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Shoot the lock off a tiger's cage and watch it rampage through a settlement. Lead a hungry croc to a populated area. Throw a rock and lure a komodo dragon. The sheer potential for mammalian, reptilian or amphibian carnage is tremendous.

But they're not all out for blood. Some, like manta rays, stags, crabs, tapirs and turtles can be bled for resources and count towards hunter challenges like a tropical Red Dead Redemption. Shoot a boar, for instance, and you'll be prompted to skin it with X/Square. After a five-second first-person knife-plunging animation (for immersion's sake, everything's in first-person) you'll extract a bloody chunk to put towards ammo and inventory space.

SUPER FURRY ANIMALS

They can also be used as location devices like a natural GPS. Pigs and chickens signify civilized areas while flocks of seagulls circle points of interest such as radio towers. Ascending them uncovers portions of map and exposes treasure chests and rare plant ingredients which can be ground into medicine. (Hay suggested a shortcut to climbing involving a hang glider and a parachute.) All this co-exists in an exotic ecosystem where goats graze alongside buffalo, sharks hunt fish and snakes bite anything stumbling blindly through long grass.

There's one creature, though, conspicuous by its absence: the mosquito. No longer will players constantly need a syringe in their back pocket to combat the unforgiving symptoms of malaria, which in the last game clogged vision, sapped stamina and generally derailed the pace. It's one of many criticisms Hay and the team addressed. "We listened to forums and malaria was not where people wanted to go. We also removed weapons that break down over time. Perhaps the biggest thing, though, is outposts. This time, once you take it, it's yours."

Outposts have a 360-degree approach, and rather than endlessly respawn à la Far Cry 2, now a flag represents conquered settlements which can then be fast-travelled between. No matter your angle of attack, though - C4 strapped to an ATV, stragglers marked through a zoom-lens camera and picked off one by one, entire camps razed through the return of propagating fire - you're always brought back to the buffalo.

Animals are an unknown quantity, a variable which builds on the brand's emergent world. The island menagerie is Far Cry 3's biggest draw, but they can disrupt even the best-laid plans. During a stealthy escape from Vaas' camp in the opening, dogs roam, tails wagging and noses at the ground. When guards offer them a sniff of your scent, they take off after you, leading to a frantic tumble down a razor-edged cliff. It's a set-piece, but a good one.

And keep clear from deeper pockets of undergrowth where jungle cats prowl on the lookout for prey. Upon leaving Vaas' hideout, one set upon us and killed us in two swipes. Later we discovered they hate water, and their bassy growls carry far, making it a dead giveaway. Every beast has a distinctive call, and together they cover the Rook Islands in an almost suffocating sheet of natural sound, a cacophony of buzzing insects, cawing birds, warbling frogs and distant roars.

ISLE PARADISO

Teeth and claws are dangerous, but so is existential horror. Your running goal is rescuing friends kidnapped during a holiday, and as you visit them throughout the game they'll chart your changes, holding a mirror up to the creature you're becoming. "We want to give you that feeling in the pit of your stomach," says Hay. "That feeling of, 'Oh, God, what do I do?" The story takes you to some dark places, and the results are written all over your face. And your appendages.

Instead of binary moral decisions, personal transformation comes from three upgrade paths: the Heron, Spider and Shark. Each technique learned (cutthroat takedowns, knee-slides, faster sprinting) appears as a tattoo on your forearm, a legacy of your personal story slowly enveloping your humanity. You start a man and become an animal yourself.

Far Cry 3 takes it back to the tropics, but this time there's more than men to watch for. There's love and loss. Insanity. Darkness. Tough choices. And there's a massive cat in a bad mood.