Painted in bright, tropical blues and greens and starring a cast of insane people, pirates, island-dwelling substance abusers and far-fetched wildlife, it’s safe to say that Far Cry 3 is not anything like as serious as Far Cry 2, and evidently has none of its grand geopolitical messaging. For some this will be a disappointment, but then, Far Cry 2 has already been made, and anything that stuck too closely to its model would struggle not to pale in comparison. Far Cry 3 is not an imitator, though it does show its influences proudly.

It begins as a tropical holiday, with snapshots of a young group of friends dancing on the beach, drinking under flickering club lights, having a good time on a beautiful island. But it all goes wrong, predictably, when they fall foul of a group of psychopathic pirates led by crazy-eyed Vaas, the convincing and unnervingly well-acted antagonist at the centre of Far Cry 3’s pre-release posturing so far. You awaken as protagonist Jason Brody. Handcuffed to a cage opposite another bound and gagged prisoner, you’re subjected to the first of many Vaas monologues in which he switches at a second’s notice from seemingly affable to completely unhinged. After scaring the wits out of you, he strides off into the night, leaving you to stew.

The prisoner opposite you turns out to be Brody’s ex-military brother, and leads a tense escape effort after setting you both free of your bonds. Sneaking through the pirate camp, crouching out of sight, you watch him grab and kill guards with a found knife as Jason whimpers and swears under his breath in fear. It’s a powerful opening, putting you in the shoes of a terrified captive, establishing a desperate, survivalist tone that persists throughout the game’s course. Without wanting to spoil anything, your escape from the camp is a fraught, perfectly-paced introduction that packs an emotional punch as Jason is forced into his first kill.

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It stars a cast of insane people, pirates, island-dwelling substance abusers and far-fetched wildlife

From that moment onwards, though, Jason has no problem at all with murder, merrily sticking a knife into the necks of hundreds more pirates over the next few hours. This near-instant transformation from terrified abductee to silent killer isn’t exactly convincing, but Ubisoft Montreal attempts to legitimise it with a minor supernatural twist: after being rescued from the jungle, Brody wakes up with a series of tattoos on his arm that give him, essentially, magical powers, like the ability to run silently or sneak-takedown two pirates at once. These abilities are tuned towards stealth or combat, but most of them are useful whatever approach you decide to take to Far Cry 3’s open world.

On-side with the aggrieved local population and with an understandable grudge against Vaas and his pirates, Brody is set free on the island to find the rest of his friends and liberate the place – but not before you’re given an enforced briefing on hunting the local wildlife. Far Cry 3’s ample crafting system is predicated on hunting animals and rummaging through thickets of foliage to find plants and skins that can then be magically transmogrified into a bigger backpack or a healing syringe. Jason’s prey is far from docile - even the most harmless-looking beast will fight back, and if you’re after a predator you’ve not got much chance at success with just a hunting knife.

Far Cry 3’s huge island map is a forest of icons when you first start out, but most of it boils down to pirate outposts that have to be conquered to liberate an area, signal towers that can be scaled to open up another section of the map, hunting grounds, and optional challenges, like deliveries or contract kills. When you’re feeling directionless or, god forbid, tired of provoking wildlife or assaulting pirates in camps, the story missions are there to draw you back into the game’s narrative. Early on at least, these missions are fiercely scripted, in stark contrast with the very emergent feel of the rest of the game – thankfully the quality of Far Cry 3’s character animation and acting is very high indeed.

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The directed narrative brings out another side of the game

One early sequence sees you make your way to the top of an isolated hill to meet the island’s resident narcotics obsessive, a spaced-out doctor who has found one of Jason’s friends wandering the island. He then sends you on your own trip to fetch some mushrooms for him, a mission that seems deathly dull but soon melts into a hallucinogenic adventure far more interesting than the typical open-world fetch-quest. The directed narrative brings out a side of the game that you don’t get to see when you’re stalking the jungle, making your own fun.

We’ve talked a lot about the kind of open-world insanity you can get up to before – like setting a tiger loose on an encampment, or trying and failing to run over a buffalo – but until now it’s been difficult to see how all of this gels with the fiercely scripted story direction. It feels like Far Cry 3 has two distinct sides to it, but so far it feels like they complement each other rather than creating an uncomfortable tension. So far.

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Far Cry 3 is inherently fun to play

It helps that Far Cry 3 is inherently fun to play, whatever you’re doing, whether you like blowing things up or hunting animals or picking out targets patrolling a pirate camp with binoculars from the top of a hill before sneaking down there and silently taking them all out in sequence. As a stealth-orientated player I’m a big fan of the bow and the silent attack, but it’s enjoyably unrestrictive; when someone sees you, a carefully-planned infiltration can quickly turn into a chaotic seat-of-your-pants assault, and the game doesn’t punish you for failure so much as expect you to adapt to what happens.

It’s an interesting time for open-world games right now. Some are struggling to bring all their disparate elements together into a convincing, cohesive whole, and some have trouble with the seeming contradiction in terms between scripted storytelling and emergent play, like the great but uneven Assassin’s Creed 3. Far Cry 3 is looking to find an intersection where those two things aren’t in conflict.

Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN's games team in the UK and has spent far too much time in Far Cry 3 running away from komodo dragons. You can follow her on IGN and Twitter.

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