Randomer58

The most mindless fun you can have in a platform game. Levels flow like water and beating them feels like drinking a cup of it. Getting all the coins, doing all the challenges and completing every stage feels so natural and fun. You just want to shut your brain off and do it. Nintendo has since perfected their 2D formula, and sometimes they feel the need to remind us.

Sometimes puzzle-action games take either the puzzle or the action pill. This game takes both. Finding pages, deciphering words, exploring every nook and cranny of the world...this game's progression is a story told in curiosity, between the pages of your journal and behind a corner hiding a secret passage. I love games you can trust, and whenever you feel underpowered and lost, you have to stop and look more closely. Read the journal again and trust the game in eventually giving you something to go through that obstacle you obviously don't have the right tool to, right now. What I find lacking is unfortunately the action part itself. Some areas, mainly later in the game, feel a bit unbalanced. The bosses are all amazing, fair and challenging, but the difference in difficulty between bosses and the areas they're from made me question if maybe I needed to upgrade myself more, despite going through their section of the world with ease. Especially the last bossfight. Amazing, but way, way harder than any of the other bosses. The combat has a lot of variety, despite the enormous power creep of certain magic items on the others. Every enemy has their own unique way of being beaten and the combat doesn't feel repetitive at all, except when you're backtracking. Some areas, and I'm mainly talking about the later half of the game, are really hard to go through and while that looks like a fun hard challenge at first, it seems that some rooms were ment to be beaten and left alone forever again when going in there the second time around. Despite that, I think a game is more than just its combat system. Reading the journal and putting the pieces together was something that goes beyond the simple hack and slash and gave me a satisfaction much greater than any big bad guy could give me.

A really good turn from the Far Cry 2 disaster, showing that the formula it used had potential, and make use of it was the right thing to do. It perfected every gameplay mechanic of the second game and acted like a true template far cry games would use from now on. My only complaint are the side quests, which were few and lackluster, especially because they are only useful in the beginning to gather rare leather and money and become essentially useless in the later half of the game. The great cinematics and cutscenes helped this game get out of its really interesting plot what it needed. The characters are all memorable and the main character development is amazing, borrowing the same message as the Jackal from the previous installment. Overall, Far Cry 3 is a must play game that stood against time and feels fresh to this day.

As a starter into the Far Cry series, it was amazing. It does have some flaws, namely the difficulty of some sections and the lackluster final mission and boss fight. The game itself is stealth heavy and really methodical, which I liked, but also wished they would teach you right away. The classic boomer shooter run and gun tactic will always result in certain death unless you know what you're doing. Which is not a bad thing per se, but the lack of healing items and ammo in certain missions and overabundance in some other ones, really strong enemies all crammed up in one room, all while having to methodically take everyone out results in a really slow and unbalanced game experience. It still remains a great one man army shooter game in many things similar to the original Half-Life; but maybe also because of this, the first and last game in the Far Cry series to have this kind of gameplay.

The game that really gave life to the Far Cry series. It's a classic, with great characters, great story and great development. I was invested in the plot from start to finish and that was what drove me to beat it. Yet it was pretty clear that, although innovative and almost revolutionary for the time, its gameplay formula needed maturing and refining. The extreme realism that so much benefitted the storyline clashes with the player's ability to enjoy the game at all. The memories this game leaves you are yes, the message and the amazing and immersive main missions, but also the long, tedious walks and drives to and from the fast travel waypoints, guns jamming, cars breaking down, constantly having to get pills, constantly having to reclaim outposts and the many, many bugs that sometimes break your immersion. It's a classic that unfortunately did not stand the test of time, unlike -surprisingly - its predecessor.