Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Off the heels of the success of Far Cry 3, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon proves to be what I call a "Dat Bearded Gamer" game. With the 'retro' aesthetic that proves to be not much more than a few slight references to 80's "Nerd" culture and a VHS filter on top, it is far too tongue-in-cheek to bear, borderline embarrassing. While most people seem to be fascinated with this release, everything about it completely fails in its task for me. Gunplay in the Far Cry series has never really been that good and creating an entire game only based on the gunplay is a very questionable task. It is very soulless, maybe not for the time, but in retrospect. It is most certainly of its time, but that is precisely why games with comedy as a main element (especially in the early 2010's) get very embarrassing over time. Comedy that pertains to certain niches that can only really exist in a certain section of time always begins to become embarrassing over time (a very close example of this would be the short film 'Kung Fury' which maintains the same breed of comedy as Blood Dragon). What I'm trying to get at is the lack of any real aesthetic qualities that bear any significance over the game. This wouldn't be too much of a problem if it wasn't the main thing that everyone talks about. Most reviews of this game have the quote "It doesn't try to be something it's not, it's a shooter, plain and simple" but maybe if it did try to be something more it would actually be interesting, but instead it reeks of being a cash grab towards the breed of Funko Pop fans who skip cutscenes and want to see destruction. Games like this can be fun, but it has to have a backbone to work, such as Bulletstorm. Not only this, but the game is painstakingly short with really monotonous side missions and a very boring setting. There really is nothing cool to look at such as in Far Cry 3 as the very ugly VHS filter overlaps everything and the setting just feels entirely flat and lifeless. When the game is over, there really is nothing to do, and the fact that people treat this as more than 3 hour DLC is so surreal. Maybe if I wasn't expecting a masterpiece by how people talk about it, I wouldn't be so annoyed, but I genuinely don't understand the love for this one.

Pretty cool stand alone expansion to the main game.

Its story is a parody on 80's hero movies (terminator and the such). You got gruff voice actors trying their best to sound tough over a script that is pretty hilarious. Unfortunatly, the game goes into "memes" territory quite a bit, and is grating when it does so.

Gameplaywise its very similar to the base game, which is really where i have issues with it. Enemies tend to be bullet sponges and the game heavily encourages stealthy approaches to encounters. I prefer to go guns blazing, and the game doesnt seem to encourage that playstyle.

The neon visuals and filters get annoying after a while.

Takes about 3 hours or so to beat, but i couldnt care about doing any of the optional stuff. Probably the best Far Cry after 2.