Ultimately, Blood Dragon is something of a one-trick pony, never fully escaping the trappings of being a reskin of a recent release.

The variety is fairly limited: there are quite a number of вЂkill the bad guys before they kill the hostagesвЂ™ set-ups, and I found I lost interest in pursuing anything except the main quest by around the halfway point. The main missions are supplemented by those familiar base-clearing missions, which unlock quick travel points and further side quests. The mechanic works well, although occasionally the dragons will ignore a Cyber Heart, and typically at the most inopportune moment - I had this problem repeatedly while trying to fight two Blood Dragons in one particularly fraught section of the game, and it was beyond frustrating. The idea is to lure one to the bad guys with Cyber Hearts, which can be harvested from the enemies you kill and thrown for the Blood Dragons to вЂfetchвЂ™. These giant beasts will attack on sight and can decimate the enemy forces in no time flat. The titular Blood Dragons play a huge part in the game. Notably, the forking skill trees are dispensed with and replaced by a linear levelling/reward system, a change that I found to be a welcome improvement. A key difference is that almost everything you spend hours unlocking in Far Cry 3 is available from the start in Blood Dragon.ДЄs youвЂ™d expect, this kind of simplification of the source material is repeated throughout the game. The range of weapons are essentially the same (standard shooter fare), right down to RexвЂ™s neon-lit bow. A new mechanic allows you to effectively chain stealth kills but I found it easier and more satisfying to go in all guns blazing in most cases. Michael Biehn of Terminator and The Abyss does an impeccible job of voicing Colt, and the game's relentless but perfectly apt electronic synth music never wears thin.ДЄs I said, itвЂ™s not necessary to have played previous games in the series, but for those of you who have played Far Cry 3, the gameplay will be very familiar: predominantly shooting with (mostly) optional stealth elements. The audio goes some way towards compensating, however. I didnвЂ™t find adjusting the settings helped either. There were many driving sections where I found myself repeatedly crashing into trees I couldnвЂ™t see until it was too late. Everything is viewed through a neon filter, which of course completely fits the 80s cyber-action vibe, but makes the game incredibly difficult to play. Where Blood Dragon falls down is in its presentation. ThereвЂ™s a love interest called Dr Darling (Blackadder, anyone?), and a load of crazy objectives including my favourite: вЂPunch the nuclear reactorвЂ™.

Essentially, in an 80s vision of the future (where, magnificently, вЂњthe apocalypse has had an apocalypseвЂќ), ColtвЂ™s former cyber-commander has acquired some kind of bio-weapon-rocket-thing and must be stopped from firing it. Much of the story is told through 16-bit style cutscenes so should in theory be easy to follow, but in truth itвЂ™s hard to focus on whatвЂ™s going on when the narrative is so deliberately preposterous and there are so many distracting one-liners. difficult to hold on to, and completely irrelevant. And this one is terrible!вЂќ Except it isnвЂ™t all in all itвЂ™s one of the best openings to a game IвЂ™ve played in a good while.Д«lood DragonвЂ™s plot is.

вЂњMan,вЂќ grunts protagonist Rex вЂPowerвЂ™ Colt. The screen prompts: Press X to demonstrate you can read. It's big, loud and can't fail to raise a smile - much like Arnie and co back in the day.ДЇrom there you're thrown into a wonderful tutorial. Blood Dragon sets out its stall from minute one, kicking off with a nod to Predator's classic Long Tall Sally chopper scene, which Ubisoft have enhanced with lots and lots of shooting (interestingly, not dissimilar to the opening of Spec Ops: The Line).

Far cry 3 blood dragon rating