"A far cry from perfect."

Far Cry is quite a mixed bag. When you get right down to it, there's a glaring disparity between the level of polish seen in the graphics, and the level of polish seen in the gameplay. If they were both of the same caliber, this game would have been a classic, but as it stands now there is much to be desired.

--Story gets a 5--

You play as Jack Carver, the ultimate cookie cutter, generic hero man. He's a charter boat captain that gets in over his head and has to take on a small army of mercs who've set up camp somewhere in the south pacific. There are some cut-scenes here and there, FMV and in-game alike, but they don't really add up to anything very interesting. I think the story is probably there just to justify the environments. Better than nothing I guess.

--Graphics get a 9--

In the outdoor levels, the game just looks fabulous. You can see for ages in every direction. The color palette is very strong and well chosen, with deep blues and greens contrasting with brilliant white sands. As you progress through the game, the time of day changes, and so does the mood. Starry night, sunset, overcast skies: you name it, they all look great. The strong texturing and modeling of the environments, and very convincing terrain system help to create a very believable ambiance that is seldom found in shooters. Most importantly, these environments are truly unique.

The indoor levels don't manage to come close to the visual splendor of the outdoors. These levels are all pretty drab to look at, save for a few exceptions. Generic grey, industrial levels that look like they could be from any another FPS ever made. It's just a letdown, after gawking at a splendid outdoor vista, to have to run through cramped corridors and crawl through vents.

From a technical standpoint, all the character, creature, and vehicle models are very well done. Artistically they aren't greatly original, but they get the point across.

--Gameplay gets a 6--

This is where the game derails. While not absolutely terrible, there are many aspects of this game that are far more frustrating than fun.

First problem is AI. The singleplayer AI system in this game is known to be one of the best. Enemies don't act totally stupid, and actually *gasp* duck for cover, or even try to surround you. That all works fairly well, the problem however is their awareness. The game claims you can sneak around and be silent, but you can't. The AI, especially on outdoor levels, always spots you. From 80 miles away. Even if you are traveling deep in the jungle, crouching, with a mercenary camp off in the distance, suddenly you'll be getting shot at. And with startling accuracy. Once you've been spotted, every merc instantly knows your exact location.

Rocket launcher mercs seem to spot me faster than anybody, faster even that mercs with sniper riffles. These guys spot you before you know they exist, so you'll be strolling along and suddenly BOOM, all your armor gone, half your life gone. Now you get to try and figure out where it came from.

This all wouldn't be so annoying if you didn't have to follow a checkpoint system of saving. Not even a resident evil typewriter setup, where you can choose to save again from the same location, no, in Far Cry the save points pop up one time and are gone forever. Also, unlike RE typewriters, you have absolutely no visual indication where these checkpoints are. Some trigger after you complete a task, but most are just randomly dispersed around the world. On very open ended outdoor levels, it's quite easy to just bypass checkpoint upon checkpoint and not even know it. These levels are huge, and if you suddenly get killed by surprise, you might have to redo 30 minutes of the game.

The damage dealt and received also are inconsistent. The main hero can take very few hits before he expires, even with full health and armor. Enemies however take a ridiculous beating before going down. Headshots don't mean jack unless you score one using the sniper rifle (if you can find ammo for it). Not too far into the game you encounter "Trigens" which are basically leftovers from DOOM3. One variant is a super mobile guy who almost instagibs you if you gets within 5 feet of his claws (though it never looks like he's actually connecting with you when he slashes). Later on you get some beefy ones that have rocket launcher arms. They themselves take such a tremendous amount of damage that you might almost think you're not supposed to kill them.

There are some other nagging issues as well, such as taking lots of fall damage from ridiculously small drops, enemies not being rendered in the distance unless you zoom in multiple times (though they can still shoot at you,), and vehicles that are fairly useless because they blow up in one shot, or get stuck on every tiny rock and pebble. And if you're even up to your kneecap in water, you're considered to be swimming, and hence can't use any guns at all. Of course, you can still be shot.

The most fun part of the gameplay is the exploration. Just trying to look around every nook and cranny is enjoyable. Sniping mercs from 8 miles away is also pretty satisfying, as is bum rushing a loaded camp. Flying the hang glider is relaxing, so is piloting the boat around lone islands. Physics are well implemented, so grenades have that extra kick to them. Plus who can resist pushing barrels down hills and watching them roll. It should also be noted that sound effects and music are very well done.

--Overall is a 6--

Honestly, the most enjoyable thing about the game for me was going around and taking tons of screen captures and making almost a virtual scrapbook of photos from a trip I've never taken. The outdoor visuals are just fantastic and still unmatched to this day. Fantastic as they may be though, they can't fix the gameplay from being awkward and very frustrating. It's a cool tech demo, but could have used heavy tweaking of its core mechanics.

A far cry, (pun, har har), from perfect.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/20/05