Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3 is a first-person shooter set on the fictional Rook Islands, a tropical archipelago somewhere in the Pacific, controlled by pirates and mercenaries. Players control Jason Brody and can approach missions and objectives in a variety of ways. They can kill enemies by utilizing firearms such as assault rifles, sniper rifles, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and explosives like land mines and grenades. Alternatively, players can utilize stealth to avoid the attention of enemies.

For instance, players can scout an enemy's outpost by using a camera to mark the locations of enemies, or toss rocks to distract enemies. The stealth approach, which can be done by using silenced weapons and combat knives, can prevent enemies from triggering alarms which call for reinforcements. Skills are collected by gaining experience from completing missions and killing enemies, and are unlocked in three skill trees, themed as the Spider, the Heron, and the Shark. Each skill tree upgrades different aspects of Jason's abilities, with the Spider upgrading his stealth takedowns and hunting skills, the Shark upgrading assault takedowns and health, and the Heron upgrading his long-range takedowns and mobility.

Jason Brody (Gianpaolo Venuta) is on vacation with a group of friends in Bangkok, Thailand. On a skydiving trip, they unknowingly land on the pirate-occupied Rook Islands, where they are captured by pirate lord Vaas Montenegro (Michael Mando), who intends to sell them into slavery. Jason escapes with help from his older brother Grant (Lane Edwards), whom Vaas kills. Jason is rescued by Dennis (Charles Malik Whitfield), an adopted member of the islands' native Rakyat tribe.

Dennis recognizes Jason's potential as a warrior and gives him the Tatau, the tattoos of a Rakyat warrior. While helping the Rakyat, Jason finds one of his friends, Daisy (Natalie Brown), at the house of botanist Dr. Earnhardt (Martin Kevan). Impressed with Jason's prowess, the Rakyat allow him to be the second outsider to enter their sacred temple.

Ubisoft Montreal served as the game's lead developer and was responsible for creating the game's single-player. It was a global production that involved multiple Ubisoft studios: Massive Entertainment created the game's multiplayer portion, Ubisoft Shanghai designed the missions and crafted the AI of wildlife, Ubisoft Bucharest provided quality assurance, Ubisoft Reflections assisted Montreal on the design of vehicles, and Red Storm Entertainment was responsible for making the PC version and the game's user interface. West Studio created early concept art for the game. The game's pre-production started in 2008, and more than 90 people worked on the game.

Far Cry 3 was initially planned to form a single cohesive narrative with the previous installments of the series, though this was abandoned when the game's development was partially restarted in 2010 due to the departure of several creative staff including the original creative director and narrative director. On November 6, 2012, Ubisoft confirmed that the game had been released to manufacturing. Far Cry 3 is the first game in the series to use the Dunia 2 game engine, a heavily modified and upgraded version of the Dunia engine used in Far Cry 2. The Dunia 2 engine was made to improve the performance of Dunia-based games on consoles and to add more complex rendering features such as global illumination.

James Stephanie Sterling from Destructoid felt the game had a larger emphasis on storytelling when compared with its predecessors, and liked the game's cast of characters. Sterling called the story "tightly written" and "stylishly presented". Matt Bertz from Game Informer agreed, calling the story "compelling". The game's cast of side-characters was praised for their acting and characterization.

Mando's performance as Vaas was praised by critics: Ryan Taljonick from GamesRadar stated that his presence made some missions memorable. Mitch Dyer from IGN noted that Jason is a relatable character due to his many flaws. Kevin VanOrd from GameSpot questioned some of the narrative decisions, such as the heavy emphasis on drug use. Other story beats, such as Jason's transformation into an effective combatant within a short period of time and the handling of Vaas's death in the story, were criticized.

The game's success helped elevate the franchise's status, which is now viewed as a blockbuster series with a strong identity. Dom Peppiatt from GamesRadar wrote that Far Cry 3 and its expansion Blood Dragon helped cement Ubisoft's domination in the open-world first-person shooter genres and its position as both a developer and publisher. Many features from Far Cry 3, such as the presence of towers and wildlife hunting, were later used in other Ubisoft non-Far Cry games. Commenting on the Classic Edition, Alex Avard from GamesRadar+ described the game as a "formative game-changers" for Ubisoft, one that established the blueprint for open world game design for both future Ubisoft titles and other AAA games.

In a more negative review, Kevin Fox Jr. from Paste Magazine wrote that the game was one of the most influential titles in the 2010s as its genre-mixing game design and its apolitical and unsophisticated approach to storytelling were apparent sources of inspiration for modern games. He ultimately described Far Cry 3 as "the increasingly safe, increasingly rent-seeking omni-genre—the do-everything, feel-nothing game".