Cutscenes are barely-animated cartoon sequences - which I started to suspect weren't so crude for the sake of mocking anything but more to save money - while the dialogue is an attempt at lampooning action movies' tendency toward ultra-cheese. But the disconnect between the two is weirdly jarring. It seems to set out to be something of every 80s Saturday morning action cartoon, but then in a flurry of swearing, violence and sex scenes, veers into mocking straight-to-video 80s action movies. It's hard to get precisely what it is that Blood Dragon thinks it's spoofing. And then there's the peculiarity of the tone. So while you've got the unquestionable fun of taking over a new island, and the pleasure of the (scant few) missions, you're also being pissed off by things that should have been patched out of FC3, let alone left in for its spin-off. And this time they've added in a new bug where if you task switch out of the game, going back in will have switched it to "Borderless" mode rather than "Windowed", and for some reason (that wasn't the case with the original game for me) it barely runs in Borderless. Keys not responding at crucial moments? Indeed. Then forced reloading to an earlier point, losing any progress as a consequence? Yup. Mission zoning, such that you fail if you cross some arbitrary boundary on your way? Here. Other than issues with the story, what were the primary complaints? That bloody mission pop-up message that can't be switched off? That's still present. Here that sound, coming over the horizon, as the purple storm crackles against the purple clouds? It's a "but".īut, in a strange way this game also feels like a worst-of of Far Cry 3. The only issue here is how few there are - that part of the game will only take about three or four hours at the very most.
Bearing in mind the minimized tone to the much of the game, these are extremely well constructed and realised. Rather than deviating from the core mechanics too much this time, most are focused on infiltration and then mass murder, offering multi-stage missions building to daft climaxes. They are, in general, splendid runs of violence. The mission quests were perhaps where Far Cry 3 saw the most criticism (although unfairly I'd argue - their leaning toward an Uncharted territory offered even more variation to the game), I doubt anyone would level the same here. Fighting the dragons themselves seems at first to be too daunting a prospect, but then later you'll start figuring some stuff out, and be equipped with a better chance against them. Sneaking into a base, turning off their dragon shields, and then luring one in is obviously a fun time. The Blood Dragons are attracted to these, so you can use them for making your escape, or better, directing them toward enemies.
When you kill enemies you can tear their cyborg hearts from their chests, and store them up. The dragons are perhaps the only really significant change in how you actually play. Except this time there are giant laser-firing dragons, and everything's lit in purple. A bunch more charging about the countryside, the spontaneous events, the slaughtering of armies to take their homes for yourself, and the deaths of more tigers. However, it's an oddly stripped down version of Far Cry 3, with the skill system reduced to automatically added new abilities as you trundle through, the variation of activities reduced to three, no crafting whatsoever, and the arsenal of weapons limited to five. A new island, twelve or so new garrisons to take over (each with their own hostage-rescue additional task), new animals to shoot, dozens of new collectables to run up to and press E on, and a smattering of plot missions to play through. If you peel away its crêpe-paper-thin veneer of confused 80s pastiche, what you've got here is an psuedo-expansion pack for Far Cry 3 (although there's no crossover, no sharing of characters, etc). To see this content please enable targeting cookies. This most peculiar of spin-off games, a mini-campaign and new island of bases to take over, finds itself in a bizarre space between a bunch of fun, and a lot of irritation. It's hard not to wish whoever created that first, excellent Blood Dragon trailer hadn't been in charge of writing the whole game. How does this mini-adventure hold up? Here's wot I think: Do you remember that there were decades previously to this one? Far Cry 3 seems to think it does, with the appearance of an expandalone spoof of the 1980s, Blood Dragon.