Go back to the future in a game that features more movies, songs and pop culture references from the 80s than you can shake a He-Man action figure at thanks to Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon for the PC and Xbox 360...
No one saw it coming. Teaser images were leaked onto the internet that left us wondering if the game was just some freaky fanboy wind-up. Could the po-faced world of Far Cry 3 really be on the verge of being overrun by neon dragons shooting lasers out of their eyes? Were the Eighties about to be dumped on to your gaming rig featuring riffs from Aliens through to the A-Team in a frantic first-person shooter?
The answer is thankfully yes - someone at Ubisoft obviously looked at Far Cry 3's heavy-handed heart-of-darkness journey into the human soul and went: "Yeah, like, whatever". And decided instead to create a standalone DLC game that strips out the moral-lite conundrums of its big brother, replacing them with a smaller island bathed in neon and scan lines, unleashing a host of cyber dragons - and then putting you in control of part-man, part-cyborg, all-cheese commando, Rex 'Power' Colt. And not some whiny frat boy. Like, totally awesome dude.
Out also goes Far Cry 3's slow skills progression - yes, you can earn XP but it just unleashes ever-more cool takedowns. Best of all, you start completely tooled-up, able to run without wheezing, hold your breath forever (while punching cybersharks) and survive any fall.
It's this abandonment of the original's furrowed brow that makes Blood Dragon such a hoot as you're charged with smacking down a bad man with a God Complex, provoking dragons into attacking enemy outposts and using a fantastically upgraded selection of weaponry to carve the enemy a new one. Lots of new ones in fact that spurt out bright blue neon blood!
And against this core of maniacal fun are enough 80s references and puns to drown in your own nostalgia. From rock tracks and gloriously silly one-liners to 16-bit cutscenes and an intentionally toe-curling "naughty" scene, 80s fanboys will be seventh heaven. Or should that be Heaven 17? [No it shouldn't - Ed]
But like Far Cry 3, the game's fundamental mechanics are so blissfully rock-solid that those still young enough not to be blessed with a bald patch, a mid-life crisis (and memories of a crush on Sarah Greene) will simply love racing round the game's island setting, laying waste to enemies and outposts with a minigun. For OAPs gamers and young bloods alike then, this is no Trivial Pursuit. No, "This Time It's War"...