Lately the trend in the DLC arena seems to be something along the lines of “crazier is better.” We’ve seen a handful of games now try DLC’s that pose an alternate reality or a complete change in style from what the original game showcased. Most recently Assassin’s Creed 3 did this with their series of DLC releases centered around George Washington as king. In a generation where DLC was beginning to stale it’s great to see this change happening, and Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon (while stand-alone and not DLC) continues the awesome trend.
Blood Dragon centers around protagonist and cybernetic super soldier Sergeant Rex ‘Power’ Colt (voiced by Michael Biehn of Terminator and Aliens fame) and his quest to take down his former mentor Colonel Sloan in a post-apocalyptic island setting. Sound crazy enough? There’s more. The island is inhabited by blood dragons that freely roam around impeding (or helping) your progress as you move from place to place and take down enemy encampments (drop base shield, let dragon in!). The story is that of an 80’s action/sci-fi movie and is fine for what it is. The voice acting is generally funny and the game’s dialogue felt at times like it was taking pages from classic Duke Nukem. Overall the story won’t affect you in any negative way and it provides a handful of funny moments.
The gameplay and systems are taken right from Far Cry 3, so if you are familiar with the game you’ll have no issues here (and if you haven’t played Far Cry 3 this might give you a good idea of how it plays). The main change is obviously the aesthetic. Like Far Cry 3, Blood Dragon features multiple enemy outposts to liberate and mini-missions to complete upon liberation. The mini missions include things like freeing hostages and killing specific animals and help you unlock weapons and attachments. I found this a bit disappointing because everything outside of the narrative missions and aesthetic was so close to Far Cry 3, but in the end it’s all still very fun to do. There are some new weapons, but generally you’ll find yourself using weapons in a similar way to Far Cry 3. I found myself sniping from outside a base, then sneaking in to use the bow. Everything just looks so much cooler now (and so much more like Tron). The upgrade system has been replaced with “get X points to get to level Y, at which you’ll unlock this item” so you won’t be assigning points in Blood Dragon.
Overall Blood Dragon is a fun little aside to Far Cry 3 with amazing music and aesthetics, and has its moments for both gameplay and dialogue. I found myself enjoying the missions and base clearing as much as I did in Far Cry 3, and found myself laughing from time to time at the absurd jokes the game pushes. Only a few times did I feel the joke was pushed a bit too far (the tutorial is one). If you liked Far Cry 3 and you like the humor of a Duke Nukem/80’s action movie with a Tron aesthetic you’ll like Blood Dragon. If you’re new to Far Cry 3 this could give you a less expensive way to see if you like the general gameplay. Based on my time with the stand-alone DLC I would recommend it to most, as it provides a few hours of solid gameplay and numerous awesome moments with some laughs mixed in.
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon Launch Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXD64NOUBMI
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon Gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbfd2ge_eNk