Game Info:

Category : Action
Publisher : Ubisoft
Developer : Crytek
Release : 03/23/2004
MSRP (US): $39.99
ESRB: Mature

Official Site

Minimum Requirements:

System: 1 GHz or faster
OS: Windows 98/ME/2K/XP
RAM: 256 MB RAM
Video: 64 MB RAM DirectX®/Direct3D compatible video accelerator card
Hard Drive Space: 4000 MB
DirectX: DirectX 9.0

Background/Summary:

You are freelance mariner Jack Carver Hired by a brash female reporter named Valerie to take her to this unspoiled island paradise. Shortly after docking, however, your boat was greeted by artillery fire from a mysterious militia group swarming about the island.

With his boat destroyed, his money gone, and the gorgeous Valerie suddenly missing, Jack now finds himself facing an army of mercenaries amidst the wilds of the island, with nothing but a gun and his wits to survive. But the further he pushes into the lush jungle canopy, the stranger things become. Jack encounters an insider within the militia group who reveals the horrific details of the mercenaries' true intentions. He presents Jack with an unsettling choice: battle the deadliest mercenaries, or condemn the human race to a maniac's insidious agenda.

FarCry was touted as "the most unpredictable and technologically innovative FPS", claiming a better engine than the upcoming game from FPS guru, John Carmack, Doom III. CryTek's new CryENGINE is indeed impressive, and while a game isn't all about beauty, this game is gorgeous, and has beat almost every other "next-gen" FPS to the market (Half-Life 2, Doom 3). Without a doubt, the most impressive attribute of the game is how convincing the game world is as you explore.

Gameplay:

After you install the 5 CDs for the game, you can begin to explore the single player campaign, which Crytek have spared no expense in making an utterly satisfying experience. Too often are FPS games geared towards online MP play, often with a tedious single player game that is just not fun to play. Most gamers will be rather pleased to know that the end won't come quickly. Unlike short SP games like Splinter Cell and Max Payne, FarCry boasts one of the lengthiest ever, with high potential to be played for quite a while.

Your weapons selection includes a machete, pistol, different automatic machine guns, several grenade types, sniper rifle, and the ever fun rocket launcher. Items in your inventory are also useful. Your binoculars have an audio zooming feature (for eavesdropping). One realistic aspect I liked to the game was weapon limitation. Jack can only carry uo to 4 weapons at a time, unlike other games where you can seem to carry a unrealistic amount of armory. The weapons themselves tend to come from areas on the island, and as such, are geared for their specific environment. A great amount of detail and thought was put into the design elements of this game, and the tiniest of details shines through in area you would never expect.

The AI in FarCry is quite simply, amazing. When alerted, mercenaries will more than likely move to raise the alarm, call for backup and can even run away to look for help from a buddy. Once you are spotted, enemies will advance toward you, and flank or flush you out of your hiding spot. This can be quite frustrating for players used to stupid AI, but to those seeking a strategic challenge, this is your game. Mercenaries and other enemies will also take cover from your fire, evade, and make particularly good use of their home terrain. You have been warned!

AI examples are furthered as you progress through the storyline, thanks to the experiments of the mad scientist at work on the island. Without spoiling the story too much, you will also have to handle the mutant threat on the island. Initially you will encounter the 'untrained' mutants, which are mostly harmless at a distance but quite lethal if you let them get in your face! Later in the game your path will cross with that of the trained mutants, and you better be ready for one heck of a fight.

Because the outside playing field is so big, the mercenaries employ the use of buggies, jeeps and boats to get around the island. Jack can commandeer them for use, and most of them boast considerable firepower. Vehicles can be extremely useful at quieting a loud situation as well as fleeing a battle you don't think you can handle. Driving vehicles is fairly easy, which is done in a 1st person viewing perspective by default, although a 3rd person perspective can be toggled by pressing F1.

There are not a lot of flaws to report in FarCry thankfully, but a few worth mention. The most obvious is game performance, which can suffer under the weight of anything much less than current hardware. This means those of you with less than a 1 GHz cpu had better consider upgrading soon. The minimum requirements for the game also bring up the notch a bit with graphics cards, asking for a 64MB minimum. Graphic settings are reasonably scalable (especially textures and shaders and geometric detail), so it is possible to get FarCry running on medium end hardware. We highly recommend running this game on a 1.2 and above, with 768MB RAM and 128MB video to get some great looking/performing gaming.

Graphics/Sound:

FarCry has hands down the best graphics to date for a PC game, and not a moment too soon either considering the 3D graphics hardware these days has been waiting for a visually demanding game like this. CryTek's Polybump technology bring textures and characters to life, reflections and refractions are very convincing and real-time lighting and shadows have made 3D gaming look more realistic than ever before. Never before has someone created such a realistic version of paradise. Waves crashing onto beaches of golden sand, light grass that sways in the wind, and thick tropical palms and ferns topped by flora and fauna. Add to that list a stunning array of day and nighttime visual effects, and you have one gorgeous environment to play in.

The sound engine is great quality, digital effects reproduce flawlessly not a hiss or pop to be found. Sound effects and sound quality is another strong point of FarCry, and just like graphics, if you have the right hardware you'll be able to make the most of it. 3D sound will keep you thoroughly audibly entertained all in a great surround environment (excellent placement on my 5.1’s). Often you can tell the direction of a foe by hearing a bullet whizz by you from one side or behind. Voice acting and soundtrack are also top-notch, and lend to the environment to create a cutting edge game, complete with dynamic tracks that cut in on cue to enhance the current situation.

FarCry also offers three multiplayer modes, which are easily recognizable to any FPS veteran. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Assault mode are the usual suspects, the latter being an objective based game type where teams have to capture all checkpoints to win the game. It's early days yet and it's difficult to tell just how popular FarCry will be in the multiplayer arena, though there's no reason to suggest that it's future won't be bright. Games such as the Tribes and Battlefield1942 series have proven that large scale battlefields featuring vehicular combat are popular as multiplayer arenas, so FarCry has a foot in the door in that department. It also runs somewhat faster than the single player action (due to no bot AI to process), which is also an added bonus.

Wrap-Up:

The games industry has been promising a game like this for years now, and I think they have finally filled that promise with FarCry. Aside from being visually the best game on the market, the single player game and story and incredibly deep compared to most other FPS games. Mod support has also recently been expanded by Ubisoft for the game as well, so expect a lot of replay from the game once you pick it up.

FarCry was well worth the wait. If your system can handle the demands, we highly recommend you run out and pick up this game today. You can thank me later ;)

Marty"`Smaug" Reinhart - May 2004