When booting up Far Cry 3 Classic for the first time I was equal parts excited and worried. When Ubisoft initially released this title back in 2012 I didn’t have much frame of reference for the series. I had briefly tried Far Cry 2 but it never managed to dig it’s heels into me. Picking up the third installment and playing through the first few hours absolutely blew my mind. Call of Duty style gameplay but in an open world setting? RPG mechanics as well as hunting, stealth options and a superb villain? I was hooked.
Well I am happy to report that I still felt that same joy again six years later playing the classic edition. It has a few issues, but that is to be expected with a six year old game. Recently in my Far Cry 5 review I spoke of disappointment that the gameplay hadn’t seen any major upgrades since the series hit mainstream prominence. While I still believe that to be true, it’s hard to play this classic edition and not notice the more rigid feel to the controls. This isn’t any sort of deal breaker, just something that takes you half an hour to aclimatise to.
Graphically the game doesn’t look spectacular, but it holds it’s own alongside 2018 games. From what I am led to believe it’s a port of the PC version that has made it’s way on to PS4 and Xbox One, so think an upscaled version of what you saw last gen. Another welcome upgrade is the frame rate. Back on PS3/360 the game struggled to maintain it’s 30pfs goal. On PS4 it runs a lot smoother.
Story wise, if you haven’t played this before it follows the normal Far Cry story. You get stranded on an island that some maniac has under his control and you take it upon yourself to lead the resistance and bludgeon your way to freedom. It’s pretty standard stuff, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun. Back when this game first released it was more of a novel story than it is now, so I could see people checking this out for the first time wondering what the big deal is, but I just find the Rook Islands and Vaas (the main villain) the most fleshed out package of the series to date.
In terms of changes from the original release it doesn’t just stop at the graphics and frame rate. Ubisoft have also went in and removed the part of the game that people weren’t too hot on, the co-op levels. This consisted of six missions that you could tackle online or in local co-op. It was a good idea in principle but never connected with gamers and it was a good move to scrap it for the re-release.
Trophies in Far Cry 3 Classic are a good mix of story, exploration and upgrades/kills. Ubisoft are pretty good with collectibles. They rarely make you collect everything and this is no exception. This stops the journey to the platinum trophy becoming a grind and with the co-op trophies gone you can knock this one out offline and by yourself in around 25 hours. There are also no difficulty trophies, so if you want you can run through the game on easy, putting the estimated platinum difficulty at about 3/10.
Overall if you loved this game back when it first released I highly recommend coming back for a second helping. Enough has been done to upgrade the original experience to make it worth your while. For first time players while I do still recommend it, I would excerise caution as you may initially find the gameplay a bit dated. Stick with it. Once you get past that you have a great world just begging to be explored. It’s Far Cry, and Far Cry is always fun.
VdZe.
*A review copy of this game was provided by the publisher
