So I recently replayed far cry 3 after playing the first hour of far cry 6 and realising fc6 is shit. I initially thought it was just the nostalgia of the game that made me feel that way, but no, fc3 is just such a masterpiece.

I don’t think any form of media nowadays could come with such an engaging, original story like in fc3, be it a book, movie or video game. Ubisoft has always been coming up with amazing stories and then butchering it with the gameplay, especially these days, but this one is such a huge exception. This game works so well, because it strikes such a fine balance between having an immersive lived-in open world, a big cinematic story, a classic single player campaign and even some social commentary, and Ubisoft has never quite replicated this balance ever again in my opinion. No part of this game feels like an after-thought or feels tacked on at all. The story is so fleshed out, that there are multiple interesting villains, a b-story involving jason’s character arc and his trapped friends, psychedelic trips that make you wonder which parts of the story are real, and even ruins exploration integrated directly into the story. All these ensure the gameplay is never just ‘free the outpost’ or ‘sit and listen to the dictators’ monologue’ like in the sequels, and keeps things varied throughout.

On-top of all this, the makers were so ballsy that the whole story is a satire for gamers/gaming too. A white man dropped down into a location, believing he is the saviour for everyone in the island when he is at the mercy of the characters sending him on missions, forgoing his friends to level up and ultimately going insane because he is ‘doing the same thing over and over again’, as Vaas says. He then gets killed by the ‘sexy exotic lady’ or is unable to escape the ‘fun, action island.’ One big parallel for gaming. There are other layers too. Why is the camp the only one standing when the rest are enemy outposts? Because Citra is no worse than her brother, and is just using propaganda/religion to keep the people at the camp working for free, rather than getting more hired goons, just like the player who is a slave to the game. The whole vaas/jason plot point is so unique to me as well. From a certain perspective, vaas is a gamer, swallowed up/addicted by the island/game and jason(the player) has come to take his place. Perhaps that is why I’m writing such a long post. I’ve been swallowed up by the island.