Expanding stand-alone Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon revises the graphics and scenario’s masterpiece of Ubisoft Montreal in key science-fiction film 80. Irreverent as they used films with various Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, and it’s appropriate to name it, Michael Biehn. Blood Dragon will become a cult classic for all fans of the genre.
When you press fire, screaming along with your character
Ubisoft Montreal has had a really good idea for this content stand-alone Far Cry 3: review the game world of the famous shooter key 80s sci-fi movie, with lots of humor, over-the-top characters, the cliche of those stories and of course dozens of quotes from many different movies that have marked an era. And, among other things, of course, do not miss the opportunity to challenge a heavy mini-gun, shoot anything that moves on the screen losing the sense of the presence of the enemy, and shouting desperately!
Ubisoft Montreal has directed the work of this expansion, which was then finished by other studies that revolve around the orbit of the team that prepared the Dunia Engine, like those of Bucharest and Shanghai. Blood Dragon is heavily based on technology infrastructure of Far Cry 3, then proposing the same type of free roaming and the same skill system, as well as those of firing and mechanical interaction with the game world.
Once you start Blood Dragon (which we repeat for the avoidance of doubt, does not require the original game to run), you really feel like you’ve entered a VHS tape into the VCR, since the first thing that appears is the Ubisoft logo in retro style. Right from the start Ubisoft wants to make it clear that this is just a tribute to the nostalgic.
The stories are told with static screens. The designs are modeled once again the style that is at the heart of this production, while the characters, all in the middle between humans and cyborgs, tear more of a laugh, but also admiration for how they are characterized.
As we said, you should expect all of the cliche Narrative films of the era, like the Communists in the role of the bad guys and the Americans who save the world, the most beautiful girl who falls in love with the hero, and he has to save her from the bad guys, as well as the more convoluted plans to take control of the world.
The Communists and the Americans discover that Caribbean island have been found traces of an animal species not yet known precisely the Blood Dragons which give the title game. The blood of these creatures is very powerful, and can be used to create an invincible army, finally able to shift the balance of sorts in the Cold War. Only that soon you realize that the blood once engaged in soldiers, involves side effects, and you end up losing control of the latter.
A former military, Sloan, intends to take control of the island to enrich themselves with the Blood Dragons, and commenced to experiment crossed. But here’s the good island send a command to restore order. The command is composed of Spider, who was also a human being heavily modified, and the Sergeant Rex Colt, a Mark IV Cyber.
In the original version of the game is just Michael Biehn to lend his voice to Rex (played Sergeant Kyle Reese in The Terminator, a man sent back in time by John Connor to save his mother, Sarah Connor). The mission of the latter, therefore, is: to recover the girl, kill the bad guys and save the world.
Sloan has drunk the blood of dragons, and this has boosted his cybernetic implants. As in the original game, then, the island is insane and have become all the machines that sow death and as in the original game, only getting his hands dirty with the same blood which is contaminated if the enemy gets victory.
Have you downloaded my mainframe in the cerebral cortex?
Compared to Far Cry 3 everything is more immediate. The free roaming facility is sacrificed, and especially in the second part of the game. We have the obvious mechanical shooter from the old school. In the sense that you have to kill without thinking about anything, such as a possible repercussion in history, while waves of enemies come seamlessly in the arenas of play.
But at the same time Blood Dragon is based on the graphic engine of Far Cry 3, which comes in turn from the CryEngine technology, which allows for wide-open spaces, the ability to deal with optional objectives such as the conquest of the settlements, and to drive vehicles straight from physics certainly realistic. Blood Dragon is an expansion and for this, in terms of game mechanics, cannot boast the same level of finishing a game in itself.
Compared to the original game, what did the developers at Ubisoft Montreal was to apply a new color filter, which makes the images constantly dark (the story takes place in one night) with flashes of colors that recall the sci-fi scenario, the psychedelic way? But there are certainly interference to the images of a movie 80: in the end, we’re playing inside a VHS.
The beginning and the end of Blood Dragon have a structure shaped tunnel, as in classic shooter of the past and therefore, without possibility of free roaming. The gameplay is punctuated by narrative sequences that I mentioned earlier, terribly static and that did not require motion capture sessions.
From this point of view, they may be interesting designs prepared by the artists at Ubisoft. These sequences are a bit boring, eye-catching for the content, but certainly not very attractive from the point of view of the narrative or the involvement that they can give the player.
After the first mission, we said, here unfolds the classic free-roaming structure of Far Cry 3. Note how some skills that in the original game will unlock in the campaign forwarded are already available from the beginning of Rex. Among these, for example, the killing chain or killing Angle. But almost all of the gameplay mechanics of Far Cry 3 back in Blood Dragon, although obviously suitably modified according to the scenario.
The cyber eye as the camera of the original game, then allows you to ” tag ” the threats and to follow them in their movements, as well as to highlight the class to which they belong. The player can then proceed in a manner as they did in stealth shooter released in November last year, although of course in Blood Dragon there are more sustained pace, and eventually you prefer to destroy everything without paying much attention to morality or respect for the original depth of the game world.
We say this because, without spoilers too, in the second part of the Blood Dragon weapons that we simply alter substantially the balance of the original game, and by that we mean that literally stealth go to hell.
I feel safe with a weapon, with a bigger gun I feel very safe
But in the first part, we can proceed as we are used to, because the player can leave the settlements and who wants to deal with the optional missions you prefer. While in the original Far Cry 3 was too easy to accumulate money, with the result that the skills are unlocked and the strongest weapons were disproportionate to what was the challenge given by the game, Blood Dragon, there are some tricks that improve, in the first part. Some equilibria of the game.
For example, solve quests gives you access to upgrades of weapons, so they can get more precision, more stability, more efficient viewfinders, larger capacity magazines and so on, all in function of the weapon. The challenge becomes higher in the second half of the game, so having more viable weapons could be of great help. There are three levels of difficulty, and you can switch between them at any time of the campaign.
For each enemy killed and for each mission completed, Rex gets the Cyperpunti. These mark a progression automatic, made up of 30 levels of experience. For each level, you get automatically scaled skill. It is, therefore, 30 levels of experience through which you automatically acquire new skills, including breathing underwater, new health unit, killing heavy armor and more efficient. Skill then borrowed from the original game.
After the first few minutes of play, then, you realize that very little has changed compared to Far Cry 3, while the narrative is rather disappointing. Of course, there is the charisma of science fiction films of the 80s and excellent technical infrastructure, which can be enjoyed through different perspective thanks to the new color palette and new lighting effects, but otherwise there seems to be some idea’s thickness to the gameplay. I mean, why should I play Blood Dragon if it is so similar to the original game?
Here that after about an hour, Ubisoft Montreal gives us a better perspective in this sense, because it has added a new mechanic that allows you to interact with the wildlife on the island. Far Cry 3 was particularly appreciated for the incredible dynamism that characterizes the game world and the advanced artificial intelligence that allowed different creatures to interact with each other, depending on the case as allies or rivals. But the player could not interact directly with these creatures, in the sense that he could not give them orders.
Here you can change many things instead. Killing the soldiers of the Omega Force, or military force led by Sloan, who oversees the island, Rex has the opportunity of pulling the heart … oops the Cybercuore. Initially, I did not understand well what can serve Cybercuori, but that’s when the game returns to being free roaming these become very important. Essentially served to guide the Blood Dragons.
These are enormous creatures that roam freely on the huge island of play. There are no allies in the sense that if their peace is disturbed, the dragons lash out without thinking twice about the jammer. They have a defect and an advantage: they do not see almost nothing but have a sense of smell very receptive. It is for this reason that the player must be very careful not to be seen from these mammoth creatures, and at the same time take advantage of their strength through Cyber hearts.
How to conquer the settlements, therefore, Blood Dragon? Simple: first, you need to disable Cyberscudi that are present in every settlement. You can do this in two ways: either by penetrating the base and pressing the appropriate button or, more likely, going into the power structure of the shield and destroying it. At this point, just launching an Cybercuore the heart of the base to see the Blood Dragons attack all the soldiers of the Omega Force, passively watching the show.
Being able to interact with the dynamism of the island in a direct way is very rewarding, and introduces nothing new in terms of gameplay is not indifferent. The Blood Dragons are very strong, and have a lot more HP than any of the other creatures in the game world.
We must deal with them directly a couple of times during the campaign, and this will introduce a new kind of challenge for the player making things much more complicated than the original game. In addition to attacking in melee mode, in addition, these creatures emit a powerful beam from his eyes.
In short, nothing new in terms of gameplay that lifts the fortunes of this expansion, making it interesting from the point of view of the interaction as well as the charisma of the scenario.
My blood: red, white and blue
Do not miss the optional missions, as in Far Cry 3. Are unlocked, as usual, once freed settlements and as said, are the bases of the mechanism of improvement of weapons. In the missions of liberation of the hostages must proceed in a stealth, but change some game balance.
While in Far Cry 3 to be discovered involved, the failure of the mission here, after being identified, we still have a few seconds to revive the fortunes of the attack. Basically, if the soldiers Omega Force we find out, start shooting on hostage, a scientist, the player must free. So, if you are quick enough, you can do everything by killing one after the other soldiers of the Omega Force also powerful and fast bursts of bullets.
The hunting missions are identical to the original ones because we will be assigned a weapon and a booty that will have to be demolished with the chosen weapon. About weapons, then, in Blood Dragon initially we’ll have four of them: a sort of futuristic machine gun, shotgun, sniper rifle and pistol. But then come into our possession also of other instruments of death as the flamethrower, the Terror 4000, the shuriken and another that does not tell you, not to spoil the surprise.
As we saw earlier, downloading the charger Terror 4000 will be particularly godurioso, given that the character will scream as happened in the 80s action movie. But the Fazertron, or the assault rifle, is particularly presenting a spread of shots rather large. But it is mechanical firing those who have already played Far Cry 3 know, since they do not change in a consistent manner.
Laser weapons produce lighting effects that were not seen in Far Cry 3. We have flashes of all kinds, with glimpses of red and orange as well engage with the bleak scenario that characterizes the images of Blood Dragon.
We note, in short, a nice job on the front of the illuminations, which of course are in addition to the peculiarities of the Dunia engine in Far Cry 2 Engine 3 which, among other things, is able to realistically manage vegetation, with grass rendered thread wire, the effects of diffusion flames, realistic liquid, destruction of some objects of the scenario, and so on (we saw the technical aspects of Far Cry 3 in its review, which also found at the bottom of this article).
Another technical element to detect concerns and animations of the main character when they should be treated. The players were impressed by this aspect of Far Cry 3, Ubisoft Montreal has been seen that in some situations to propose to the limit. Here, first of all, the hands of the protagonist are futuristic in the sense that they are shrouded gloves strange metal surmounted by computers that detects something.
But Rex is now also able to use electronic items to recover vital energy, as well as use his metal bumps to penetrate into the body and get rid of annoying metallic objects that are stuck inside.
The island can be explored then after you have finished your story, because you can find special items such as televisions, VHS and animals with whom we interact (but there is no longer a component of crafting). For those who love the structure of the game Far Cry 3, this means getting more hours of longevity, which already stands at interesting values with Blood Dragon, keeping in mind that it is still an expansion.
End the campaign leading to the end of the optional missions requires at least 5-6 hours. But this amount of time can be doubled if you deal in a systematic way the attacks on the settlements, the missions of liberation and exploration of the island.
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, ultimately, is an arcade significantly more than the original, recalling the old-school shooter, especially for the second part of the campaign, where almost all the missions aim the kill.
It has two important enough flaws that affect the poor quality of the narrative and the artificial intelligence of the Blood Dragons, which does not seem to be well finished. During our tests the countryside many times these creatures are ” locked “, becoming easy prey to the fire and our other soldiers managed by the AI. This leads us to believe that it was not done on a Blood Dragon finishing work similar to what is done for a stand-alone game.
But if you are a fan of this kind of film, you cannot miss a Blood Dragon, because you literally flood of quotations, the most diverse, coming from every single film of that era. How Not to mention the soundtrack? The music will blend very well with the situation that you live on the screen, following the action with their tones that weave industrial music, dance and techno robotics, remembering movies like Tron or 1997 escape from New York.
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