Steam Holiday Sale 2013: Final Fantasy 7, Far Cry 3, Crysis tips and strategies

Day 2 has been and gone, and another wave of crazy deals went with it. In commemoration of FFVII’s release, and subsequent discount, on Steam, here are strategies for it and Far Cry 3 and the Crysis series (or what’s available on Steam).

Final Fantasy VII strategies

I’m not Final Fantasy VII speedrunner, but I’ve beaten the game more times than I can count, and my main tip for today is simple: Just play, finish every encounter you get into, and enjoy the story.

To be successful in your first several playthroughs, you don’t need to do all the fancy sidequests. Chocobo breeding/racing is fun, and the “secret” characters Yuffie and Vincent are great to have and their dialogue options add some extra coolness to the game. You needn’t even have a firm knowledge of which character’s stats are intrinsically better than others. Hell, Barret was one of my mains in my early playthroughs, and if memory serves, he’s utter sh*t when it comes to overall usefulness.

Don’t be put off by high level FFVII play or let anyone tell you, “These are the characters you should use and here’s how to equip them.” The leveling curve is balanced enough across all characters to make any party setup usable. That people beat the game with underleveled characters and AI manipulation shouldn’t be a concern.

That said, if you want to delve deeper into how FFVII works, the Final Fantasy Wiki has some great places to start. Namely, it grants access to the full AI scripts enemies use to determine how they act in game. Top level players use tiny discrepancies in both AI and game mechanics to swing battles in their favor, and with a little research, you can too.

Far Cry 3 strategies

I covered Far Cry 3 on two separate occasions, and while most of the tips I would give there are in those articles, there’s one small one I want to mention here. FC3 is big on the exploration thing, and to make that venture as simple as possible, you’ll want to take outposts. Doing so removes the moving hostile patrols, opens up challenges, and makes farming for crafting materials a much less harrowing task.

The trouble is clearing outposts, and that’s the tip. While the guns blazing approach is certainly an option, you won’t get nearly the skill points as you would taking it without being detected. So you’ll want to find a nice shady spot and scope out the area. If you aren’t using Ziggy’s Mod, spot as many enemies as you can with the camera and snipe a few if you have the option to do so. You’ll stir up a hornet’s nest, but if you play your cards right, they’ll never know which way the bullets/arrows are flying from.

In the event you want to go full ninja mode, a skilled combination of bow, knife, and rocks is essential. Most outposts have plenty of sneaky ways to get in, but once in you’d better be prepared. Try to make an arcing sweep, murdering as you go. Take out the alarm system if possible, and beware of pairs of guards. Distract them if you can to get them walking one ahead of the other, and chain takedowns to silently eradicate them. The outpost-clear won’t play until you kill all enemies the game ties to that location, and if one guy strayed a little too far, you’ll have to deal with him. To avoid that, move quickly and with precision, hiding bodies if you can and distracting if you can’t.

Crysis strategy

Like many of the games you’ll see on my Steam sale strategies articles, there’s already been good coverage here on the site. Crysis is no exception, though I the three articles present are on Crysis 3, not 2. Still, there are some general strategies that I didn’t cover that I’ll discuss here.

The first is the stealth/aggression ratio you need to keep in mind. In Crysis 2 and 1, your invisibility, speed, and armor drain the same energy pool. In most situations, you’re best off using the first 50% of your energy in cloak and the remaining in armor or speed. If you know combat isn’t close at hand, you can stay cloaked to survey the area or move around enemy positions to flank. Nanovision also draws from your suit energy, and while using it to make out invisible enemies is a valuable skill, you’ll tend to bleed your suit dry at the worst possible times.

A note on Nanovision then. Best used in quick flashes when you’re sprinting from place to place, while checking corners in cloak mode, or at random. Like Pyros in TF2, a quick flare just because can sometimes save your life, and by extension those of your teammates. Again, be cautious in how long you use NV for, as just a flick at the wrong time can spell doom. If possible, don’t ever dip below 25% power. This makes sure you can still stay aware through NV, sponge a bullet with Armor, or make a quick escape with Cloak.