Previews// Far Cry 3: The Multiplayer

Far Cry 3 is a game of two halves. On one side you have the open-world, single-player campaign that sees unwitting tourist Jason Brody try to escape a tropical island full of guerrilla warfare. This is being developed by Ubisoft Montreal. On the other side, a team-based competitive multiplayer segment by Ubisoft Massive will pit two of these warring guerrilla gangs against one another.

One might wonder just how the two modes are going to be glued together - these days it’s customary for the single-player and multiplayer experiences of a game to be closely integrated. But, as a standalone fragfest, Massive seem to be doing a rather good job of things so far, taking inspiration from the environments that Brody explores and tweaking them to account for multiple players.

The map I played was set around an abandoned temple, covered with overgrown foliage and littered on the outside with wooden camps and steel containers. The tropical location brings out the vivid colours of blood, barrels and structures as the sunlight beams heavily on the shirtless masked gang members. So graphically, it’s pretty impressive. The temple itself, situated in the very middle of the battlefield, has many corridors inside, around and underground, which allows for all kinds of tactics to be deployed. It’s a great little map.

And the modes on offer highlight the fast-paced action that can be found in each round. Domination mode is a straightforward King of the Hill style affair, with zones that need to be controlled and contested in order to secure victory. What’s much more exciting is the Firestorm mode, which has players scrambling to set each other’s half of the map on fire.

Here’s how it works: each team has two barrels that need to be sabotaged by the enemy in order to win the game. Not only do you have to worry about setting fire to the opposing team’s barrels, but you also have to defend your own barrels from a similar fate. As you can imagine, actually setting these barrels alight takes the longest time in the world - a timer appears after you begin your attack, giving the enemy a chance to defend and react.

When both barrels are destroyed on a team’s side, a radio in the centre of the island temple is highlighted on the map. After a 30-second wait it becomes active, ready for either team to take control of it. This leads to a cat-and-mouse game where one side tries to sniff out the other and try to huddle next to the radio satellite. If a team is on the back foot and has both barrels destroyed, taking control of the radio will reset the game and start the barrel-burning process all over again. It makes for some tense stuff.

Tight control mechanics also help keep the action flowing nicely. Pressing the B button whilst running allows you to perform a slide into cover, while in a pinch certain players can launch barrel bombs from an overhead map - handy if there’s a cluster of opponents in a given area. Different loadouts for various soldier types open up possibilities for tactics - while run-and-gunners can select SMGs and Assault Rifles, other characters might offer tripwire bombs which can be used to lead the enemy into a trap.

At the end of each match, the winning team gets to showboat in a rather unique way - the player with the highest score gets the opportunity to either show mercy to a member of the losing force, or show a nasty display of violence. I’m told that, with the XP system attached to the multiplayer mode, a variety of different animations and tortures can be unlocked for your use. It’s like the new teabagging.

Of course, not everything is quite up to snuff yet at this stage - when a teammate is down the player is required to keep tapping the A button to make thesmelves available for revival, but it’s quite difficult to actually help a friend up as it appears the collision detection for this sort of thing is a bit out of whack. It results in pressing the X button several times, and breaks the flow of the game. It’s also apparent that Ubisoft Massive has run out of buttons on the controller, with the marking of enemies set to the Back button for awkward times.

With a bit of tightening up in that regard, and some more maps of the calibre I’ve been playing, Far Cry 3’s multiplayer could be one that inspired a little bit of guerrilla warfare in the best of us. Actually, no, I shouldn’t say that - it might set the Daily Mail off again. Oh well!