14 DAY TRIAL // Far Cry 3 has all sorts of aspects, from its top notch shooting, to the RPG mechanics to the big emphasis on the exploration of the sprawling Rook Islands.
Two other crucial areas of Ubisoft's latest game are the hunting and crafting mechanics, which allow the player to feel like he's living off the land of the island and upgrade his various equipment.
Far Cry 3's protagonist is a young guy called Jason Brody who came to the tropical island to have some fun alongside his two brothers and their friends. Things quickly take a nasty turn as they're kidnapped by Vaas and his band of pirates so Jason needs to become an actual warrior, rescue his friends and stop Vaas from subjugating the whole island.
Besides becoming a proficient warrior, developing his skills and exploring the island, Jason also needs to live off the land and use all of its resources by foraging, hunting and crafting.
First up, you need to forage for different plant leaves to craft various syringes that give you certain bonuses. These range from green leaves for medical syringes that fill up your health bars, to yellow leaves that enable different hunting abilities, to red ones that improve combat skills, not to mention the white and blue ones that offer other types of benefits.
After you're done with the plants that can't defend themselves, you need to start hunting actual animals, from less than dangerous pigs, goats, or deer, to the more dangerous tigers, leopards, or komodo dragons.
Once you take down the animals you take their skins, which are then used to craft upgrades for your different items, from weapon holsters, to ammo pouches or arrow quivers.
The crafting mechanic as a whole also deserves praise as it keeps things simple. Instead of trying to match dozens of different items like in Skyrim, for example, you only have a few ingredients and the recipes or requirements are already highlighted in the crafting menu.
What did you think about foraging, hunting and crafting in Far Cry 3?