Far Cry 3 PC
Metascore
88 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 43 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 42 out of 43
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 43
  3. Negative: 0 out of 43
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  1. PC Gamer
    Nov 21, 2012
    89
    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.
  2. GameStar
    Nov 21, 2012
    88
    Quotation forthcoming.
  3. PC Games (Germany)
    Nov 22, 2012
    86
    More accessible and ultimately better than the second game. Far Cry 3 offers incredible freedom in a beautiful world, while delivering a decent main quest with interesting characters, exciting combat and much more compelling player progression this time around. It's not perfect though: Some boring side quests, linear mission design and needless crafting/animal hunting drag the experience down quite a bit.
  4. AusGamers
    Nov 21, 2012
    85
    A haunting experience, in a very good way. It's a damn shame the main campaign didn't live up to the potential of what was teased and the sporadic appearance of sloppy anti-Far Cry linear levels jarred with what the game achieves when at its emergent best. Faults aside, Far Cry 3 is an open-world shooter that's not to be missed, and a dish that's beautifully served on PC.
  5. PC PowerPlay
    Dec 30, 2012
    80
    Burn through the plot so you can unleash yourself upon Far Cry 3's open world for a worthy FPS experience. [Jan 2013, p.66]
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  6. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Dec 21, 2012
    80
    If you prefer to be your own boss you should definitely visit this extraordinary island for some fun. Far Cry 3 is an amazing method for relaxation. [Christmas 2012]
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  7. DarkStation
    Dec 13, 2012
    80
    As a "dangerous tropical island simulator", Far Cry 3 is one of the most satisfying and inventive shooters released this year. Gamers eager to explore the wild jungle should pick this up without second thought, and try not to let the infuriating campaign rain on their parade.
  8. Games.cz
    Nov 25, 2012
    80
    Far Cry 3 expands the open world possibilities of the game series. Very well-written characters of a scripted main plot are fine addendum of never-ending action and tactical madness. The moment you begin to feel an adventure on a tropical island, you are going to forgive the authors their inconsistently presented experience.
  9. Gamereactor Sweden
    Nov 21, 2012
    80
    Despite being somewhat uneven quality wise, Far Cry 3 still offers rock solid action with a huge open world, bathing in sunshine to explore.
  10. Edge Magazine
    Nov 21, 2012
    80
    Far Cry 3's main missions are nothing special in and of themselves, and include one or two exhausting slogs and limp stealth sections, but the campaign does a better job than Far Cry 2's storyline when it comes to providing an alternative to the open emergence of the player-authored escapades.
  11. Riot Pixels
    Jan 29, 2013
    75
    Exhilarating, colorful, mindless – that's Far Cry 3 in three words.
  12. GameOver.gr
    Dec 13, 2012
    75
    While many of the problems found on Far Cry 2 are addressed here, Ubisoft's latest is not what we were hoping it would be. Far Cry 3 has superb gunplay and great characters, but the story never really builds up and the missions can get quite repetitive.
  13. 4Players.de
    Nov 28, 2012
    68
    The action is explosive, the direction of the story sequences is intense at times, but still I can't really feel at home on these islands. Far Cry 3 is the ultimate open sandbox: The player can do what he wants, where he wants it, when he wants it. But the credibility of the world suffers – and with it my motivation.
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User Reviews

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User Score
8.1 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1685 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 297 out of 418
  2. Mixed: 53 out of 418
  3. Negative: 68 out of 418
  1. Slater
    9
    (Note: I'm in Europe, I've had this game since Nov 29th) I think this is the first game this year to not disappoint me. I was a semi-fan of Far Cry 2 - it was almost a good game, but some unfortunately game-breaking bugs, such as the quickly respawning enemies and broken stealth elements, kept it from reaching its potential and could unfortunately not be modded away. I had high hopes that Far Cry 3 would fix these mistakes while keeping the open gameplay and solid shooter mechanics. It has. Far Cry 3 starts you off as a regular Joe who's never killed anyone before, and forces him to become a killing machine in order to save his friends and two brothers. This story is nice enough, but doesn't explain how Jason - that's you - becomes the world's foremost assassin in a couple of days, so Ubisoft apparently felt the need to add some voodoo magic to explain this. I'm not too sure about this design decisions, which also leads to some, in my opinion, bad story elements, but I suppose it works well enough to keep you interested. The gameplay is absolutely great, letting you freely choose stealth or gung-ho gunning in almost every situation, and particularly the stealth gameplay is some of the best I've seen yet, and it's my favourite genre. Like in Far Cry 2 you are encouraged to scout enemy positions before attacking, and your (admittedly unrealistic and unexplained) zoom-lens camera can tag enemies for you, letting you know their positions in realtime when you move in. If you go the stealth-route you can then choose to dispatch your enemies either with your machete, which will give an XP bonus (yes, the game has RPG elements that also work great), or with any number of silenced weapons, not least of which a bow. If you go with the machete, a skill upgrade will also allow you to drag away the bodies, so your enemies won't find them and raise the alarm. If you clear an enemy outpost silently, you get triple the XP on top of the satisfaction.

    Graphics are of course as excellent as you'd expect from a Far Cry game, and the island is huge (but don't worry, you can fast travel) and looks absolutely stunning, with extreme view range even on the lowest settings. Though I have to say I miss the African savannah setting from FC2, which has now been replaced with a more commonly seen South-east Asian jungle island.

    Unfortunately there are a few things I don't like so much, that prevent it from getting a perfect 10. One of the things, which may seem minor, is that the game constantly reminds you to go to your next main mission with a box on screen and a thumping sound. That's extremely annoying when on a side mission, as even after many hours of gameplay, I think I've been discovered or something when the sound plays. The story has clearly taken quite a few hints from COD, and incidentally they're the parts I like the least. The side missions are still very repetitive and don't feel natural. The hunting gameplay, which starts out very rewarding, becomes completely pointless fairly quickly, when you've upgraded what you want. Why not make pelts worth some decent money at least? I can get more from searching one enemy corpse than by selling a tiger skin. I'm also not too crazy about most of the skills being locked for the first half or so of the game. I think it should be limited by XP levels alone. There are also a few inconsistencies in the gameplay, such as enemies sometimes hearing you throw a knife and sometimes not, and the takedown button (one hit kill with machete) sometimes not working, making you just slash an enemy instead, which alerts the others. Really annoying when you're going for that undetected bonus. But none of this is enough to ruin my enjoyment of what really is a great game.    … Full Review »
  2. Coeco
    3
    As much as I tried to like this game, the extremely dragged out crysis experience ultimately forced me to give up on it. Enemy AI is laughable, stealth is terribly broken with "the enemy must see your face and you must see theirs" logic, gathering materials feels like an MMORPG grind-quest, healing system is dumbed down and becomes laughable as to either spend skill points to have an infinite amount of first aid that fully heals you after some time or constantly run around in the woods, looking for green herbs so you can constantly inject yourself with syringes. If you jump on say, a hill that's going two degrees down-hill, you will stumble and damage yourself, AKA dislocating your thumb for 1 bar of damage. If you shoot a silenced sniper rifle 5000 yards away, enemies will still rush to the exact spot where the weapon was fired. If you get knocked down by an enemy to the ground, struggle with quick time events and get up with low hp left, you will instantly die as the enemy will spam melees, effectively spawn-camping you. Yes, animals as well. I could go on and on and on about the countless amount of flaws and smelly design choices in this game but at the end of the day, it is a polished turd that has been dumbed down version of Far Cry that tries to be a cinematic version of Crysis with graphics with little regard to the original series as it tries to force-feed you a story using a wooden spoon with splinters. Stay away from this title as a fan or get into it with small/no expectations.… Full Review »
  3. Motasa
    4
    The game feels shallow. You earn money to fast, gain hides and plants to fast (for making bags, syringes etc.) and you have access to all weapons you want in nearly 2 hours. That's also how many hours it takes to have the feeling that you've been there and done that. The island, environment, characters etc. look good, forgiving the somewhat outdated graphics. Unfortunately every piece of the island looks the same, as do all camps, cars, trees, bushes, caves, pirates etc. So why should you explore every corner of it? Gameplay is solid; weapons handle very tight, although a bit to tight, wich makes killing foes a piece of cake. Every weapon handles the same. Driving cars is weird, you get the feeling you glide over the road with a immense and unrealistic speed. Story is a bit ridiculous, but finely interwoven in the game with scènes that make you dizzy because the protagonist (your character) shakes his head left and right, up and down like a headbanger from the early '90s. It's a shame the game gets so boring after a while, but climbing towers, getting rid of pirates in camps, going from A to B to continue the story - which is necessarry to continue your leveling progress, which forces you to stop what you want to do and follow the linear storyline - is fun the first few times you do it. But I quit after three hours or so, bored by the forgettable side-quests, story and tropical world. And i think many will not see the end of the game as well or will continue, forced to see the end. A cliche ending which can be found on YouTube; the easy solution. A… Full Review »
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