Spontaneous Sunday is Back! - Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

That's right, Spontaneous Sunday is back! This week was my first week back at Uni after the Christmas holidays so it's time to pick back up where I left off before Christmas and bring back Spontaneous Sunday, my weekly blog post in which I play a game that I've never played before and make a write-up about it, in the interest of broadening my gaming knowledge.

I'm starting off Spontaneous Sunday season 2 (as I've taken to calling it), with Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (2013, Ubisoft, Xbox 360). This was one of the free games on Games With Gold recently. I'm playing it on Xbox One via backwards compatibility.

"Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is a 2013 comedic first-person shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is a stand-alone expansion to the 2012 video game Far Cry 3. The game, a parody of 1980s action films and video games, takes place on a retro-futuristic open world island with players assuming the action role of the military cyborg Sergeant Rex "Power" Colt.The game was released on 30 April 2013, for PlayStation 3 and on 1 May 2013 for Microsoft Windows and for Xbox 360."

- Wikipedia on Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

What do I expect from the game?

Blood Dragon is a stand-alone spin-off to Far Cry 3, which I played quite a lot and enjoyed, and it uses the same engine and gameplay systems. I expected Blood Dragon to be something of a "re-skin" of Far Cry 3, with largely similar gameplay and design. While I did enjoy Far Cry 3, I spent most of my time on the multiplayer (which was really enjoyable with some interesting mechanics, an under-rated multiplayer in my opinion!), but I only played a little bit of the single player and didn't enjoy it as much for a couple of reasons, e.g, the story didn't grab me and I found the inventory/looting system clunky and uninspiring.

With that said, though, I set out with an open mind and thought that Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon's unique aesthetic and tone might grab my attention more than Far Cry 3 itself did. Blood Dragon received good reviews and I am generally a fan of Far Cry games (FC2 is in my top 5 favourite games) so I expected to enjoy it.

First Impressions - What did I think of the game in its first few minutes?

The game's retro-futuristic, 80's sci-fi aesthetic is present from the moment the game begins, with a cool-looking front end (above) and dramatic synth-y 80's soundtrack that suits the game very well. The main menu and in-game menus are set out like early computer operating systems which also suits it well and is fresh and interesting. I launched a new game on medium difficulty and an intro cutscene began. The cutscenes in the game are all retro-looking, pixel art cartoons. The first one introduces the game's backstory and player character, Rex, a cyborg soldier. Gameplay begins with the player attacking an enemy base with a minion from a helicopter. Rex is then set down near the base and the tutorial begins.

The tutorial was a fairly simple base-infiltration mission in which you learn how to move, sneak and fight, but the unique twist is the way in which the game communicates with the player: it's as if the game is self-aware, and the tutorial messages are tongue-in-cheek and filled with irony, such as "Press A to demonstrate your ability to read", this tone is present throughout. The game isn't afraid to mock itself and break the 4th wall through in-game messages and tips in loading screens. It includes little nods to the other games in the franchise and subtly calls-out action game tropes. This gives the game a lot of attitude and a unique sort of witty charm.

Tutorial for stealth takedowns.

Exterior shot of the facility from the first mission - a pretty cool environment.

A Blood Dragon.

I finished the first mission, then another pixel-y cutscene introduced the main enemy, Sloan. The 2nd mission began in a cave and I soon came across some of the game's eponymous Blood Dragons (above), these are very dangerous glowing creatures with powerful attacks but poor eyesight and they feature heavily in the story and gameplay, they can be enticed into attacking enemy positions which makes for an interesting mechanic.

I was surprised at how little of the original Far Cry 3 could be seen in Blood Dragon; the visuals, menus, setting and characters are all totally different and it really feels like a totally different thing altogether - I found myself wondering why Ubisoft saw fit to lump it in with Far Cry 3 at all? There's only a handful of similarities, such as the vehicles, the appearance of the map, the audio and some of the core gameplay. Blood Dragon is more action-packed and the gameplay is more streamlined. This, along with the aesthetic and soundtrack, meant that Blood Dragon gave a good first impression.

Aswell as futuristic architecture, there are old ruins.

What do I like about the game? What does it do well?

As my experience with Blood Dragon went on, I only came to enjoy it more and more. Being a cyborg, Rex can breath underwater, sprint forever without tiring, jump higher and suffer no fall damage - this is reminiscent of classic shooters and its refreshing to be unburdened by these human limitations. This also heavily influences how combat and movement play out...

Blood Dragon offers some seriously hectic and very enjoyable and satisfying moments, such as sprinting and hurling yourself off a very high dam into the water below and being completely unscathed (and getting an achievement for it, too!) and sprinting and jumping around blasting enemies with the shotgun. This is just one of the instances in which Blood Dragon's lack of realism makes it a better game: other examples include the liberties taken in the story, which would risk being condemned as ridiculous in other games, but because Blood Dragon is a unique parody, it can get away with almost anything!

I'm sure that the developers felt a real sense of freedom when making the game. It's like they took the basic components that made Far Cry 3 and said "how can we just make this a crazy, light-hearted and fun game?".

Shot of the dam, which is the setting for one of the missions.

It seems as though every feature is more streamlined and geared towards providing a more fast-paced, enjoyable experience. This means that the game world is smaller and objectives and key areas are closer together, so there's almost no possibility of travelling becoming tedious, but just in case, there's also a handy fast-travel feature. However, the streamlined experience and smaller game world do have their down-sides, which I will address later on.

The cyborg eye mechanic allows you to tag enemies for tracking.

The game's environments are really visually appealing and interesting, if a little samey. The missions usually take place in labs, military bases or facilities of some sort, with lots of flashing coloured lights and consoles, corridors etc. There's also a few set-piece locations such as a dam and a huge underground silo with dragon-egg caves underneath. In terms of mechanics, it is generally the same as Far Cry 3, and my favourite mechanics in that game are also my favourite in Blood Dragon, such as tagging enemies, ziplines and takedowns, but there's also a few new ones that add to the gameplay nicely, such as chained takedowns and aerial takedowns.

The "data console" is a good feature and is similar to the journal in Far Cry 3. It offers information on the game's characters, weapons, creatures, collectibles etc, of which there are many. The collectibles add an incentive to explore and extend the game's longevity in a simple but effective way.

Finally, there's the games retro-futuristic, 80's sci-fi aesthetic, which is surely one of its biggest strengths and selling points. The developers really nailed the aesthetic and its totally consistent and well-thought out, from the retro menu system to the fact that, when the players health is low or an explosion occurs nearby, the screen distorts as if its a worn-out old VHS tape. The music is also brilliant and is very 80's indeed. Blood Dragon must have been quite the passion project for the developers, many of whom must have grew up in the 80's and remember the decade's sci-fi films well!

What don't I like about the game?

Now it's time to share what I didn't like about the game, and as is often the case, I don't have a whole lot of negative things to say!

One thing that I didn't like is that it's always night-time in the game. The sky is always a deep red, with flashing lighting which does look very cool, but its always very dark which makes it pretty difficult to see and appreciate the game-world. It also makes for less visual/atmospheric variety than in a game with a proper day-night cycle.

Vehicles return, but they haven't changed much from those in Far Cry 3!

The game's visuals are undeniably very unique. They catch your eye and are a huge part of the game's  aesthetic. But they can be quite overwhelming and disorienting at times. Also, there is often a lack of variety in the game's environments, particularly the corridors of the facilities and the terrain outside of the man-made areas of the game world (though the lack of visual variety in the exteriors could be due to the aforementioned lack of day-night cycle). 

Earlier on, I mentioned that the streamlined experience and smaller game world had its downsides. These downsides are that the game can sometimes feel like it lacks depth, and that, if you overlook the visuals, there's not as much going on "under the bonnet" as there is in other open world games and Far Cry 3 itself. Indeed, the game is intentionally more linear than Far Cry 3 and the crafting system is not present, and the levelling system is linear and doesn't allow the player to choose skills to advance. The smaller game-world feels like it lacks content and isn't desperately engaging. There's not really many moments while travelling that I found myself stopping to take in the scenery.

Final Thoughts

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is a game that's not quite like anything I've played before thanks to its aesthetic and tone. It has a lot of unique things to offer. I really enjoyed that look and feel and the retro touches and I ended up really enjoying the gameplay because of how frantic and fast-paced it is. It's easy to advance through the game and offers quick and frequent satisfying gameplay moments. While other open world games can feel bloated and intimidating in the scale of their gameplay and content, Blood Dragon is a nice streamlined and compact game.

I was wondering while playing; why did Ubisoft see fit to make Blood Dragon an extension of Far Cry 3 and not entirely its own thing? I think it comes down to a few key factors: making a game with such a radical aesthetic and tongue-in-cheek, self-aware tone is risky, and could have gone either way. If they released it as a complete stand-alone and players didn't receive it well, it would have been a big let-down. Also, the game doesn't really have enough content to work as a stand-alone (there's 7 main missions, of which I completed 5 in about 4 hours). The lack of content contributes greatly to how streamlined the game feels: if it had more content, the streamlined experience would suffer. Though it bears few similarities, I think making it an extension of Far Cry 3 was the right choice to make.

In all, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is interesting and enjoyable and refreshingly fast-paced for an open world game. It's style and gameplay has got me hooked and I'll be playing it again very soon!