Far Cry 3initially released 7 years ago on August 12, 2025, and would go on to hold a special place in the hearts of several fans of the franchise. For many, those that preceded it were nothing comparable, and those that succeeded it have failed to recapture that lightning in a bottle once more. That’s not to say there haven’t been valiant efforts -Far Cry 4,Far Cry Primal,Far Cry 5,Far Cry New Dawnall approached unique settings and locations in a similar vein but still fell short. That’s also not to say that these aren’t good games in their own right; they’re just notFar Cry 3.
The franchise,Far Cry 3included, has distinct characteristics for each game. Every game has a unique fictional setting, whether it be the fictional Rook Island ofFar Cry 3, the fictional country of Kryat in the Himalayas ofFar Cry 4, theStone Age ofFar Cry Primal, the fictional Hope County in Montana, USA, forFar Cry 5, and the post-apocalyptic remains of Hope County inFar Cry New Dawn. However, where these settings failed and Rook Island succeeded connects back to the protagonist.
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AsFar Cry 3players joined Jason Brody on his adventures around Rook Island, it’s clear that the island becomes part of him. He is taken with its warrior culture, grows to embrace it, and ultimately struggles between his old life and the new life that he has discovered on Rook Island. This is shown with his budding relationships with Citra and eventhe antagonist Vaas, as well as the growing distance between him and Daisy and his other friends.
This sometimes dark unison of setting and character development was never fully achieved by the others. The protagonist ofFar Cry 4had never been to the country before but was suddenly set to inherit it, being there only by the wishes of his mother.Primalwas altogether too foreign for most contemporary gamers to grow attached to, andFar Cry 5makes the best that it can out of Montana. But despite the religious zealots, despite Joseph Seed actually being right, it’s still a too familiar location even when post apocalyptic elements are added to it.
On top of that, another defining characteristic is the villain.Far Cry 3set a high bar with Vaas that could never really be reached again, not unlikeHandsome Jack inBorderlands 2.Neither could really ever be successfully suceeded, as they’ve come to define the franchise to some regard. There’s little doubt thatFar Cry 3fans have not forgotten how Vaas forced them to crawl through a massive grave, there’s little doubt that fans have not forgotten his iconic “Did I ever tell you what the definition of insanity is?” speech, and there’s little doubt that fans have not forgotten Brody’s dream-vision that leads to Vaas' death. Perhaps Vaas wasn’t the big bad of the game, but his presence was iconic.
Pagan Min, Joseph Seed, and Mickey and Lou all fail to capture this same iconoclastic role. That’s not to say they didn’t try, though, as each are unique antagonists. Twin antagonsts Mickey and Lou were a good concept, but they’re ruined by their evil-for-evil’s sake philosophy. Joseph Seed is a valiant attempt at recreating that Far Cry antagonist and one of thebest video game characters of 2018, but even he lives in Vaas' shadow. Pagan Min, on the other hand, was hard to pin down, making his role in the overarching story seem lackluster at times.
Although nothing is confirmed, the next step in the franchise for Ubisoft isFar Cry 6. It seems likely to be a matter of when, not if, and with Ubisoft recently delaying several games, there’s a good chance there’s been an internal delay ofFar Cry 6. That’s not a bad thing if it can be a return to form to rivalFar Cry 3, but for that to be the case, Ubisoft needs to pull out all the stops.Far Cry 3is special, rememberable, and defines the entire franchise, meaning fans are not likely to forget about everything that made it great any time soon.
Far Cry 3is out now for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
