However, FC3 really suffers from trying to respond to criticisms of the second game. It goes back to the amazingly bland south pacific setting with yet more japanese bunkers and polynesians who need a white person to lead them. It doesn't have checkpoints at all, instead having outposts that project a zone of EVIL GUY SPAWNING, and those outposts are never retaken. The subtle storytelling and powerful themes of the previous game are replaced with pretty offensive stereotyping and an unwillingness to actually follow through on any of the ideas.
And lets not even MENTION the totally retarded advertising. Fans of INSANE LOL can rest assured they have already seen everything 'funny' or 'cool' Vaas does in the entire game.
On the other hand, when you put aside the
Spoiler
story, the stuff they added to the formula often works well. Sadly, there's always a downside.
The game area is larger, but it doesn't feel it. Much of the map is deadspace and never successfully hits that note of versimilitude FC2 did. As you clear outposts and use fast travel, the size of the map becomes even less relevant.
The weapons have more variety and flexiblity, but its just Blops powered by Yak kidneys. Buying weapons is unnecessary because you get them free as you open up the map, and thus money becomes largely useless. There are signature weapons unlocked by doing xyz collectables, and they're massively superior to the weapons you can upgrade and render those weapons useless. There is no weapon degradation and you can use any outpost to sway weapons. Weapon slots are limited by how upgraded your shoulder strap is with dingo guys (no really) so things like the flaregun and repair tool don't sit in a nice niche the way they could have.
The hunting is kind of neat, but its not any more complex than 'go to spot, shoot animal with rocket launcher, cut out random bit of flesh, make new wallet'. By the time you hit halfway through the story (or the third mission if you're like me) you'll have gathered everything you need to upgrade everything to max and you'll never even look at an animal again.
But saddest of all is the gunplay. It's very low lethality, the stealth elements are amazingly overpowered, and heaps of the cool stuff you can do is locked by story until midgame. Its at its best when you're knifing guys and throwing knives and rigging grenades, but this isn't possible for hours and hours of 'put pixel on head pixel and shoot' blandness. The great kinetic feel and comical dialog is gone; no more can you shoot a guy with a pistol, have him fall down, complain about the battallion that must be out there, and then desperately reload before his friends flank you. Much of this is because the spotting mechanic now identifies and shows on a minimap the location of badguys, which hurts the tension overall. Of course, rolling into an outpost and killing everyone is fun, but there are like 25 outposts in the game, and clearing them means badguys never spawn anywhere ever.
Outside of missions.
Which are terrible.
Has anyone else played this? Everyone I know waited to ask me if it was worth it, and I can't in conscience recommend it.
The menus. In menus. In menus. In menus. In menus. In menus. In menus. In menus. In menus. It's fucking absurd and a horror to navigate. 
