Blood Dragon is a blast
Name: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Genre: First person shooter
Rating: Mature or above
Video games came of age in the 1980s, a decade that was also the heyday of cheesy Hollywood action movies. Thirty years later, you don’t have to look hard to see the influence of one medium on the other. The ultraviolent power fantasies that seem so corny today — movies like Rambo, Commando and The Delta Force — pretty much provided the template for popular games like Call of Duty and Gears of War.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is a tribute to a cinematic era in which one guy with a lot of guns could solve all the world’s problems.
RETRO HERO
The muscle-head in Blood Dragon is Rex “Power” Colt, a cybernetically enhanced super-soldier who is sent to a remote island to prevent a madman from building an unstoppable army. Rex is voiced by Michael Biehn, a veteran of ‘80s cinema classics like The Terminator and Aliens, and his growly one-liners contribute as much to the atmosphere as the game’s pulsing, synth-heavy soundtrack.
HOURS OF FUN
The story has everything you could want from the genre, including a montage of Rex training and an over the top climax. The plot is laid out in Fed, minimally animated cut scenes, although most of the action takes place in the fully up to date engine Ubisoft created for last year’s Far Cry 3.
You don’t need that game to play Blood Dragon. Instead, this is a scaled-down version of FC3 with a smaller map, fewer weapons and a streamlined level system. It takes just six hours or so to play through, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for people who felt that FC3 dragged on for too long.
SO FAR, SO GOOD
Blood Dragon is an intriguing experiment in downloadable content from a big publisher like Ubisoft. If you loved the parent game, you get a fresh new adventure using the same mechanics. If you didn’t play Far Cry 3, you get a solid sample for a quarter of the price. Either way, it’s hard to resist.
By Lou Kesten
AP
Vocabulary
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corny (adj): not original; used too often to be sincere
veteran (n): a person who has a lot of experience in a particular area or activity
montage (n): a picture, film, etc. that consists of different items put together, especially in an interesting or unusual combination
up to date (adj): having or including the most recent information, ideas, etc.
intriguing (adj): very interesting because of being unusual or mysteriousIdiom
over the top: done in a very exaggerated way
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