Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Far Cry 3 was a game that, to many, was one of the best games of 2012. It was an open world game with good characters, a ton of content as well as a lot of replayability. So imagine what would happen when you take the core gameplay elements, put them in the 80’s future version of the year 2007, then add in neon dragons that shoot lasers out of their ^&%*#$@ eyes. That’s what Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon does in truly fantastic fashion.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon takes place in what someone from the 1980’s would expect 2007 to look like. America is still at war with Russia. Following the nuclear bombing of Canada by America, a cybernetic commando named Sloan has taken control of an island with a stockpile of deadly blood from the blood dragon and plans to use it to obliterate America. Fellow cyber commando Sergeant Rex Power Colt, played by Michael Biehn of The Terminator and Aliens fame, has been tasked with stopping Sloan and ending the terrorist threat.

The writing is intended to be as cheesy as possible. Rex fires off 80’s action movie one-liners with startling precision. It’s as if the writers watched every Sylvester Stallone (and lesser known Reb Brown) movie ever made before writing the game.

The core of the game is incredibly similar to Far Cry 3. While there are only seven main missions, the game features various garrisons that can be liberated by killing everyone in them. The game adds a new degree of strategy, however, as you can lure gigantic creatures known as blood dragons into the garrisons. In doing so, they will likely kill everything in their path by shooting lasers out of their eyes. Just to repeat that last point: they shoot lasers out of their eyes. Everything about that sentence is awesome.

That’s actually one of the clear goals of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Obviously the designers wanted to make everything here incredibly fun and unlike most games. Fighting giant laser shooting dragons while having to kill a ton of regular enemies? Awesome. Falling hundreds of feet with barely a scratch? Awesome. Shooting a sniper rifle with explosive rounds, killing four or five enemies at a time? Awesome. This culminates with one of the most insane, incredible endings to a video game that may exist.

The game starts you off with Rex Power Colt being able to survive from almost any jump and breathe underwater for an infinitely long time. It becomes much easier to simply go in guns blazing, instead of worrying about how to avoid fighting too many enemies. This is especially clear when you finally decide to grab a hang glider and drop into a crowded enemy garrison, shooting in every direction.

The garrisons still feature missions specific to each one, just as in Far Cry 3. This was an area that could have been improved upon with Blood Dragon, as there is still very little variety in these missions. They involve you either rescuing a scientist before they are killed or killing a certain animal with a certain weapon. They’re still fun but they’re not very different from Far Cry 3’s predator missions which, by the end of the game, were somewhat boring.

If you come into Blood Dragon hoping to find the same emphasis on hunting as in Far Cry 3 proper, you’ll probably be somewhat disappointed. There are a ton of unique animals, such as cyber sharks and robo-dogs. Hunting for them, though, doesn’t net you any real upgrades like in Far Cry 3. It seems like a real missed opportunity too, because the animals are so well designed and look like something off the cover of a heavy metal album. The game also doesn’t let you collect plants, so you’ll have to buy all of your health from vending machines.

Instead of having a proper skill tree upgrade like Far Cry 3 did, Blood Dragon opts for a much simpler approach. Killing enemies nets you experience points which feeds into your level. However, in Blood Dragon whenever you reach a certain level you automatically get a specific upgrade to your character. It’s much easier to get every upgrade in the game as a result, which leads to you having many more abilities by the end of the game.

One thing that does carry over, however, is purchasing upgrades for your weapons. Far Cry 3 had upgrades for things like red dot sights and extended magazines. Blood Dragon turns your bullet into lasers because, “Science rocks and lasers burn.” All the upgrades are designed to make Rex even more powerful than he already is, which is saying a lot.

The games presentation stands out in an incredible way. Everything in the world has a certain neon hue to it, making everything look bright and beautiful. Additionally, the world has a filter over it to make everything look like it’s being played on a VCR. The game features a good amount of 2D cutscenes that would be perfect in a game like Contra or Bad Dudes. To top it all off, nerd core metal band Power Glove provides an 80′s, synth inspired soundtrack that fits perfectly in the world.

With a $15 price tag, it easily justifies its price point and more, especially for anyone nostalgic for the 80’s. Blood Dragon is to Far Cry 3 what Undead Nightmare was to Red Dead Redemption, albeit in a stand-alone package. Hopefully more companies will be willing to take these sorts of risks with their IPs in the future.

A code for Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was provided to The Married Gamers for review.