How are Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon related

far-cry-3far-cry-3-blood-dragon

I loved FC3. And now I'm hearing about FC3:BD. They look very (very) different. They don't seem to have anything in common except the title. Are they the same series? Is Blood Dragon a sequel?

What's the story?

Best Answer

The gameplay of Blood Dragon is largely based on Far Cry 3. Most of the enemies are identical to FC3, except for their graphics. The terrain is also very similar to FC3.

Many unique gameplay aspects from Far Cry 3 were used with almost no modifications:

  • Open-World gameplay with a world map
  • Collectibles
  • The cover mechanics
  • The takedown mechanics
  • The health mechanics
  • Tagging enemies so you can see them through walls (now it at least makes sense)
  • Behavior of human and animal opponents
  • Experience point mechanic which rewards you for complicated kills (although the scoring was changed to encourage a more aggressive playstyle)
  • Buying weapon attachments
  • Conquering of enemy outposts to reduce enemy patrols and unlock sidequests
  • Vehicle physics, including the hang glider

Notable FC3 features which were dropped are:

  • Unlocking of items and maps by radio towers
  • Obtaining weapons by buying them or picking them up - all weapons are now found during the story missions
  • Skill tree (each levelup now gives you a specific skill)
  • Item Crafting
  • Minigames like poker, knive throwing etc.
  • Day/night cycle (it's always night)

Notable new features are:

  • Completely unrelated story with new characters and voice acting
  • The blood dragon enemies
  • Most of the weapons and their (quite powerful) addons
  • Video cutscenes which do not use the game engine
  • Completely new soundtrack

While the overall gameplay feels very similar to FC3, the whole atmosphere and the tone is completely different. While FC3 has a very serious tone with a dark and tragic storyline, Blood Dragon is a lot more light-hearted. It has a completely ridiculous plot with over-the-top characters, is ripe with parodies of movie-cliches of the 80s and game cliches of the 2000s and doesn't take itself one bit serious.

Or in different words: FC3 portraits the serious kind of insanity, FC3:BD portraits the funny kind of insanity.