Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

'Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (2013)' is an 'expandalone' ode to 80s action cinema, a neon-soaked tongue-in-cheek satire that takes the mechanics of 'Far Cry 3 (2012)' and transfuses them into an entirely unique setting. The story is purposefully cheesy, an amalgam of tropes and characters from pop-culture. It's self-aware and satisfying. Michael Biehn apparently didn't have a great time recording his voice-work for the title, but he fits the dry protagonist like a glove. The rest of the cast know exactly what they've signed up for, too. The title is fairly short but it remains fun throughout. It's a distinct spin on the formula and it stands out because of it. 8/10

It's the retro-futuristic year of 2007. The nuclear ashes of Vietnam war 2 makes a new kind of soldier necessary. It is the Mark IV Cyber Commando. The former commander, Colonel Sloan(Blanco Hall, delirious, evil, ranting about the gutless politicians and the Reds) is planning something. His island is protected by the Omega Force army, that force scientists to do experiments. You're gonna stop all of that. As Rex 'Power' Colt(Biehn, having as much fun as we and the developers are, never met a problem he couldn't shoot). 90% not human, you're still 100% man. At least the parts that count. And you aren't alone: his former ally, Dr. Darling(Griffin, a strong female, and only one of the memorable, character... except for when she isn't) assists you via radio.

This is a love/hate piece. Will *you* like the tone? Watch the trailers, they communicate it really well. It won't be for everyone, but I'm of the opinion that making something for a certain audience, even if that isn't a huge majority, is well worth doing. The one requirement is to try to make it clear that that's what you're doing, and this does that. This is a big, neon, OTT, fun, black-comedy-sense-of-humor-having, filled to the brim with references, one-liners and charm, comedic parody tribute to 80's and early 90's action flicks, Saturday morning cartoons and early shooter VGs. It makes you the unstoppable hero of one, like Commando, Rambo and RoboCop. The look and feel takes notes, heck, the excellent, heavily synthesized music remixes tunes, from Terminator, Aliens, Predator and Total Recall. The intentionally dumb, cliché-ridden story, told through 8-bit cutscenes are too long right from the start, but you can skip them: Enter, then Esc, takes us from one of the best openings of the medium ever to one of the most amazing finales. This goes back and forth between owning it and being self-aware, with "you" mocking, raging at the tutorial you start with! And it's made to be obnoxious, obvious. He'll also point out the tropes. This has some terrible, and a lot of bad, jokes, but "the good kind". The swearing is gratuitous. This is incredibly cheesy, with moral lessons like "don't litter" and "winners don't use drugs" in amongst the violence and death. Like, seriously, these are written on crates and the like. I do wish it had been completely consistent – hints, tutorials, descriptions, all fit this. But "this icon means it's saving", the main menu, they're regular.

A lot of the issues here are relatively forgivable, since the game is so short and inexpensive, at a quarter of its parent title, which this otherwise only shares its engine with. You may notice them, yet not be bothered by them because it just doesn't let you have a lot of time for that. It's giving you a pretty good amount for the low price that it is easily worth. You will want to play in stretches. It lacks content and variation, becoming monotonous almost immediately. Slow, shallow and linear, it's more streamlined than the main one. The joke wears thin after an hour. Everything looks the same. The murky visuals, rather than vibrant colors, are unappealing. It can even be hard to make out what you're looking at. Not being "meant to be taken seriously" is a choice, not an excuse – where it makes sense, that is disregarded in favor of the experience. It has the open world annoyance of having going to different places to get to the gameplay. My times for completion are based on me buying maps for the collectibles, though I know I shouldn't take that shortcut, I'm not the type to look for them myself if I don't have to – and if I hadn't, I admit I might have tired of this. 3 and a half hours to complete the one campaign, with only single player, and 6 and a half to get all collectibles, the awesome upgrades(explosive bullets, 4 barrel Winchester!) they unlock, and the sidemissions.

You'll liberate Strongholds, each time earning yourself another base you can Fast Travel to, where you can purchase kevlar, ammo, healing syringes, swap out any weapon for any other, for 4 carried at a time. It's also where you go for Hostage Rescue: take out the guards, avoid being seen or they might start killing the man you're there to get out. And Predator's Path: kill one of the various mutated, endangered species of animals, often with the silent, compact bow. They may attack you if you aren't careful. You can look up their territories, and hunting is the one thing you can't run out of. There is no redoing anything else. It does have three slots, so you can restart without losing anything, and even the easiest of the three difficulty settings will challenge you some. Still, it doesn't, much, on purpose. To take one of these garrisons over, you will have to remove every enemy from it. As you do, those on your side inside will start aiding you. And so will the Blood Dragons. They do immense damage, aren't necessarily particular about who they'll kill and their only weak spot is on their chest, meaning if they aren't attacking you, you don't have a clear shot at it. While crouch-walking can hide you, you'll want to throw an artificial heart, that you actually ripped out of one of the downed foes, as it will attract them. You can use that to lure them away from yourself – or to get them to take on those inside the citadels. If you want them to eat, slash and the like, so do more than fire their eyelaser at the people through the Mega Shield, you'll have to eliminate it. Turn off/make it boom.

In addition to what I've already mentioned, there is a lot of gore in this, with heads and limbs blown off. I recommend this to anyone who finds this at all engaging. 8/10

I remember my first impressions well after starting this game. At first, "Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon" seemed overly pretentious, where everything from bright neon lights to pretentious monologues seemed to be taken from a fantasy action movie of the 1980s. But once you delve into the plot and feel the atmosphere, everything falls into place. This is a parody game, a nod to the era of VHS tapes and hissing lasers, which is a real delight.

The story of "Blood Dragon" is a deliberately cliched adventure that is squeezed to the last drop of pathos. We play as Sergeant Rex Colt, a cyber commando who must save the world in a post-apocalyptic future dotted with glowing dinosaurs, sinister enemy bases and technological wonders. Each plot twist is played out with such self-irony that you involuntarily start to smile at the absurdity of what is happening.

Dubbing is particularly worth highlighting: Alexander Golovchansky's voice, which voiced Rex, adds depth and charisma to the game. Although he was voiced by Michael Bean himself in the original, yes, Kyle Reese from the Terminator dilogy, it was Golovchansky who made the character truly alive for the Russian-speaking audience. His presentation is bright, emotional and fits perfectly into the spirit of the game.

According to the mechanics, "Blood Dragon" uses "Far Cry 3" as a basis, but with a number of changes. Character leveling is automatic here, which removes the need to plan your skills, but makes the process more dynamic. Instead of hunting animals, as in the original, the game offers to hunt down glowing dinosaurs, which not only look impressive, but also pose a serious threat on the battlefield.

Weapons and combat scenes are one of the strengths of the game. Each shootout turns into a show, where neon explosions and powerful sound effects create the feeling of participating in a movie of the videotape era. The final weapon, a kind of wonderwafl, adds crazy energy to the game: you become an almost unstoppable force, blowing everything around with special pleasure.

The tasks include both story missions and side activities. The enemies are typical clone troopers, but their aggression doesn't let you relax. Plus, glowing dinosaurs, which can become both allies and enemies, add dynamics to the game.

The neon style of graphics creates a unique atmosphere. This post-apocalyptic world literally glows with bright colors, which immediately immerses you in the world of cyber retro. The musical accompaniment, with elements of synthesizer sound, perfectly complements the overall tone of the game and emphasizes its belonging to the retrofantastic genre.

The ending is the culmination of all the madness that was in the game earlier. In a good way. Everything is pushed to the limit here: epic battles, pretentious dialogues, huge explosions and the absolute power that you get with the final weapon. It's a really bright ending that leaves you feeling satisfied and even slightly nostalgic.

"Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon" is a game that could easily become a one-time parody, but instead it turns into a powerful and exciting quest. Its setting, mechanics, and the courage to laugh at an entire pop culture set the game apart from the mass of monotonous shooters. This game is not afraid to be bright, strange and exciting, leaving behind a pleasant aftertaste, like after watching a good sci-fi action movie of the 80s of the last century. This is a case where the developers took a risk and won.

8 out of 10.

First off for 3D worthiness. 3D works almost perfectly. With convergence turned up very high and depth at 100% the game looks quite good although it lacks slightly in that it is a little comic book like in its appearance. If you play with the video settings you can get the 3D to look amazing. So yes quite playable in 3D but for some reason weapons will not 'poke' out of the screen, they appear to be flat but maybe that is fixable.. As for the game setup, this was a bit of a nightmare, you cannot play without installing Uplay which is a game content delivery system like Steam and then you have annoying updates to get past. The other annoyance is the fact that you cannot manually save a game. You progress is saved after the end of the first mission which is a lot of work just to get to the first save. The game play progresses quite nicely without any boring repetitive work and some missions give you alternatives to aid your progress. This game is a bit different than others in the Far Cry franchise but well worth looking at. Just be ready for the annoying setup at the start. For any 3D game reviews please email me at ratcat0@hotmail.com.

Grab successful things from 1 game and put them in a 80's homage to action heroes. You play as Sergeant Rex power Colt who is a cyborg commando that fights trough the ashes of a Apocalypse that had a apocalypse in Vietnam war 2.

This is a stand alone game with the engine of Far Cry 3 and it feels like that...but with more lasers and neon (And dragon's) I don't know how ubisoft came up with this because the game is really really bad..bad characters,bad one liners a bad ass cyborg and i love it!!!

They wanted to Honor the 80's with its spectacular music,over the top action and lasers and make it wrong on many levels.. and they pulled it off.

I really hope they continue this game and make a full game of it since this one is around 2/3 hours of game play if you play the story mission.

To ubisoft - make this a new franchise without using the far Cry name .. it will work without it.