I played Far Cry 3 and loved it. I saw this on the horizon, and to be honest, I thought it'd be awful: a gimmicky tie-in that looked absolutely ridiculous. And it is absolutely ridiculous. But it is impossibly well executed! Don't get me wrong, Far Cry 3 was a fantastic game but there were things that made the game just a wee bit tedious at times - impossibly sensitive fall damage, some skills that just seemed pointless, swimming sections.

Blood Dragon streamlines all the realism (because this game leaves all reason at the door) in favor of making the game fun. The plot is ridiculous and a lovely send-up of all those glorious 80s sci-fi/action movies - and who better to provide the voice for the main character than 80s action hero luminary, Michael Biehn (see: Terminator, Aliens)? He's more grizzled here in the distant future of 2013 (when the game came out), but holy crap, he is phenomenal with the voice work and his one-liners and dialogue that he delivers throughout the game make it so much more viscerally enjoyable to run around like a commando - scratch that, CYBER Commando - all over the island. Yeah, you're on an island like in Far Cry 3 and this one's much smaller, has an 80s VHS tracking haze that I'm not complaining about because it goes with the theme, and everything is muted or neon. Why? Because it's awesome, that's why. If you don't understand that perhaps you and your haughty airs might enjoy a nice quiet evening listening to NPR.

So yeah, fall damage is gone, you can breathe forever in water and run pretty much as fast as you could drive a car making getting around the island a breeze. The enemy types are a bit lacking since they basically fall into the categories of 1) palette-swapped wild animals from FC3, 2) Motocross guy with an assault rifle 3) Welder-mask guy with molotovs 4) Heavy weapons guy with a minigun or flamethrower or 5) the eponymous blood dragons. And while there's some gauntlets and set-piece missions you'll play through, there aren't really any 'boss fights' to speak of unless you count fighting blood dragons or conquering outposts.

Those are really the only negatives I experienced in this game and they don't detract too much from the fun you have playing an avatar of death known as Rex 'Power' Colt. Play Far Cry 3, appreciate the beauty and realism and survival challenge. After you do that, play this game for the fun and sense of empowerment as all of Jason Brody's weaknesses are eliminated for the sake of having a good old 80's action movie complete with cheesy but fun dialogue, 16-bit cutscenes, and dinosaurs that shoot lasers out of their eyes.