of the gameplay features that were implemented to make the game feel diegetic and immerse the player into the world. Some of these disputed mechanics included the random onset of malaria that would impact the character's vision and movement until they obtained and took medicine for it, a weapon decay system that would cause guns picked up from enemies to wear down and break over use, military checkpoints that a player could clear out but which would become repopulated with enemies minutes later, and the game's buddy system, where the player could call a selected non-player character to help their character in battle, but only for a short while and would not be available until the player reached a safe house to rest. Expansion as series (2012–ongoing) Pre-production work for Far Cry 3 had reportedly started just after Far Cry 2 was shipped, with plans to keep it as a narrative sequel, but in the few years that followed, many of the development leads for Far Cry 2 left the studio. The project had a significant shift of locale, returning to a tropical island theme similar to Far Cry while retaining the open-world nature of Far Cry 2. They also looked to keep the key elements of Far Cry 2s open world that worked but add in more features to make it feel like a living world but with purpose behind how they designed it. This led to the development of Dunia Engine 2 to implement some open-world features such as weather system, which premiered in Far Cry 3. Several of the questionable gameplay elements of Far Cry 2 were eliminated. Further, to make this world meaningful, they eliminated the multiple player-characters and instead provided one character that they could write a strong narrative around. Within Far Cry 3, the player-character is part of a group of adventuring tourists caught by the pirate Vaas Montenegro who has tortured the island's native population. The introduction of a well-defined villain character in Vaas that was the focal point for much of the game further redefined how the Far Cry games going forward would be presented, each centered around a similar crafted character central to the game's plot. Far Cry 3 was formally announced in 2011 and released in November 2012. Though Far Cry 3 presented some controversial elements within its narrative, it received critical acclaim and had sold more than 10 million