Far Cry

"A "Far Cry" from any first-person game in a long time."

Far Cry is probably the first all-around impressive first-person shooter game in quite a while. Some will say that there has not been a game of this quality since Half-Life came out in 1998 which isn't too far from the truth in most respects.

When you first pick up this game you will see the man on the cover wielding bloody wounds, an impressive looking machine gun, some wet and matted hair, and looks like he has not shaved in a few days and he's also wearing a flamboyant looking Hawaiian shirt. This ruff-tuff, Hawaiian shirt-toting, bad-ass of a character is Jack Carver, the main character of Far Cry.

Jack has been hired by a mysterious female journalist to take her out to a small island out in the Pacific. On the way, their ship comes under attack and the woman is taken hostage. Now Jack has to fight his way through a tropical island to find this journalist before she becomes a casualty. The island is heavily defended by well-equipped mercenaries and also has quite a few surprises in store for him along the way. The voice acting is corny in this game, it sounds forced and somewhat exaggerated at some points so it is roughly the equivalent of a bad action flick.

You'll have to fight your way through dark and broken down research facilities with enemies of all types lurking around every corner; you'll have to trek long distances over islands scanning for threats and taking them out strategically and efficiently with any weapon of your choice.

Each of these environments is modeled with stunning attention to detail and accuracy. As you make your way through the islands bugs will fly overhead and around you, trees and leaves and blades of grass will cast shadows over the terrain end even your gun with an impressively realistic style, and reflections will appear on the surface of water as you walk along the beaches admiring the water as it laps up around your ankles.

In the indoor environments boxes and crates cast shadows that overlap and flicker with the changes in lighting, enemies will cast shadows onto walls, bullets will make little holes in the wall, and empty shell casings will bounce along the floor as you open up fire on unsuspecting enemies.

As you creep through these environments some pulse pounding though somewhat typical music that will change depending upon your current situation will accompany you, whether you are sneaking around or having a firefight with an attack force of mercenaries.

While you sneak around in a dark and quiet area the game likes to send chills down your spine with a creepy sound or two to indicate that something is coming up. You stop to let yourself stop shivering and then push on ahead. Surprisingly enough an enemy, in one form or another, does indeed attack you and you will quite honestly jump out of your seat even though you knew it was coming. The game has an ability to build tension and then break it by pulling off key attacks and the right sound effects.

As you engage the enemy for the first time you will notice how fine-tuned the enemy intelligence is. Enemies will take cover if you fire at them and they will toss grenades in your direction to get you to hide so that they can move to a better vantage point. Enemies will even coordinate flanks with each other on the fly so you will have to be watching all your sides and angles to watch out for an enemy sneaking up on you as you fight.

If the mercenaries feel the need they can call in reinforcements to help them. This help may come in the form of more ground troops, a vehicle with a mounted machine-gun or even a Black Hawk helicopter that will drop off troops and fire at you with side-mounted automatic guns. If the helicopter loses sight of you or just can't find when it is called in then it will circle above you trying to locate you. Shooting at the helicopter will give you away so you have to stay still under the trees or in the brush to keep out of sight and away from detection.

You can counter all of your enemy's attacks with a variety of weapons that come from real life. You'll find a P90 sub-machine gun, M4 carbine assault rifle, G36 assault rifle and an assortment of fragmentation and smoke and stun grenades. Each weapon has a different use that it suits; the P90 is an excellent weapon for taking out tight pockets of enemies indoors or rapidly approaching enemies that you know won't go down fast; the M4 carbine is a good weapon for medium distance combat in any situation, the G36 will be useful for medium distance combat also but the only difference is that you will be able to use a scope with it. They each differ in accuracy and rate of fire so the player has to decide which weapon to use in any situation.

The game also has a limit on weapons; you can only carry four weapons at a time so if you are heading indoors you will want a sub-machine gun, assault rifle, a pistol, and a good old-fashioned shotgun. Outdoors you will want an assault rifle, an SMG, a sniper rifle and another weapon of your choice. You have to think ahead and change your weapons constantly depending on what the situation calls for. Another factor will be stealth, should you use the less powerful, silenced weapon or the powerful and loud weapon? Your abilities and killing style will make you opt for either of those options.

Lacking a good transition I will now move to the physics engine of Far Cry… Objects in this game will be subject to falls, wobbles, and rolling if you bump into them. You can move stacked boxes off of each other or move them around as one unit, you can tip over cylinders of chemicals and watch them roll around after they clang loudly to the floor, if you see an enemy at the bottom of a hill find a barrel of oil and roll it past him to draw his attention. Depending upon your intelligence (or lack therefore of) bumping into objects and moving them around can work both to your benefit and to your enemy's benefit. For example, you can be moving around a crate to take cover in a firefight and suddenly push it over a ledge leaving you wide open to attack.

Wooden crates will also float in water while metal containers will sink to the bottom. Grenades can produce some hilarious results when you toss a grenade into an unsuspecting group of enemies and they get hurled in every conceivable direction. Bodies and weapons will slide down hills and vehicles will roll down a hill of they aren't on flat ground. You'll find that just about every object in the game behaves the way it should.

Far Cry has vehicles, as is indicated by the preceding paragraph. Almost every map has a vehicle or two whether it is a jeep, light buggy, cargo truck, hang glider (not a vehicle but oh well), or one of the two types of watercraft. You can climb into any one of these on a whim and drive around running over mercenaries and opening fire on them with your mounted machine-guns but that isn't the best option since that will obviously draw attention to yourself. It is usually wiser to go on foot.

Each of the levels in Far Cry will take you over an hour to finish so there is a good amount of game play packed into the game, at least 20 hours worth. During each level there will be a series of checkpoints that will save your progress so that means that when you die you get sent back to the last checkpoint. This may seem frustrating but it really isn't since the checkpoints are fairly well spaced. There are a few points in which the checkpoints seem horribly placed but the overall perspective is that they work well.

If you are concerned about the checkpoints interrupting your game play don't worry about it. Each level will load up in its entirety at the beginning and play smoothly all the way to the end of it regardless of checkpoints or other factors.

Moving to the multiplayer aspect of the game you will find three game modes: free for all, assault, and team death match. You'll find this aspect of the game somewhat lacking since there are only three modes and a very small assortment of maps to choose from. Multi-player maps also suffer from one huge problem: you can't get onto a server with more than 12 people or else you will find the lagging unbearable. When you go into the smaller servers the maps are so big that you'll spend more time looking for your enemies than shooting at them. There are vehicles in multiplayer but these are deathtraps when you come upon an enemy. Take for example the jeep. The driving compartment is open, no windshield or doors or anything to prevent bullets from hitting you.

There are also some big weapon problems in multiplayer. Some of the weapons don't perform as they do in the single player campaign. Take for example the heavier weapons; they will weigh you down tremendously. Although that is the case in single-player it is much more pronounced in multiplayer. Also if you pick up a weapon of the same type as you already have in your inventory the old weapon will disappear which is a little odd.

A good player with a rocket launcher can dominate the map using the huge splash damage area of the rockets. The same goes with the snipe rifle in multiplayer; a good sniper can effectively cover the whole map in complete safety and take his time picking you off because one hit will kill you.

The main downside to Far Cry is that the game requires you to have a high-end gaming computer to play it at even the lowest settings. Most people will find the game all but unplayable if they have a computer that is more that one year old. The only way to combat this (besides buying a new computer) is to either upgrade your computer by buying a new graphics card or increasing your RAM. Some people have said that even having one of the top cards on the market doesn't let you have the whole shebang. Perhaps the graphics are too advanced?

When all is said and done Far Cry blows just about every first-person shooter ever made completely out of the water. Short of the problems that come with it such as the ridiculous system requirements or the lacking multiplayer you will find yourself having a blast with this game. Far Cry even has a mapmaker that comes along with it so that you can design your own virtual paradise and then wreak havoc online with your friends.

If your computer can handle it then this game is a must buy. There will always be something in this game to get your adrenaline pumping or make you jump out of your seat. The whole experience of the game just gets better and better as you go along. Even if you only play through it one time you will have gotten you money's worth out of the game.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/16/04