Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

This is my wallpaper now...

From the distant future year of 2007 has come one of the greatest Stand-Alone Expansion of all times, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, which in itself it's not that hard to accomplish.

This is a retro-futuristic FPS where you take on an island as the eye-patched cyber-commando Sergeant Rex Power Colt. The island is under control of Colonel Ike Sloan who as gone rogue, controls the Omega Force, which is an army of cyborg soldiers, and wishes to create an armageddon on a post-apocalyptic world and it's up to the player to stop it or as Ubisoft said "get the girl, kill the bad guys, and save the world". In essence, this is not a game to be taken seriously because it is a parody to the 80's action movies. And a very-well done parody if I might add.

So what does it have to do with Far Cry 3 after all? Well...the title, the map was borrowed and adapted, the graphic engine and not much else that I can remember.

As in Far Cry 3, the graphics are really good looking. In this entry the developers decided for a 80's-cyber look so the game is a little dark and the pallete of colors reminded me of TRON which I liked a lot, it was the perfect choice. The Blood Dragons are the most awesome-looking thing in the game and as for the Omega Force concerns all the different troops look almost the same, in my opinion maybe they could have done a little better here.

As you start the game you are presented with one of the best cutscenes of all times. The decision to stick to a 16-bit look was a correct one. It gave the game the true sense that it was made in that era and that 2007 was a future where anything could happen. They even exploit that in the punchlines that Rex Power Colt delivers throught all the game (e.g. "Doors that open by themselves? I love 2007").

As for the gameplay, all the traits, leveling up and crafting from Far Cry 3 was scrapped. It is much simpler, as you level up you automatically gain new abilities and a bigger life bar. In everything else it is like Far Cry 3. The health does not work like in Call of Duty or other FPS games, you have bars which regenerate if they're not empty and to regenerate completely you have to use medpacks or "repair" yourself just like in previous Far Cry games which is a thing I really like.

There are only 8 weapons (plus the grenades and explosives) in the game but they just might be more than enough. You have a pistol, a machine-gun, a bow, a shotgun, shurikens, a heavy machine-gun, a sniper riffle (all of them have different names) and the Deathstar which is probably the only weapon you need. You only get it near the end and you have to earn it but this weapon is devastating, it damages your health but it is worth it! Many weapons have some attachments that can be bought once they are unblocked in-game which makes better but nothing compares to DEATHSTAR.

On the worst side of the game I have to say that there is not much to do in the game. You free garrisons, do the side-quests that freeing the garrisons enables (which is always either hunting something or freeing some scientists) and gain new attachments to the weapons which is repetitive to say the least even though you can use the hearts that you rip off your enemies to lure the Blood Dragons to do the dirty work of killing the Omega Forces in the garrisons for you. It is a treat that you soon get bored of. This game-mechanics is getting traditional to the Far Cry series since the second installment and I'm not really a fan of that.

Another problem with the game is the Blood Dragons death. You kill them, you see an explosion of purple goo and they simply disappear in a weird way. It almost looks like the developers forgot to do something.

The music to the game was composed by the Australian duo Power Glove, they've uploaded the music game's music to SoundCloud (https://soundcloud.com/powerglove) even before it was announced that the game was being released and it is...awesome. Again, it reminds me of Tron, specially the Daft Punk's OST to the latest movie which I consider to be one of the best OST's ever. Not because it has the best tracks ever but because it is perfect for the movie and that is what happens in Blood Dragon.

I'm addicted to this theme.

The voice actor is Michael Biehn which is known for his roles on some games in the past and in many movies like Terminator, Aliens and The Abyss just to name a few. So they've chose a 80's action movie star to take on the role of a 80's-action-hero and, as expected, it worked out. Biehn has the perfect voice to deliver punchline after punchline and make credible and awesome.




The sound effects are standard. Laser guns and things like that sound like they should. People screaming and dying...the usual. The music is so good that nothing else stands out in this category.

The Achilles' heel of the game is due to one of its main virtues. There aren't many dull moments in the main plot if you stick to it but that makes it a small game. In less than 6 hours I completed the main story, the only thing that kept me going and complete the side quests and collect all there is to collect was the Deathstar, I really cannot get enough of it, and even so I only spent 2 more hours into it. Still it has high replay value and it is only a fraction of the price of a full-sized game which in many cases are not even close to be as good as Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

In conclusion, I have to say that I've enjoyed a lot more this expansion than the original game. When it was released, I've played the demo and put it on my Steam wishlist. Now that I've played it, I feel that probably I should have not waited for a sale to buy it because I really enjoyed it. It is not an average FPS, it just might be everything we hoped for Duke Nukem Forever and we didn't get which is a recurring opinion about this game throughout the internet. Despite the final score not being very high, I highly recommend everyone to buy this game.

Graphics - 4/5

Gameplay - 3/5

Sound - 4/5

Longevity - 3/5

Final Score - 14/20