Amongst all the first person shooters of 2004 one could be forgiven for missing a game developed by a relatively unknown German developer Crytek. Yet in doing so you’d also miss one of the best single player experience in the last 6 years of FPS gaming. In Far Cry you play as Jack Carver, a charter boat captain who is hired to sail a woman around some mysterious islands. After approaching one of the islands the boat is attacked and you're separated from your attractive customer, or at least that is what the opening video seems to indicate. The game wastes no time throwing you right into the action dumping you on an island with an abnormally high population of well-armed mercenaries, and a Island of Doctor Moreau theme that wasn't contrived by the local Jaycees. Like most FPS the plot in Far Cry often takes a back seat to the gaming. While many FPS seem to struggle to tell a story that often interrupts the action that the gamer wishes to partake in, Far Cry seems resigned to let the plot develop like a B grade action movie. The result is a story that seems like it s certainly is light on content, but also doesn't get in your way. Even with a low content story Far Cry’s story does stand out in some ways. With the FPS genera currently dominated by WWII, Space/Alien, and related shooter games, Far Cry (even with its monsters) sets its self apart with a unique jungle island setting that seems like it will remain a unique experience for quite some time. The AI and jungle setting in Far Cry present the gamer with some unique challenges. While the AI isn't the revolutionary AI noted on the box, it is a much more aware and realistic AI compared to other games. Typical FPS rules say that in most such games once you're close to the enemy undetected you can just pop up, rush the enemy or group of enemies, and gun them down with little or no damage. Such rules don't apply in Far Cry. The enemy AI's seems to respond just as fast to sound as they do sight, and they can be quite good shots. You're unlikely to be very successful if you to sneak right up to the shoelaces of your opponent and engage him from there. You’ll probably be spotted before you get that close, and even if you manage take out your initial target you better find cover fast as other opponents will likely take exception to your actions and will fire on you as quickly as you can fire on them. This more aware AI will likely require many FPS gamers to adjust their tactics more than they might otherwise do so for a new FPS. Personally I found myself treating the AI more like a person than I usually do for such games, and was surprised when the enemy would provide their maneuvering allies (who are often trying to flank you) with covering fire from behind cover and even will fire into your general area if they think a threat is near but can't quite see you. Rather than just rush opponents one after another you'll want to plan the best way to approach your enemy and try not to be exposed to too many opponents at once. Tactics such as sniping a few of the enemy with the sniper rifle before approaching always helps, but most of all scouting your enemy position, picking a good spot to engage the enemy from and them employing hit and run guerrilla style tactics is the best way to go. This is epically true when the island mercenaries have finally had enough of you and start deploying helicopters. A hyper aware AI, the challenges of jungle warfare and harassing helicopters could make for an exceptionally difficult and frustrating game. However, Far Cry does a good job providing you tools and weapons along the way to combat various challenges you'll encounter. One of the most useful tools is your feature laden binoculars. Just as normal binoculars they're quite useful with a great zoom feature in the game allowing you to scout what is ahead. In fact the binoculars (and weapons with scopes) can see quite far in Far Cry providing you with an incredibly long distance view of a fully rendered game. The developer claims that the game has an astounding 1.2 kilometers draw distance, and after using the binoculars I see no reason to dispute it. Even more impressive is that, with the exception of one or two incidents, the binoculars and sniper scope zoom quickly with no performance impact. On top of a zoom feature the binoculars also have two extra features. One being a microphone that can pickup sound at even the farthest reach of the binoculars zoom, and inexplicably even through some walls. This can be helpful in identifying what if any enemies are in the area and also interjects some humor as you can listen in on some interesting mercenary conversations. The last feature is the most helpful. As the game informs you everyone on the island is fitted with a identification chip. When the binoculars pickup someone in their field of view it puts a handy bracket around them, and adds them to a radar screen on your HUD. The radar screen is in the lower right of your screen at all times and on top of indicating the location of your opponents, and it also gives a you an indicator of how alert they are of your presence. While the binoculars might sound a bit unbalancing, they're not. Without them the AI would be overpowering and the game would likely boil down to trial and error as you memorize the location of each enemy and guess their moves. Also you're certainly not going to find everyone with the tools at your disposal and there is always the threat of a surprise waiting behind the next tree (and there are plenty of them). Another tool used later in the game are a pair of goggles that use something called CryVision, a version of night vision that turns the entire game black and white except for illuminating the heat signature of your enemies, Mysteriously / conveniently it does not illuminate heat from vehicles or explosions. CryVision, like the binoculars, does a great job of helping out when the enemy opposition starts to turn up the pressure, and when you're involved in more night and poorly lit building engagements. The weapons in Far Cry are nicely varied, with a pistol, a sniper rifle, rocket launcher, and several versions of sub machine guns and assault rifles that you will find as you progress through the game. As you can carry only four weapons at any one time, you'll need to regularly choose what you want to carry and discard. Fortunately, even after dumping a weapon you hang onto the ammo so if you find another later and want to swap it's no problem. The varied weapons serve well to keep the game fresh as you play through a lengthy single player game of 20 to 25 hours. Value of a long single player game is augmented by the fact that the game has a lot of replay value due to the game’s most unique and probably most impressive achievement, the huge environment you play in. The game takes place some on massive islands. While there are roads and a compass that keep you from getting lost, the exact path you take from the start to the end of the level is entirely up to you. When replaying you can often find areas of the islands, and opponents you never knew existed. There are no artificial walls to prevent you from doing what you want and can find yourself enjoying exploring as much as engaging the enemy. The level design is truly outstanding and combined with an AI who's not afraid to chase after you all over the island you'll likely find yourself in firefights in new locations each time you play. This freedom and unexpended encounters with the enemy makes for a immersive experience the second and even third time around. Of course you don't have to walk around the islands. Vehicles such boats, 4x4s, and even a very fun hang glider are available to you. As you can imagine a vehicle such as a boat or 4x4 makes a fair amount of nose, and while the mounted machine guns and even rocket launchers are handy, they do attract a fair amount of attention. Vehicle combat is only a small portion of the game considering driving is limited to the roads and beaches (as the jungle is thick with trees) there will certainly be times you elect not to drive right up to the enemy's front door. In fact most players will probably elect to limit themselves to just use of the boats and hang glider as the 4x4 vehicle can be a bit tricky to drive. Far Cry also features a checkpoint system where the game auto saves your progress as you pass various points through the game, eliminating the need for you to remember (and inevitably forget) to save your progress as you go. This is particularly handy for a game as intense as Far Cry can be. Those fond of manual saves can still do so after installing patch provided by the developer. If there is a catch to all this fun it is that Far Cry takes a fairly powerful system to run. While certainly you can run it on the lower end of the games settings you may find some performance issues when zooming with the binoculars / sniper rifles, but the issues don't last much longer than when your zoomed and most of the time shouldn't prevent you from landing a good shot. If you happen to be able to run Far Cry on a higher end system, the payoff is an outstanding graphical experience. The shadows falling around you are incredibly realistically, and trees, bushes, and grass on the ground sway gracefully in the wind. While there are impressive screen shots of the game available, nothing matches seeing the game in action as many of touches are best seen in action. On top of the system requirements a few other complaints can be made. One that the multi player aspect of the game has some issues, first that the number of players allowed on a multiplayer is fairly low (16 players) considering the massive size of the multiplayer maps, toping that issue off is that some weapons such as the sniper rifle and rocket launcher are awfully unbalancing. A second issue would be that the story isn't all that enthralling and perhaps doesn't provide the most exciting of endings. However, if you take the B movie theme in account a grand ending might have seemed a bit out of place, and in the end Far Cry’s story certainly isn’t the focus of the game anyway. The third issue is that the last couple levels are awfully difficult. The game's overall level design provides tons of variety and fun, so it's odd how the last few levels feel like you're just having gobs of enemies thrown at you just for the sake of increasing the difficulty rather than begin provided a more tactical challenge. Fortunately, it is possible to prevail and considering the size of the other levels and the length of the game it is only a small issue. While all these complaints are valid, few impact the game in any large way. In the end Far Cry provides an outstanding FPS experience, with massive environments to explore, a challenging AI, and top of the line graphics Far Cry shouldn't be missed by FPS fans or even those with just a passing interest in the genera.
Crytek (a German video game developer founded in 1999) has always been known for incredibly realistic graphics, immensely fun gameplay and satisfying singleplayer campaigns in each one of their first-person shooters. We'... Read Full Review
FAR CRY By, Scorpio_gamer a.k.a Neerajkumar_4 Introduction:- Far cry is a pretty good FPS game ever but it’s tough due to its very intelligent A.I. The CRYengine makes a very good environment in the game... Read Full Review
