Rock, Paper, Shotgun

By Nathan Grayson on November 21st, 2012 at 9:00 am.

In a fashion not entirely dissimilar from real-life games like croquet and sex, first-person shooters have recently started adding “multiple players” modes. Far Cry 3 – in spite of its focus on “singular players” and the islands who love them – is no different. But how does it even work? I mean, we know that its servers are of a fickle, wayward nature, but will it be worth the possible hassle in spite of that? Let’s investigate. Machete your way through the break’s overgrown jungles to see some footage. Oh, but do keep an eye out for wildlife. We don’t have any tigers roaming these parts, but Alec is startled by sudden movements and has been known to attack.

That was a lot of running and gunning. Oh, but apparently teamwork’s also a major focus – you know, in the same way it is in every other multiplayer shooter. Revive people, capture points together, etc. It remains to be seen, however, if that’ll be enough to keep people from succumbing to wander/murder lust and Rambo-ing their way through the wide-open jungles.

I am, however, quite optimistic about Firestorm mode, because it’s rife with potential for multi-layered moral quandaries and revealing peeks into mankind’s skeleton-ridden closet. No wait, the other thing: fire. But Far Cry’s fire tech is quite spectacular, and some of my favorite Far Cry 2 moments came when everything was ablaze, the entire battlefield erupting into a final, smoky scream. So even if that part’s not quite so spontaneous in this mode, I’m still expecting some excellent moments.

And then there’s that whole final move thing. With actual tea-bagging. That looks really, really dumb. Yep.

Overall, though, Far Cry 3′s multiplayer looks like it’ll be a nice enough distraction from the main event. There’s no telling yet whether it’ll have legs or not, but it seems like Ubisoft at least put some thought into it, so here’s hoping.