thoughtfully, both in the way they're designed and the way we play them, and then asks us to do the same.

Far Cry 3 is impressive on all levels. The island pours over with insanity, helped along by a great cast of friends and foes. Graphically stunning, and a candidate for Game of the Year-awards.

Taking the best elements that made the two previous titles so successful, correcting some of their mistakes too, Far Cry 3 is clearly the blockbuster we were waiting for. Visually and artistically, the open-world is simply amazing. The different missions the main campaign consists of are all interesting as well, and the co-op aspects that are well-introduced. The multiplayer mode will entertain players for hours thanks to ingenious gameplay ideas.

Far Cry 3 is a classic shooter at its core, but there are various RPG mechanics, skills and upgrades under the hood. It’s a fabulous playing ground and one can but marvel at the wondrous ways the various elements interact with each other. [January 2013]

You've got a huge island to explore, ridiculously effective tools for scouting every hostile situation, and so many clever intersecting systems to inspire creative ways to conquer them. It's a better stealth game than Far Cry 1, set in an open world that feels richer than Far Cry 2's. That's an amazing thing to play.