Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

This game kicks ass. IT's like being in a cheesy 80's action movie. I love it! I need more like this!
For anyone having trouble with the game not working or launching after installing it. Here's how i fixed it and got it working.
Right click on the game in your library, select Properties, select Installed files, and click the Browse button at the top to open the game files folder on your pc.
You should see Ubisoftconnectinstaller.exe Run it. It will fail and should ask you to download and install the file manually. It opened my browser and did this for me automatically.
Download the file and Install it, run it, log in or create an ubisoft account.
Then launch the game. It should launch fine. Worked for me.

If Far Cry usually drowns you in endless bases, collectibles, and map markers, Blood Dragon is the antidote. This bite-sized spin-off ditches Ubisoft’s infamous checklist open-world formula, delivering a tight 6-hour burst of 80s neon, synthwave, and cyborg-dragon chaos. No filler, just lasers and absurdity. Neon-soaked landscapes, cheesy Van Damme-era action homages, and a soundtrack ripped from a forgotten VHS tape. The gameplay is classic Far Cry, liberate outposts, go wild with over-the-top weapons, but without the grind. Even taming laser-eyed dragons stays fun because, well, it’s over before it gets old.
You’re Sergeant Rex "Cyber Commando" Power, a hero named by a 33-year-old’s doodle. A B-movie mashup of rogue AI, mutant beasts, and dialogue so gloriously dumb it’d make Schwarzenegger cringe. It’s self-aware, never takes itself seriously, and that’s the charm. No bloated skill trees, no 100-hour commitment. Blood Dragon condenses Ubisoft’s usual excess into a concentrated shot of fun. It mocks open-world tropes while delivering just enough chaos to leave you grinning, not groaning.
A rare Ubisoft gem that’s better for being short. No time for filler, just pure 80s-action homage with cyborgs, synth beats, and dragons that shoot freaking lasers. Proof that sometimes, less neon is more.

closest game to Kung Fury we could and ever will get.
from the good old days when game companies had courage.

*Note from the year 2025*: The game regularly tries to connect to a server which has shut down in the meantime. To fix this issue, you have to manually patch the game files to remove this dead feature, unless you want to spend a few minutes waiting every time you enter a menu, including the menu at the start of the game. Just google it.
I bought this game a long time ago back then Ubisoft was still considered a somewhat respected game developer. Some some late 2000 jokes haven't aged well. For example, I doubt anyone remembers the "Shoop da whoop" meme by today. On the other hand everything else holds up, mostly because 80s cliches haven't changed in our culture that much. Also, Bonus Point for the funniest Tutorial I ever played in a Videogame. I recommend it to play it on easy for the full "supersoldier" experience the game sells to you.
The soundtrack from Power Glove stayed with me for a long time and I still regularly listen to it at work :)

Now this game is the definition of perfection!
The intro, tutorial, comic-style cinematics, dialogue, one-liners, combat, music and everything reminds you of 80's movies, both in a cringe and funny way!
A really great and fun FPS with 1 missable achievement if you miss headshots on some enemy types. A bit short but full of awesomeness!
Recommended 10/10

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is proof that when developers are allowed to stop taking themselves seriously, magic happens. It is a glorious, neon-puke love letter to 80s sci-fi and action cinema that manages to be better than it has any right to be.
It’s no secret that this game reuses the Far Cry 3 assets and effectively the same map, but you’d hardly know it. The tropical paradise of the main game is replaced by an eternal night illuminated by blinding lasers and synth-wave aesthetics. It’s a total visual overhaul that turns a familiar landscape into a bizarre, retro-futuristic playground.
The writing is top-tier parody. From the non-stop, gravelly one-liners to the constant throwbacks to VHS-era tropes, the game never lets up. The tutorial alone is a masterpiece of meta-comedy that should be studied by every developer on how to poke fun at gaming conventions while actually teaching the player. And the music? The synth-heavy soundtrack is the perfect pulse for Rex "Power" Colt’s mission.
One of the best things about Blood Dragon is its brevity. In an era (even in 2026) where games feel like they need to be 100+ hour commitments, completing this in roughly 10 hours is refreshing. It’s the perfect "short-form" Far Cry. If you want the satisfying gameplay loop of FC3 but don't want to commit to a long-winded story about tattoos and native warriors, this is the ultimate alternative.
There is something genuinely special about projects like this. It’s lean, it’s loud, and it’s unashamedly "stupid." It’s a concentrated dose of fun that reminds us that games are allowed to just be a blast. Whether you grew up on 80s action movies or just want to shoot lasers at glowing dragons, this is a must-play.

Review of Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
Pure 1980's action flick cheese mixed with a high octane twist on the base of Far Cry 3's open world fundamentals? Yeah it's no wonder Blood Dragon spawned a community of its own.
Blood Dragon started a trend with the Ubisoft Far Cry titles, where we'd see a spin off game released in between the mainline titles every other year. Or at least, that's how it was for a while. From Blood Dragon prior to FC4, Primal prior to FC5, to New Dawn prior to FC6. As someone who started playing the series in 2012 with the third game, I've followed every release since.
"You know, I'm starting to actually like this.."
I'm going to be completely honest, when I first played this game many years ago, I wasn't really a fan. I replayed it a couple times back when, but it got to the point I'd consider skipping it when doing a franchise playthrough. However, my experience after replaying it just recently was completely different. I had a total blast, and I think I know why. Normally I prefer to play Ubi Far Cry titles on the hardest difficulty, Blood Dragon included. This time I decided to try Blood Dragon on a lower difficulty, and suddenly I was living my own VHS tape action movie. It's clear I found my personal sweet spot for enjoying the game after all these years.
Blood Dragon is a 1980's synth inspired spinoff title, that heavily parodies movies of that decade. Tropes & all (Even a training & sex montage!). The story is as simple as go kill big bad & save the girl while serving lady liberty. All the while the protagonist is spouting the cheesiest one liners known to man, these of which I find hilarious. Rex "Power" Colt is a Mk.IV Cyber Commando, and he's sent to investigate Colonel Sloan, a rogue operative. Along the way he brings down Sloan's entire operation by eliminating key targets and capturing strongholds for the scientist nerds. The distant nuclear wasteland of 2007 is at threat of being reduced even further by Sloan's desire to return Humanity to a Stone Age-like existence. The key to this vision? Blood dragons.
"He said 'blow me'. So I did."
Easily the most enjoyable part of Blood Dragon for me is its gameplay. A majority of Far Cry 3's open world mechanics remain here, but most things have been tweaked in favor of a sort of power fantasy. Rex is capable of running & swimming faster than a normal Human, nor does he take fall damage. This allows you to run about the new, albeit small & somewhat bland, island with minimal restriction.
I think my favorite part is the way leveling and weaponry works. The standard arsenal is much smaller than Far Cry 3 itself, at only 5 core weapons, and 3 additional ones you can find later on. Though this time you unlock new attachments by completing optional missions from your scientist buddies. This was an addicting process because every upgrade you obtain adds or changes something with your weapon. Visually & mechanically. The SMG going from a burst fire ballistic weapon, to a fully automatic pulse rifle with a badass reload animation was ecstasy. Or your Terminator 2 inspired lever action shotgun gaining extra barrels and new ammunition that completely deletes anything at close range. You also have the A.J.M.9, inspired by Robocop, which serves as one of your go-to stealth weapons, a sniper rifle capable of firing explosive rounds, and the classic unchanged recurve bow. The bow can't be upgraded unfortunately, however. Later you'll be able to make use of a laser minigun, flamethrower, and the greatest thing to bless our little souls.. the Killstar. Meanwhile leveling works in a more traditional sense. You don't have a skill tree, and instead obtain character upgrades as you level up to 30.
Combat works nearly identically to Far Cry 3. Enemy types are cyber variants of the archetypes you find in the base game. For better or worse. I say for worse because in my opinion this actually makes stealth harder, as the standard cyber soldiers have this giant ball shaped helmet. Even a fully upgraded burst from the handgun at point blank range can fail to pop the dome sometimes, and because this is an older FC, you'll alert the entire base failing to do so. I think that's another reason I struggled to enjoy the game originally. Opting for loud approaches here was so much fun in comparison.
After capturing strongholds, you get a collection of side missions to do. Hunting down important targets, protecting/rescuing scientists, or the odd completely unique one like taking on a bunch of mutated sewer turtles with a taste for pizza. Hmm.. seems familiar. Scattered across the open world are also your usual fare of collectibles. This time being data notes, TV's & VHS tapes. Because of course. Hunting the cybernetic animals is also required for all unlocks and 100% completion.
Then to the selling point of this game, the blood dragons. These big giant beasts that fire beams of destruction from their eyeballs, roam around random parts of the map. They're conceptually exciting. You can even lure them around using thrown cyber hearts, and they'll wipe out camps all on their own. Unfortunately though, these guys are a little buggy in my experience.. I'll leave that for the below section.
"Come down and face me you rusty cum buckets."
Alright, so I'll briefly go over some of my issues with Blood Dragon. Even after finding a lot to enjoy, there's still some things I'm either mixed or unhappy with.
The first and probably biggest issue I have, is the CRT filter. The entire game has this filter present. It's obviously an aesthetic choice, but it genuinely causes my eyes to strain after a while. There's no way to turn it off ingame. I've heard you can disable it in the files, so at least there's that I guess.
Blood dragons are buggy. The most common attack they have is to blast you with their eye lasers, but every time I killed one, I would get blasted by phantom lasers every single time after their body was turned to a pile of dragon goo.
"Service Not Available" .. ugh. After Ubisoft ended online services for various games, Blood Dragon included, you get this obnoxious pop up nearly every time you open the menu. You're forced to sit for like 30 seconds to a minute before you're given control again, and can't look at what you were trying to. I'm happy we can still play the game, but what's so hard about just putting a little pop up in the top corner when you launch that reminds you services are shut down, and not impede the pacing of gameplay with this?
Lastly, the game is insanely short. We're talking 3-4 hours to 100% the game on high difficulties. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I just prefer games to be much longer. Thankfully, I will enjoy replaying this from now on, so I'll get to keep having fun with it. I could also add here, that there's this "Annoying Tutorial" joke at the beginning of the game, that's suppose to spoof how hand holding and interrupting game tutorials can be, which can be funny on a first time playthrough, On subsequent playthroughs it actually just is annoying because you can't skip it. A minor gripe though.
Conclusion (Pros & Cons)
All in all, it's a great little package after enjoying Far Cry 3, or just wanting more Far Cry in general even if it's whacky and full of entertaining cheese. I'm happy I was able to find enjoyment with the game after so many years.
Pros:
+Hilarious one liners
+Addicting upgrade system
+1980's "future" aesthetic
+Steam achievements
Neutral:
~Super short
Cons:
-Forced CRT filter
Disclaimer
Thank you for taking the time to read my review. Please remember, that this is just my opinion. We don't have to agree, one thing I love you may hate, and one thing I hate you may love. Hopefully this gave you an idea of what to expect.
Review lengths have been greatly compressed due to the character limit.
12/05/2025