Fans of James Bond say, "A Bond movie is good or bad depends on its villain. This phrase applies to almost all fictional works. In fact, the villain is an important part of all narrative stories; without their villain, the audience cannot fully understand the qualities of the protagonist, nor can they understand the challenges and dangers they face. This leads to the fact that when it comes to the Far Cry game series, no villain can compare to Far Cry 3's Vaas Montenegro. Not only did he become the epitome of the entire series, but he was also an important part of the story, which helped establish Far Cry 3 as the best game in the series.
Released in 2012, Far Cry 3 was built on the success of its predecessors. The first, called Visual Marvel of the time, brought an unprecedented visual experience to the emerging open-world shooter genre. The second installment then builds on its own engine from the previous game, introducing new content such as interactive environments that allow players to use flamethrowers on grain fields to destroy hidden enemies – or to destroy themselves in the process. But the third game, Far Cry 3, had all these features and made a lot of innovations, such as hunting and hand-crafting, that are still part of the game to this day.
In short, Far Cry 3 further reinforces all the elements of excellence in the first two games. The open-world environment feels more alive and vibrant than before, thanks largely to Ubisoft's dedicated, heavily modified build of CryEngine in Far Cry, called Dunia Engine. This engine allows wild animals to play an important role, helping or hindering players in completing missions. Freedom of action is also another important aspect of the game, and although there are some scripting elements in the game, it gives players the freedom to approach their targets at will.
And its gameplay mechanics, newly introduced system, and the fantastic internal engine that Ubisoft maintains are nothing less than what makes Far Cry 3 memorable to millions of players. If a movie, or a game, in this case, only its villain is good, it's easy to see why the third installment in the series is considered the best Far Cry. The game's ingenious blend of compelling gameplay, engaging storyline, and colorful characters has yielded great results, but the madness of its villain, Vaas Montenegro, is what makes Far Cry 3 the best Far Cry.
Considering that villains are mostly very detailed, complex characters, there is no easy way to explain this, but Vaas is a repulsive psychopath, and his level of madness is reflected in the game series, perhaps in the average game, that other villains do not have. Of course, this can also be attributed to clever and compelling creative writing, clever voiceover by Michael Mando, and a very famous monologue about insanity inspired by Einstein. Did I ever tell you what the definition of insanity is? "Became one of the most famous quotes in the world of gaming."
Vaas is so incredibly evil; he tries to use the game's protagonist, an American youth named Jason, to stir up fear among his subordinates. It is usually tortured before trying to end Jason's life, and this tactic is more likely to cause the protagonist to be seriously injured and dismembered than to kill him in a more effective way, such as grabbing the hero in the game and throwing him into a deep mass grave, or restricting him, tying his feet to a concrete block, and then kicking him off a cliff into the water.
But, in addition to being downright crazy and evil, Vaas also has incredible charm, and killing him at the end of the game is marginal sadness. Apparently, Ubisoft's creatives put twice as much effort into killing Vaas after the player had already dealt with his boss Hoyt (said to be more powerful than his main opponent). It only goes to show that they are well aware of what they've done in character building and how it has affected Far Cry games and players. In fact, the character is so cute; there may even be his movies.
Of course, according to the rules of dualized character building, the game's protagonist, Jason, is a wealthy Californian youth, the exact opposite of the main villain. His very timid, shy, almost nervous personality makes him transform into a ruthless killer who has honed himself through blood and bones at the end of the game, which feels even more terrifying. Far Cry 3 is truly a great story game and well deserved to be called the best Far Cry.
Far Cry villains set a fairly high standard for subsequent villains in the game series, and none of them could surpass Vaas to become the best villain of all time.