Hey, didn’t I say I was gonna review some games off of the Ubisoft UPlay platform? I did, didn’t I? Yeah, I’ve been putting it off and delaying it, in no small part due to the recent reveals about Ubisoft’s toxic workplace environments. I don’t know if they’ve improved in that regard; all I know is that every now and then, they give away free games. I’ll admit there’s a bit of shame in getting free games from a company that’s turned out to be so awful.
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It's kind of crazy actually how often Ubisoft will give
games away. At every single event. |
My way of looking at it: I got those games for free. Not a single cent went into the pockets of the people in charge at Ubi. But does that make it okay to play the games, then? Again: If free, I think it may be alright. The company has revealed a truly crappy side of itself, but not every Ubisoft employee is awful. Some of them, mostly women and POC, were victims of that crappy system. I like to think that by playing the games I got for free, I give credit to the people who worked on the game (developers, artists and so on) while the big pockets at the top of the chain got nothing. You’re free to tell me that I’m wrong, if that’s what you think. I admit it’s not a flawless point of view, either, as some instances of abuse towards women and minorities in Ubisoft’s studios were likely done between devs, artists, etc. It’s a tough topic to navigate. Which is why the serious talk ends now.
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No, seriously... is there an actual running theme
to that series of games? I wonder. |
So, there’s that Ubisoft series called Far Cry, which I know very little about. I know it’s open world games focused on characters in dire situations, but I have no idea what the running theme of the series is since the games are all so different. Far Cry 3, as far as I know, is about a guy stuck on an island and hunted down. Today’s game bears the name, but is really at a… heh… “far cry” from the usual trends of the series. It’s sort of an expansion from the main game; it reuses the maps and some assets, but is otherwise an adventure entirely separate and can be played as such. No need to have any knowledge of Far Cry 3 (though I’ve read it helps to know the controls to that one in order to play).
It’s also balls-to-the-wall insane, an affectionate parody of cyberpunk films from the 1980s. It’s got enough unchecked testosterone to make even the most macho of men feel inadequate, and enough cheesy one-liners and puns to provoke a reaction from the lactose intolerant. And it’s unapologetic about all of it.
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...Okay, the game has a short tutorial to explain
the ropes. Then you're thrown in the deep
end of the pool and expected to swim. |
The game begins as Sergeant Rex “Power” Colt and his acolyte, Lieutenant TT “Spider” Brown, are infiltrating a base belonging to their ex-Colonel Ike Sloan, turned to evil in a quest for power at the helm of his Omega Force. We start by shooting at everything from a helicopter’s view, and then the characters step down and break into the place. This is where I discovered that I wasn’t very good at the game… See, since I never played Far Cry games before, the controls are new to me. Yes, I’ve played AAA games before, ones that utilize most of the left half of the keyboard to some capacity, but it took me a while to get used to everything. And Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon throws you immediately into a tough situation, especially if your aim is crap. Took me a while to get past the first sections of the first mission.
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I did like the style effect of Rex's vision
glitching and fading when his health is low. |
Still, I eventually managed, and I got both characters to the bunker, in which Spider has to be covered against enemy fire while he hacks into the enemy computers (using ridiculous expressions such as “hacking the ROM drive” or “reversing the code polarity”). Hey, I can at least acknowledge that this game commits to its jokes.
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| Gotta stop the missile launch! |
Also on difficulty: I have the impression that, as an expansion of Far Cry 3, the devs behind Blood Dragon expect the player to have some experience in the “base” game, so they amped up the difficulty. I feel that the game has no kid gloves, no “easing the player into the difficulty” sort of deal either. Get gud, or get lost. Maybe it’s just me who sucks or it's my lack of experience in shooting games. I hope that’s the case. I sank a lot, but eventually I swam. Took me a while, though.
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| Fuck, Sloan pulled a Bane on Spider! |
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Crap, and I left all my guns in my other
pair of cyberpants! |
In spite of Rex’s protection, the hacking leads to nothing. Then Sloan shows up, promptly kills Spider and knocks Rex unconscious. Upon waking up, Rex finds himself in a strange cave, his communication device hijacked by Dr. Elizabeth Veronica Darling, one of Sloan's scientists, who hates her boss’s guts and intends to help Rex get to him for revenge. When he leaves the cave, Rex sees… Holy shit, that’s dragons with fluorescent colors. When did this turn into Cyberpunk Skyrim? After sneaking past them, Rex is directed towards the garrison where Darling resides, and is tasked with cleansing it of Sloan’s army of Omega Force soldiers.
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| The cutscenes do look pretty cool. |
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Speaking from personal experience? The best
way to save a hostage is to get close to them and
then kill the enemies while protecting the
person you're trying to save. |
Once that's done, to show his good will in this, Rex has to rescue a scientist from another occupied base. After this mission, you can restore other garrisons by killing all the enemies inside and around them. Liberated garrisons then become fast-travel spots across the island. Garrisons also unlock two types of missions: The first, Predator's Path, involves killing one specific animal or enemy on the island, usually with one specific weapon. The targets can be Omega Force soldiers, usually one in a larger group. The second involves rescuing another scientist from the clutches of the Omega Force - and if you're spotted, the enemies will execute their hostage. All of these quests give money, EXP and weapon upgrades that can be purchased at a garrison's shop.
Oh, right – this game has an EXP system. By killing enemies, finding collectibles or completing missions, quests or objectives, you gain CP. After filling the CP bar, you get an upgrade – usually an extra square of health, but some other bonuses like quicker reload, more damage inflicted per bullet, or improved regeneration. (Rex can use a syringe to regain all of his health in one go, with three syringes max in his inventory, but if he’s run out, he can still regain HP, though he’ll only restore a few squares of health at a time, more at higher levels.) You can gain EXP up to Level 30.
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This one might look cool, but it's the worst
gun of the bunch. |
Wait, collectibles, you ask? Yep. Simple ones, too. You might find random TVs or VHS tapes around Omega installations or within various ruins across the island. The last collectible is a series of notes left all over the place by one of Sloan’s scientists, Dr. Carlyle; those notes give some further insight on this world, and are usually found within caves next to dead scientists. You can also kill animals around the island, gathering data on them as a result.
Let’s resume the main quest. The main storyline of the game has only a few missions, but most of those are actually rather lengthy on their own. To deal a striking blow to Sloan’s forces, Darling sends Rex to blow up the island’s dam, which doubles as a nuclear power plant. The explosives wind up being duds, so Rex finds another way. Does it involve tearing through hordes of mooks? …Why wouldn’t it? In the next mission, Rex sneaks into another base and learns that the Omega Force is working towards technology to raise Blood Dragons from birth and to control them with helmets for their own gain. He destroys four helmet prototypes, then goes deep down to destroy all the dragon eggs he can find at the bottom of the silo. After which he must make a daring and dangerous escape from very angry dragon mommies.
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| P̴̭͚̟̦̙̥̲͚͎̹͈̳̔̃̇̈́͌̂͆̒̀͒̕͘͝ę̶̡̛̙̟͙̜̦̲̥͓͖̯̦͒̎̈͑̌̎̎̿ę̴̡̪̬͈̹̠͇͓̤͑̉̈́̇̊̈̾̓͑̃͑͐̉͆̀k̴̡̧̨͚̫̠̠͓̣͈͔̩͉̬̜̺̭̏̒̉͐̈͠ͅả̸͇̯̝̥̭͇̣̞̈́̀͊̈́͜b̸͉̹͇̱͂̆̅̈́ͅő̶̡̼̞̖̭͎̻͈̗̫̖̹͔͍̤̠̜̲͙̌͑͛̈́̓́̈͊͘ö̵̧̝̖̹͎̟͙̗́̾͑̚!̷̺̼͚̮̱̠̣̥̦̦͇̘̻̪̼͈͎̟̭́͂̓̾̒͑̑͜͜͝ |
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| How do you say "Oh Shit!" squared? |
On the next mission, we’re tasked with ending the activities of a laboratory led by Dr. Carlyle. It starts with a flight into the base on a hang glider, then Rex tears through the laboratory one floor at a time. All the way down to the final floor, an arena set up by Carlyle that contains… two Blood Dragons. If you haven’t killed one yet, you’re in deep shit. It’s gonna be tough even if you have. Some people consider this the toughest fight in the game. After you manage to kill one, Carlyle sends out Omega Force soldiers who will, ironically, help kill the last dragon. And after the second dragon and the remaining soldiers have been dealt with, Rex hears, as he leaves the place, Carlyle getting murdered by his own AI system, which he was mistreating. Oh yeah, there was something in there about zombies, too.
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| Weren't we done with the zombie craze? |
Before starting the next mission, you’re told that this is the point of no return – therefore, you’d best do everything you want to do beforehand. The next mission takes Rex into an alternate dimension where a godly voice forces him through wave after wave of zombies, with a very limited arsenal to take them all down – and starting with the worst weapons, no less! Fucking shotgun! But, you ask, is it worth it? Yes! It grants access to the best weapon in the game, a wrist attachment called the Killstar, a mighty laser that can and will kill everything, very fast. Armed with that new form of firepower, Rex returns to Veronica Darling. He then begins a training montage through which he comes to know Veronica, falls in love with her, and has sex with her (Don't question it; This is both a Ubisoft game and a parody of '80s action films. Sex was inevitable). Then she’s kidnapped by Sloan.
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It's like having a handy portable Death Star
ray gun. |
Rex immediately goes to Sloan’s base and proceeds to tear through the damn place, destroying all the soldiers, vehicles, and Blood Dragons that get in his way. At the end of this path, Rex stumbles upon the greatest weapon that Sloan’s forces have: A fully-armored ally Blood Dragon with Gatling guns on its back. Its name? Battle Armored Dragon Assault Strike System. …B.A.D.A.S.S. Hah. With its ridiculous power, Rex almost finishes the job at the base, but it’s killed before he gets to Sloan. Smells like a final boss is coming. A final boss that’s dealt with… entirely within a cutscene where, held back by his bionics, Rex takes down his enemy by listening to his human side instead. Rejoining with Dr. Darling, they blow up the place and then hug. Then Darling reveals to the audience her purple eyes akin to those of Blood Dragons… (That story did get a follow-up, in comic book form, explaining that twist – but I won’t get into that.) Roll credits.
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I HAVE THE POWEEEEEEEE
What, if we're gonna reference a whole
bunch of '80s properties, might as well. |
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Try to kill a dragon with a bow?
Good luck. |
Overall, I thought this was an alright game. As far as open worlds go, this one is smaller and has less to do, which I feel is understandable as it’s an expansion of a fuller game. It's not barren, but it does lack in things you can partake in. Still, it offers an experience that I assume to be very different from the base game, going from a dude stuck on an island to a cyberpunk epic that somehow makes more sense than the cyberpunk game that actually has Cyberpunk in the title. It’s also unashamedly dipping into all those tropes of science-fiction from the 1980s, things that favors the spectacle over any sort of sense. We’re in very soft sci-fi here. It ends with zombies, for Christ's sake. The affectionate parody permeates the entire text, and references abound. You can even fight four turtles in a sewer.
I do like that, even if this game doesn’t have as much content due to being an expansion, it still tries to fill its overworld in some way. As the story mode missions progress, the land changes to include more random fights between scientists and Omega Force soldiers that you can stumble onto, with the occasional Blood Dragon or zombie scientists thrown into the mix late in the game. Aside from that, it feels like most other activities are things you’d already do in other open worlds. Rex will literally comment on collection quests and say he hopes he won’t be collecting flags or feathers (referencing the early Assassin’s Creed collection quests).
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I drove around this island about as well as I
drove in GTAV. |
Once again, I’m missing a point of comparison with the main Far Cry 3, but I’m told that the color lighting, gritty ambiance, and overall craziness of the setting helped make this game feel a lot more unique than the one it’s supposedly expanding on. It took me a while to get past the introductory mission since, as I said earlier, the game does not pull punches and feels hard even at the beginning. Or, again, maybe I just sucked and got better. The later missions did seem a lot easier after all. Or maybe it’s because my weapons sucked at the beginning and they got better with upgrades over time. I am however disappointed that the game had so few “boss battles” proper, and that its most important battles (including the one against Sloan) were done in cutscenes. I also ran into issues from time to time, like when the mission at the damn started while I was swimming in water - there was no way to climb onto land in the mission area, and leaving the area to get onto land cancelled the mission.
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Fuckin' TVs... Can't even play Pac-Man
on these things! |
If you like the kind of universe that’s both silly and gritty at once, and don’t mind a smaller sort of open world, this might be one game to look into. However, if you’re already well-acquainted with open worlds, it might not offer anything new in substance. I feel like I’ll be saying that more and more as I dive into Ubisoft’s games, since so many of them are of that genre.
But! Next week, I’ll have something different. Tune in next week for a Top 12 list about a show I covered on the blog before. See ya then!
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