What a strong opening to this series. Suffers from a little bit of plot contrivance, lack of enemy variety and some underwhelming boss design but there is so much to love here. Every part of this game is at worst acceptable and at best outstanding.

The one that started the Far Cry template. I’m seeing a lot of push back against Far Cry 3 at the moment. It’s true that it hasn’t aged as well as classics of the time, but I found it to be a solid, enjoyable experience. It’s not gourmet steak, but it’s still damn good. A solid 7.5/10.

Wow. The atmosphere. Just wow. Holds up extremely well for a 17 year old game. My only criticisms would be that it goes on for a little too long (did we really need an escort quest at the end?) and the Vita-Chamber system kinda robs the encounters of some of the tension. Nevertheless, the atmosphere, environmental storytelling, solid shooting and plasmid mechanics and fantastic audio design make this an absolute classic.