Ah the 80’s and 90’s seemed in retrospect of a time where things were simpler and much easier to get excited about. With this comes Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon which serves as our breathing memories all wrapped up into one giant thank you letter to those that remember it as well as I do. This downloadable game while under the name Far Cry 3 has actually nothing to do with that world or its story, instead is a stand alone title giving the player a short but fresh experience.
Blood Dragon can be and should be seen as a total conversion mod, completely redone from the ground up but from another game which was Far Cry 3. This game is set in 2007 but from the prospective of the 80’s-90’s if that makes any sense. Your main hero who is voiced by Michael “Kyle Reese” Biehn from the original Terminator movie is out for revenge and for some good old ass kicking along the way. Filled with one liners, pop culture reference, soundtrack and a graphical pallet that could only come from that era it does an amazing job of letting players feel like they’ve been transported back in time.
8 Bit cutscenes serve you the story of animal and human experimentation, with a madman at the helm. It’s your job to stop him and stop him is what you’ll do. Enemies are in the form of humanoid robots, mutated animals and Blood Dragons which are blood thirsty dinosaur looking creatures who have devastating power. The open world is actually a nice size with tons to do in between when getting to place to place. It also does a good job in limiting your ammo in my opinion. The need to ration what you have vs what you may find is necessary in order to proceed to your next mission.
While exploring and doing missions you are able to gain xp to level up your character and gain money to upgrade your weapons. Nothing fills nostalgia like acquiring the gun that is or is similar to the one used by RoboCop. I honestly wish all games reloaded guns like this. Your character is surprisingly nimble and has access to quite a bit of weapons and vehicles. The game has a lot of care throughout it with subtle detail which makes it feel more complete. Whether your running, sliding, throwing a rock as a distraction, forward assassinating and then throwing a ninja star at the next enemy is happening all the time and fluidly.
One of the biggest draw backs is that the story is short, I mean really short. Can easily be done in one sitting and while there are a ton of side quests it made me wonder why those side quests weren’t main quests? Maybe needing to be a certain level to defeat the final boss which would have made world exploration somewhat mandatory.
One liners and comments that put Duke Nukem to shame and an awesome soundtrack which is also available for pre-order on iTunes is awesome. All and all this game has a lot to offer, not story wise but overall. You’ll definitely want to travel through every nook and cranny you can before making your last stance and what a ride it becomes along the way.
