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Ubisoft has finally announced Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon following weeks of leaks and speculation – and it’s every bit as ridiculous as you’d been expecting.
Set in an 80s vision of a futuristic 2007, Blood Dragon is a downloadable standalone spin-off of Far Cry 3 which stars 80s movie legend Michael Biehn as Sgt. Rex ‘Power’ Colt, a cyber-commando sent on a retro-themed crusade against a rogue cyborg army, Omega Force.
Mechanically speaking, it’s similar to its namesake: like Far Cry 3, the game takes place on an open-world island overrun with enemy installations – FC3’s outposts replaced here with hi-tech military garrisons – and it’s the player’s job to kill the bad guys, overthrow a cyborg enemy who has drunk dragon blood to make himself even more powerful (really), and liberate the island.
Players are able to wield a variety of ‘futuristic’ weaponry, too, including the Fazertron laser rifle and Galleria 1991 shotgun, as they duel against Omega Force and fend off dragons with laser eyes. Again, really.
“Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon is an all-out honest cyber shooter that doesn’t take itself too seriously,” says creative director Dean Evans.
“In a genre saturated with super serious narrative and realistic settings we felt it was time to inject some good old fashioned robofun into it. Think of it as the third movie in an action franchise… it’s got a bit tired and long in the tooth. It’s that moment when the producers decide to go all in. Robocop 3 and Rambo 3 are great examples of movies that just went crazy to explode (implode) the franchise. Toys, Cartoons, Cereal… that kind of stuff came flooding in.
“The philosophy with Blood Dragon was to create something that’s so bad it’s good. Many shooters are just 80s action movies in disguise so we just embraced it and ran with it.”
If you have any interest in hearing Biehn spit out one-liners like, “I think you get the point,” when piercing an arrow throw his target’s chest, putting a middle finger up to his enemies while blasting them full of lead, or punching mainframes to prevent missile launches, you should probably check it out.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon has long-been rumoured to be in development, following leaked information from the Brazilian classifications board and the game’s achievements appearing online.
A listing for the game was later posted on Xbox.com, essentially confirming the game’s development, before the PC version was leaked online via an exploit of Ubisoft’s Uplay service.
The download service remains offline while Ubisoft attempts to fix the issue.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon launches on Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation Network and PC on May 1, 2013. A price has yet to be announced.
Source: Ubisoft press event/press release
