I have been a fan of the Far Cry series since the first Xbox game was released. Running around in the jungle and shooting all kinds of stuff was just way too much fun to pass up. Since then I’ve followed the series religiously. Far Cry 2 was good, but Far Cry 3 has expanded greatly on many of the successful parts of the game while going back to some of that classic jungle fun.

The story is actually pretty solid. Some reviews have made fun of the main character Jason Brody for being “hard to relate to,” but I actually found it a joy to move through the story and develop him as a person and as a warrior. While he does go through a massive change, it’s done it a fun and interesting way, bringing you down the rabbit hole with him. The rest of the supporting cast take a major back seat to Jason with the exception of a few folks who help him along the way, but the point of the game is to shoot stuff and playing with any of them wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

The gameplay is extremely satisfying. But if killing the bad guys isn’t enough there is hunting of rare jungle animals, finding lost letters and tomes and helping villagers  to take up your time. I didn’t keep track of the total game time (and I’m still not 100% done) but there is plenty here to get your money’s worth.

The Multi-player and co-op dynamics are very fun as well. Teaming up with 3 others for the c0-op missions reveals a separate but related story centered around the islands. I experienced some major glitches while playing with a friend on the Xbox 360, but we made the best of it and still had a good time. I’m waiting anxiously for an update to those issues though so hopefully we’ll see that soon. Multi-player does an amazing job of requiring teamwork to win, a feature I welcomed after playing many other modern shooters. The team based play is tight and fun and well worth spending some time playing up the ranks. Ubisoft has release some decent online tools to continue the fun outside the game and manage your multi-player loadouts, decryption of items and other in game settings at the farcryoutpost.com as well as mobile apps for Android and iOS.

If you like open world shooters, dynamic worlds and a fun story, check out Far Cry 3. It’s available for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on Amazon and your local game store. Already have it? Tell me what you think in the comments below.

-mrkniceguy