Ubisoft Montreal Ubisoft Divertissements Inc., doing business as Ubisoft Montreal, is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Montreal. The studio was founded in April 1997 as part of Ubisoft's growth into worldwide markets, with subs ...

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

standalone expansion An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion, is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game, collectible card game or miniature wargame. An expansion may introduce new rules or game mechanics tha ...

Far Cry 3 ''Far Cry 3'' is a 2012 first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the third main installment in the '' Far Cry'' series after ''Far Cry 2''. The game takes place on the fictional Rook Islands, a t ...

retro-futuristic Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipat ...

open world In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the Gamer, player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay. Notable games in this category include ''The Legend of Zelda (video game ...

downloadable content content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain ad ...

The Wraith ''The Wraith'' is a 1986 independently made American action-fantasy film, produced by John Kemeny, written and directed by Mike Marvin, and starring Charlie Sheen, Sherilyn Fenn, Nick Cassavetes, and Randy Quaid.Terminator'', and recent movies like ''

Manborg ''Manborg'' is a 2011 Canadian science-fiction action film, directed by Steven Kostanski, and released by Astron-6. Plot Count Draculon (Adam Brooks) and his Nazi vampire forces seek to take over Earth during the Hell Wars. A soldier (Matthew K ...

'' and ''

Hobo with a Shotgun ''Hobo with a Shotgun'' is a 2011 exploitation black comedy action film directed by Jason Eisener and written by John Davies. Based on Eisener's fictitious trailer of the same name from ''Grindhouse'' (2007), it is the second feature-length adap ...

''. The director for ''Hobo with a Shotgun'',

Jason Eisener Jason Eisener is a Canadian filmmaker and film editor. Life and career ''Grindhouse'' faux trailer contest and ''Hobo with a Shotgun'' (2007–2011) In 2007, Eisener entered and won the ''Grindhouse'' fake trailer contest hosted by Robert Rodrig ...

, became the game's informal advisor after befriending the game's director, Dean Evans.

Michael Biehn Michael Biehn ( or ; born July 31, 1956) is an American actor, primarily known for his roles in science fiction films directed by James Cameron; as Sgt. Kyle Reese in ''The Terminator'' (1984), Cpl. Dwayne Hicks in ''Aliens (film), Aliens'' (1 ...

, who played Sgt. Kyle Reese in the ''Terminator'' franchise, was invited to provide his voice for the game's protagonist, while Australian

synthwave Synthwave (also called retrowave, or futuresynth) is an electronic music microgenre that is based predominantly on the music associated with the Film score, film soundtracks of action films, science fiction films, and horror films of the 1980s. ...

duo

Power Glove The Power Glove is a controller accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Power Glove gained public attention due to its early motion control mechanics and significant marketing. However, its two games did not sell well, as it was ...

composed the game's soundtrack. ''Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon'' was released for

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

on 30 April 2013, and for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

on 1 May 2013. The game received generally positive reviews upon release, and was praised for its gameplay, soundtrack and its 1980s influence, but opinions were divided on the game's attempts at humour. The game was a commercial success for Ubisoft, as it sold 1 million copies by August 2013. A remastered version of the game was released in December 2021, available for players who purchased the ''

Far Cry 6 ''Far Cry 6'' is a 2021 first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft. It is the sixth main installment in the '' Far Cry'' series and the successor to 2018's '' Far Cry 5''. The game is set on the fictional C ...

'' season pass. While the game did not have a sequel, a spin-off, ''

Trials of the Blood Dragon ''Trials of the Blood Dragon'' is a platform game developed by Ubisoft RedLynx and published by Ubisoft. As a crossover game of '' Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon'' and the '' Trials'' series, the game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 a ...

'', was released in 2016. An adult animated series loosely inspired by ''Blood Dragon'', titled '' Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix'', released on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

in October 2023.

Gameplay

''Blood Dragon'' is a

standalone expansion An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion, is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game, collectible card game or miniature wargame. An expansion may introduce new rules or game mechanics tha ...

to ''

Far Cry 3 ''Far Cry 3'' is a 2012 first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the third main installment in the '' Far Cry'' series after ''Far Cry 2''. The game takes place on the fictional Rook Islands, a t ...

'', which is a

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

video game. In the game, the player controls Rex "Power" Colt, a cyborg military commando stranded on an unnamed island. Like the main game, it allows players to use various means to approach their objectives; for instance, players can use various firearms such as

pistol A pistol is a type of handgun, characterised by a gun barrel, barrel with an integral chamber (firearms), chamber. The word "pistol" derives from the Middle French ''pistolet'' (), meaning a small gun or knife, and first appeared in the Englis ...

s,

assault rifle An assault rifle is a select fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge, intermediate-rifle cartridge and a Magazine (firearms), detachable magazine.C. Taylor, ''The Fighting Rifle: A Complete Study of the Rifle in Combat'', F.A. Moyer '' ...

s,

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...

, and

sniper rifle A sniper rifle is a high-precision, long range shooting, long-range rifle. Requirements include high accuracy, reliability, mobility, concealment, and optics, for anti-personnel weapon, anti-personnel, anti-materiel rifle, anti-materiel and sur ...

s, and explosives like

grenade A grenade is a small explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a Shell (projectile), shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A mod ...

s to kill their opponents. Alternatively, they can utilize

stealth Stealth may refer to: Military *Stealth technology, technology used to conceal ships, aircraft, and missiles **Stealth aircraft, aircraft which use stealth technology ** Stealth ground vehicle, ground vehicles which use stealth technology ** Ste ...

tactics such as distracting enemies by throwing a die, or performing silent takedowns with a large knife. Enemies can also be tagged using Rex's camera. The game features a simplified character progression system. With sufficient cyberpoints (the game's equivalent of

experience Experience refers to Consciousness, conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience i ...

), new skills and combat perks, such as increased

health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

or increased defense, are automatically unlocked. At the beginning of the game, most of the skills unlocked by the end of ''Far Cry 3'', such as swimming for an indefinite duration underwater and chained combat takedowns, are already unlocked. The crafting system featured in ''Far Cry 3'' was removed in ''Blood Dragon''. The island is an

open world In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the Gamer, player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay. Notable games in this category include ''The Legend of Zelda (video game ...

that is about half the size of ''Far Cry 3''. Players can hunt wildlife, complete side missions to unlock new weapon upgrades and attachments, and liberate enemy outposts and garrisons. The unnamed island is the home of the blood dragons, as well as various wildlife such as

cybershark ''Transformers: Beast Wars'' is an entertainment franchise from Hasbro, part of the larger ''Transformers'' franchise. The franchise directly follows the '' Transformers: Generation 1'' continuity, established by the 1984 series and animat ...

s and mutant cassowaries. Blood dragons are blind, but they can shoot lasers from their eyes and hunt using their sense of smell. Players can throw cybernetic hearts to lure blood dragons to an enemy base, which would help Rex to wipe out nearby enemies. The only way to collect cybernetic hearts is to rip them from the corpses of fallen enemies. Blood dragons are infused with the lights of neon, and the color the neon lights reflect their hostility status. Red means that the beast is already attacking, yellow suggests that the beast is being cautious, while green means that they are calm. The game features 13 hostile garrisons that the players can liberate. Hostile enemies will call for reinforcements and activate the alarms if they detect the presence of Rex in their compound. These bases have an energy shield that must be deactivated before a blood dragon can enter the compound. Once liberated, these outposts became fast travel points for the players, though they can also freely explore the world on foot or by various vehicles. As the player explores the world, they will find various

collectible A collectable (collectible or collector's item) is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector. Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon. There are numerous types of collectables and terms t ...

s in the form of

VHS tape VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Mag ...

s and CRT TVs.

Plot

''Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon'' is set in a

dystopia A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmen ...

n version of 2007 where the world is suffering the aftermath of a nuclear war.

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

described the game as "an 80s

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

vision of the future" where the player must "get the girl, kill the bad guys, and save the world". The player controls an American cybernetic super-soldier named Sergeant Rex "Power" Colt (

Michael Biehn Michael Biehn ( or ; born July 31, 1956) is an American actor, primarily known for his roles in science fiction films directed by James Cameron; as Sgt. Kyle Reese in ''The Terminator'' (1984), Cpl. Dwayne Hicks in ''Aliens (film), Aliens'' (1 ...

). He and another American cyber-soldier, T.T. "Spider" Brown (

Phil LaMarr Phil LaMarr is an American actor and comedian. He was one of the original featured cast members on the sketch comedy television series '' Mad TV'', where he stayed for five seasons. His voice acting roles in animated series include the Sam B of ' ...

), travel to an unnamed island to investigate Colonel Sloan (Danny Blanco Hall), an elite agent who has gone rogue. Rex and Spider confront Sloan, who knocks Rex out and kills Spider. Rex is awoken by Sloan's assistant Dr. Elizabeth Darling (

Grey DeLisle Grey DeLisle (; born Erin Grey Van Oosbree; August 24, 1973), sometimes credited as Grey Griffin, is an American voice actress and singer-songwriter. DeLisle is known for various roles in animated productions and video games. On September 27, ...

), who, disillusioned with Sloan's goals, betrays him. He teams up with Darling to overthrow Sloan's plan to revert the world to a prehistoric-like state with his rockets, armed with the blood of the "blood dragons" that roam the island. After liberating bases, saving scientists, and killing animals, Rex fights Sloan's other assistant, Dr. Carlyle (

Robin Atkin Downes Robin Atkin Downes is an English actor. He is known for his work in animation and video games. Early life Downes was born in London. He earned an MFA from Temple University in Philadelphia. Career Downes has voiced characters in animated f ...

), who has used the blood of blood dragons to turn humans into zombie-like creatures called "the running dead". After he fights Dr. Carlyle's cyber soldiers and blood dragons, Dr. Carlyle is killed by his own AI, who had been mistreated and acted out of revenge. Rex goes into a parallel dimension where he fights legions of Colonel Sloan's running dead. Upon defeating them, he gets the Killstar, an arm-mounted laser gun that allows him to defeat Sloan at the cost of his own vitality. After Rex and Darling have sex, she is abducted the following morning. Rex makes an assault on Sloan's base with the Killstar and the Battle Armored Dragon Assault Strike System (B.A.D.A.S.S.). Rex confronts Sloan who, having programmed Rex, prevents him from attacking. Darling and Spider's memories remind Rex of his humanity, and he impales Sloan with his robotic hand and fires the Killstar, killing him. Darling appears and informs Rex of his success in stopping Sloan's plans, then proceeds to destroy the base. They embrace while looking on at the destruction, as Darling looks behind with purple eyes and a sinister gaze.

Development

''Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon'' is a

standalone expansion An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion, is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game, collectible card game or miniature wargame. An expansion may introduce new rules or game mechanics tha ...

for ''

Far Cry 3 ''Far Cry 3'' is a 2012 first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the third main installment in the '' Far Cry'' series after ''Far Cry 2''. The game takes place on the fictional Rook Islands, a t ...

'', which was released in late 2012. At the time, Ubisoft was experimenting with a new approach to release

downloadable content content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain ad ...

(DLC) for their games. The company sought to appeal to new and existing players. It first experimented with ''The Tyranny of King Washington'', a DLC for ''

Assassin's Creed III ''Assassin's Creed III'' is a 2012 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the fifth major installment in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series, and a direct sequel to 2011's '' Assassin's Creed Revelations' ...

'' that is set in an

alternate timeline Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...

. The team intended to continue this approach for ''Far Cry 3'', and allowed the developers to abandon its characters and the settings. Ubisoft welcomed all types of idea for the DLC, and they were approached by Dean Evans, who had previously worked on ''Assassin's Creed III'' and '' Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction'', about a game that is set in "a 1980s vision of the future". Franchise director Dan Hay and Ubisoft executives in Paris were pleased with the idea, and gave Evans approximately six months to complete its development. The game was heavily inspired by

B-movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

s released in the 1980s and the early 1990s. Since Hay gave the team free rein to create something unexpected, Evans used the opportunity to "resurrect a VHS-era aesthetic he felt was lost to the times". At the time, the release of nostalgic films such as ''

Manborg ''Manborg'' is a 2011 Canadian science-fiction action film, directed by Steven Kostanski, and released by Astron-6. Plot Count Draculon (Adam Brooks) and his Nazi vampire forces seek to take over Earth during the Hell Wars. A soldier (Matthew K ...

'' and ''

Hobo with a Shotgun ''Hobo with a Shotgun'' is a 2011 exploitation black comedy action film directed by Jason Eisener and written by John Davies. Based on Eisener's fictitious trailer of the same name from ''Grindhouse'' (2007), it is the second feature-length adap ...

'' made him believe that ''Blood Dragon'' would yield similar success, since the genre was underrepresented in the

video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary industry, tertiary and quaternary industry, quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the video game development, development, marketing, distribution (marketing), distribution, ...

. Evans contacted director

Jason Eisener Jason Eisener is a Canadian filmmaker and film editor. Life and career ''Grindhouse'' faux trailer contest and ''Hobo with a Shotgun'' (2007–2011) In 2007, Eisener entered and won the ''Grindhouse'' fake trailer contest hosted by Robert Rodrig ...

after watching ''Hobo with a Shotgun;'' the two soon became friends, and Eisener became ''Blood Dragon''s informal adviser, with Evans regularly sending assets and soundtracks to him. Ubisoft also invited Eisener to visit their Montreal office to brainstorm additional ideas and read the game's script. Initially, the team planned to include a boss battle in ''Blood Dragon'', which would involve Rex fighting "the Plague", characters from ''Hobo with a Shotgun.'' The idea was scrapped due to the game's limited development time. Initially, Ubisoft considered hiring

Dolph Lundgren Hans "Dolph" Lundgren (, ; born 3 November 1957) is a Swedish actor, filmmaker, and martial artist. Lundgren made his acting debut in 1985 with a cameo in the List of James Bond films, James Bond film ''A View to a Kill''. Also that year, he h ...

for the lead role, Rex "Power" Colt, but Evans met

Michael Biehn Michael Biehn ( or ; born July 31, 1956) is an American actor, primarily known for his roles in science fiction films directed by James Cameron; as Sgt. Kyle Reese in ''The Terminator'' (1984), Cpl. Dwayne Hicks in ''Aliens (film), Aliens'' (1 ...

, who was known for his roles as

Kyle Reese Kyle Reese is a fictional character in the ''Terminator'' franchise, who is the protagonist of the first film and a supporting role in other works. Kyle Reese is portrayed by Michael Biehn in ''The Terminator'' (1984) and '' Terminator 2: Judgm ...

and Dwayne Hicks, during a Q&A session for '' The Victim'', and decided that he would be the perfect candidate to voice Rex. Evans contacted

Jennifer Blanc Jennifer Blanc is an American actress. She was born in New York City. She is married to actor Michael Biehn. Personal life Blanc, who goes by Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, is married to Michael Biehn Michael Biehn ( or ; born July 31, 1956) is a ...

to set up a meeting, but he was initially reluctant to meet with Evans due to his unpleasant experience voicing Hicks in '' Aliens: Colonial Marines'', his only voice role for a video game. Biehn changed his mind after meeting Evans, as he found the 1980s influence to be inherently interesting. The team described Rex Colt as "Michael Biehn in ''Terminator'' - but if he was the Terminator". Biehn portrayed Rex as "somebody that was old and done iping out blood dragons100 times". Evans added that Rex was "bored" and "cynical" about the events happening in the game. As a result, the team had Biehn record satirical one-liners with a

hoarse voice A hoarse voice, also known as dysphonia or hoarseness, is when the voice involuntarily sounds breathy, raspy, or strained, or is softer in volume or lower in pitch. A hoarse voice can be associated with a feeling of unease or scratchiness in the ...

. To ensure that the game captured the aesthetics of the 1980s movie, Evans held weekly "Cyborg Nights", where the development team gathered together to watch films such as ''

RoboCop ''RoboCop'' is a 1987 American Science fiction film, science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen (actress), Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Dani ...

'', ''

Predator Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...

'', and ''

The Wraith ''The Wraith'' is a 1986 independently made American action-fantasy film, produced by John Kemeny, written and directed by Mike Marvin, and starring Charlie Sheen, Sherilyn Fenn, Nick Cassavetes, and Randy Quaid.cutscene A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...

s featured in the game are slideshow-styled

16-bit 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two ...

animations. Evans also asked the team to design the characters as if they only have a budget of $150. Many characters in the game looked like

action figure An action figure is a poseable character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game, television program, or sport; fictional or historical. These figures are usually ...

s, and the team incorporated

found object A found object (a calque from the French ''objet trouvé''), or found art, is art created from undisguised, but often modified, items or products that are not normally considered materials from which art is made, often because they already hav ...

s into their design that is commonly seen in "B-movie sci-fi". According to Evans, the team was proud of the script, which was "bad", and boasted about having "predictable and one-dimensional characters", "terrible story" and "minimal emotions" during early preview events. He further remarked that ''Blood Dragon'' did not "make much sense", and that the game was designed to be "ridiculous", "fun", "stupid" and "honest". The team hoped that the game could evoke the feeling of playing with action figures when players were young. Since the game had a very short development cycle, many systems, such as skill trees and crafting, were either removed or streamlined significantly. Evans said the essence of the game is entirely about "running around with very big guns and shooting cyborgs in their faces whilst trying to avoid dragons that fire lasers from their eyes". Most of the enemy designs were simple, but creating the blood dragons was challenging for the team due to their massive size; the developers had to rethink the island's design to ensure that the dragons can fully interact with the environment without clipping into the terrain. Many features were cut from the game since the team became over-ambitious: one deleted ending involved Rex eating Sloan's heart before transforming into a giant to battle a massive dragon, and a

boss fight In video games, a boss is a significantly powerful non-player character and computer-controlled enemy created as an opponent to players. A fight with a boss character is referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stro ...

with Sloan was replaced with cutscenes. At one point the game included self-aware

quick-time event In video games, a quick time event (QTE) is a method of context-sensitive gameplay in which the player performs actions on the control device shortly after the appearance of an on-screen instruction/prompt. It allows for limited control of the ...

s, such as "press A to show emotions" and "press A to cry", but this was subsequently removed from the game. Australian

synthwave Synthwave (also called retrowave, or futuresynth) is an electronic music microgenre that is based predominantly on the music associated with the Film score, film soundtracks of action films, science fiction films, and horror films of the 1980s. ...

duo

Power Glove The Power Glove is a controller accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Power Glove gained public attention due to its early motion control mechanics and significant marketing. However, its two games did not sell well, as it was ...

composed the game's music. Evans asked Eisener, who worked with the duo previously on ''Hobo with a Shotgun'', to help him reach them. The soundtracks were produced fairly early during the game's development, as Evans wanted to use them as a baseline for the game's development. According to Evans, this allowed the team to understand more about the atmosphere and the tone the game was striving for. Concept arts were sent to Power Glove for inspiration. The team first composed the Blood Dragon theme, the theme for Rex Colt, and "Omega Force". The production of the soundtrack went smoothly, as the team rarely needed to ask the duo to revise their soundtracks. The soundtracks produced were mainly

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

that paid homage to

John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror film, horror, action film, action, and science fiction film, science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is ...

and '' Terminator'' films. To capture the retro vibe, the team also recruited the sound designer of ''

Airwolf ''Airwolf'' is an American action military drama television series. It centers on a high-technology attack helicopter, code-named '' Airwolf'', and its crew. They undertake various exotic missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War the ...

'' to serve as the game's audio director. As with ''Far Cry 3'', the game is powered by the Dunia 2 engine.

Release

In March 2013, ''Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon'' was found listed on a Brazilian ratings site. On 1 April 2013, Ubisoft released a teaser video and website for ''Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon'', leading many to believe that it was an

April Fools' Day April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (rarely called All Fools' Day) is an annual custom on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool " at the recipient. ...

joke. Suspicions that the game was real were further confirmed when Power Glove uploaded music from the soundtrack to

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

. The game was leaked on 7 April 2013, due to an exploit in Ubisoft's digital distribution service,

Uplay Ubisoft Connect (formerly Ubisoft Game Launcher and later Uplay) is a service for digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communication developed by Massive Entertainment to provide an experience similar to the achievem ...

, which led a temporary closure until the exploit was fixed. According to game journalist Ian Miles Cheong, "The hackers developed a piece of software which tricks the Uplay executable into believing that the user has ownership over games that they do not own." On 8 April 2013, the game was listed on the

Xbox Live Marketplace Xbox Games Store (formerly Xbox Live Marketplace) was a digital distribution platform previously used by Microsoft's Xbox 360 and formerly by the Xbox One. The service allowed users to download or purchase video games (including both Xbox Live Ar ...

. On 11 April, Ubisoft officially confirmed the game's release with a new trailer, and that the game would be released on

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

on 30 April, and on

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (or XBLA) was a video game Digital distribution in video games, digital distribution service that was available for the Xbox (console), Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. It focused on smaller downloadable games from both major publisher ...

, on 1 May. The trailer was animated in a 1980s style, including all the tropes of poor voice acting and imperfections designed to make the video look like a

VHS tape VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Mag ...

. A

live-action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...

video titled ''Blood Dragon: The Cyber War'' was released on 16 April 2013. The virtual box art cover for the game was designed by James White, who had previously created artwork for the film ''

Drive Drive or The Drive may refer to: Motoring * Driving, the act of controlling a vehicle * Road trip, a journey on roads Roadways Roadways called "drives" may include: * Driveway, a private road for local access to structures, abbreviated "drive" * ...

''. A remastered version of ''Blood Dragon'' was included in the

season pass A season ticket, or season pass, is a Ticket (admission), ticket that grants privileges over a defined period of time. History The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has illustrative quotations which show the term ''season ticket'' used in the ...

for ''

Far Cry 6 ''Far Cry 6'' is a 2021 first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft. It is the sixth main installment in the '' Far Cry'' series and the successor to 2018's '' Far Cry 5''. The game is set on the fictional C ...

''. The remastered version, titled ''Classic Edition'', was released on 16 December 2021 for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

,

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

, and launched for

Google Stadia Stadia was a cloud gaming service developed and operated by Google. Known in development as Project Stream, the service debuted through a Software release life cycle#closed beta, closed beta in October 2018, and publicly launched in November 20 ...

on 7 July 2022.

Reception

''Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon'' received "generally favorable" reviews, according to

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

upon release. The game received a nomination for Downloadable Game of the Year at the

17th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards The ''17th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards'' was the 17th edition of the D.I.C.E. Awards, an annual awards event that honored the best games in the video game industry during 2013. The awards were arranged by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AI ...

, and won the VGX award for Best DLC. The game sold over 500,000 copies in two months, which surpassed Ubisoft's expectations, and its success also boosted the sales of ''Far Cry 3''. At

Gamescom Gamescom (stylized as ''gamescom'') is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Gamescom is the world's largest gaming event, with 370,000 visitors and 1,037 exhibitors from 56 ...

2013, the game was announced to have sold over 1 million copies. The tone and the theme of the game received mixed reviews. According to ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

''s Kevin VanOrd, ''Blood Dragon'' is "fascinatingly entertaining", its writing more clever than most other shooters in the market and that it was "hard not to be charmed from the moment it begins". Mitch Dyer from ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' liked the 80s influence and described the experience as entering the mind of a nine-year-old kid where action figures come to life. Sinan Kubba from ''

Joystiq ''Joystiq'' was a video gaming blog which was part of the Weblogs, Inc. family later owned by AOL. It was active from 2004 to 2015, acting as the primary video game blog for the group, and operating alongside ''Engadget'' and sister blogs such ...

'' compared Rex Colt to

Duke Nukem ''Duke Nukem'' is a video game series and media franchise created by the company Apogee Software Ltd. (now 3D Realms). The franchise follows the titular Duke Nukem as he battles against a military or extraterrestrial force. Originally a serie ...

, and lauded Ubisoft for successfully "combin ngcrazy ideas with classy writing", a feat that the original game failed to achieve. Dan Whitehead from ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...

'' agreed that the game was dumb, adding that it "wears its idiocy like a shield", but remarked that some players may not enjoy this kind of humor. Matt Bertz from ''

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'' is an American monthly Video game journalism, video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and video game console, game consoles. It debuted in August 1991, when the video game reta ...

'' thought that the story was hilarious, but commented that the crass humor featured in the game, similar to the 1980s movie, may alienate some of its players.

James Stephanie Sterling James Stephanie Sterling, also known as Commander Sterling and formerly known as Jim Sterling, is a British freelance video game journalist, critic, pundit, YouTuber, and professional wrestler. Before becoming independent in September 2014, s ...

from ''

Destructoid ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017 and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. Histor ...

'' and Alex Wiltshire from ''

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'' were more critical of the game's humor; Sterling thought that some of the jokes were banal and lame. The game's soundtracks received critical acclaim. The cutscenes were generally liked; VanOrd compared them to older games such as ''

Metal Gear is a Media franchise, franchise of stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear (video game), Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX, MSX home computers. The player often takes con ...

'' and '' Shadow of the Beast'', though Dyer noted that some of these cutscenes were too long. The gameplay received generally positive reviews. Most critics liked the blood dragons, as their presence gave players an additional way to clear outposts and garrisons. They found the blood dragons' interaction with other enemies to be an engaging experience. However, several critics remarked that it was not too challenging to kill a blood dragon in the game. Wiltshire added that they were not interesting to fight, and were more interesting as an ally than an enemy. Whitehead praised the game's progression and pacing, noting that the game ends before it overstays its welcome. Bertz disliked some of the side objectives for disrupting the game's pacing, and thought that some of the quests were repetitive and boring. VanOrd and Dyer liked how most of the skills in ''Far Cry 3'' were already unlocked at the beginning of ''Blood Dragon'', with Dyer noting that this made Rex a very powerful character. Many critics remarked that the gameplay strengths of ''Far Cry 3'' remain in ''Blood Dragon''. While several critics were disappointed by the lack of new gameplay additions, Arthur Gies from ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

'' thought that ''Blood Dragon'' was a more manageable game due to its smaller size and simplified systems.

Legacy

Evans initially planned for a sequel, though ''

Far Cry 4 ''Far Cry 4'' is a 2014 first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the successor to the 2012 video game '' Far Cry 3'', and the fourth main installment in the '' Far Cry'' series. Set in the fiction ...

'' director

Alex Hutchinson Alexander or Alex Hutchinson may refer to: * Alexander Hutchinson (footballer) (1908–?), Scottish footballer * Alexander Hutchinson (politician) (1764–1853), Vermont politician who served as state auditor * Alex Hutchinson (musician) (born 1 ...

later added that the game would not have a follow-up. Although no sequels to ''Blood Dragon'' have been released, a ''Trials'' game titled ''

Trials of the Blood Dragon ''Trials of the Blood Dragon'' is a platform game developed by Ubisoft RedLynx and published by Ubisoft. As a crossover game of '' Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon'' and the '' Trials'' series, the game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 a ...

'' was developed by

RedLynx RedLynx Ltd (also known as Ubisoft RedLynx, natively RedLynx Oy, formerly Punainen Ilves Laboratoriot Oy) is a Finnish video game developer founded in 2000. The company is based in Helsinki. It is best known for the ''Trials'' series of racing g ...

and released by Ubisoft in 2016. Evans left Ubisoft in March 2018 after his project was cancelled internally. Following the success of ''Blood Dragon'', Ubisoft continued to release spin-offs for the series using assets built for mainline games, which led to the release of ''

Far Cry Primal ''Far Cry Primal'' is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the ninth installment in the '' Far Cry'' series. Set during prehistoric times, the game follows the story of Takkar, who starts off ...

'' in 2016 and ''

Far Cry New Dawn ''Far Cry New Dawn'' is a 2019 first-person shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is a spin-off and sequel to '' Far Cry 5'', and the eleventh overall installment in the ''Far Cry'' series. Set seventeen ...

'' in 2019. Blood dragons return as enemies in ''Dead Living Zombies'', the final DLC pack for ''

Far Cry 5 ''Far Cry 5'' is a 2018 first-person shooter, developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft. It is the successor to 2014's '' Far Cry 4'', and the fifth main installment in the '' Far Cry'' series. Set in Hope Coun ...

''. In 2019, it was announced that Ubisoft was collaborating with

Adi Shankar Aditya Shankar (born 8 January 1985) is an Indian film producer, screenwriter, film director, television program creator, television showrunner, and occasional actor. In the 2010s he was best known for producing ''Judge Dredd'' film ''Dredd'' ...

to develop an animated series inspired by the game, titled '' Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix''. The show was released on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

on 19 October 2023.

References

External links

*
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
at

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