Hard man hero required for island paradise. (Far Cry (PC))

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Far Cry (PC)
Date:	11/08/05 (237 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great graphics, decent gameplay, FPS basics done well.

Disadvantages: Gets tricky towards the end, gameplay changes later in the game.

You are Jack Carver, a simple man who has been hired by a foxy looking reporter lady to take her out to some islands where she's going to do a spot of investigating. However, not long after the curvaceous (and not at all sensibly attired) woman has gone ashore, someone has decides that they don't much like the look of your boat. They promptly blow it up with the use of a rocket launcher. The gits! I hope you're insured.

Luckily, you're flung free and manage to make it ashore where you collapse unconscious. When you awake, you find yourself in a cave. What are you going to do? Once you start exploring, you overhear an armed and dangerous looking man enquire after you, and it doesn't sound like he wants to take you out on a date. Sneaking past him, you end up in a storage room where a portable radio crackles to life. The disembodied voice that comes out of it knows you are there. He introduces himself as Doyle and offers to help you find your customer, Val, and make good your escape. If only it were as easy as it sounds...

Unlike a lot of first person shooters on the market, Far Cry is immediately different by taking place on a number of different tropical islands. You're not dealing with the usual grim futuristic or urban setting here. No sirree, it's all palm trees, exotic wildlife, sandy beaches, clear water and mercenaries. Ummm... mercenaries?

This does actually make a different to the gameplay in that when Doyle tells you that you have to get to the top of a mountain to blow up a satellite dish, you can actually see the dish and, to a certain extent, the path you will be taking to get there. I really should say "the most obvious path" because there may be several different routes that you could take – some more dangerous than others (but these tend to be the shorter routes). The whole mission will be loaded in stages, but you can still plan ahead and look back (which helps in identifying alternative routes).

Far Cry is not particularly innovative in introducing new features to the FPS genre. However, it does take features from other games and integrates them into the gameplay very well. There are features and elements from games such as Deus Ex (multiple paths), Half-life (a few features), Thief (a stealth-ometer) and other FPSs. You'll also be able to drive a few vehicles, scale ladders and the usual FPS gubbins. One touch I really liked was the ability to shoot through the walls of the flimsy constructs you will find around the island with a powerful enough gun. This reduces the amount of hiding places for both you and your enemies, but is a touch more realistic. I remember playing FPS games a few years ago and trying to shoot a bad guy through a tent (that appeared to have been made out of steel with the damage my gun was doing to it).

There is a point during the game where things take a distinctly Half-life turn. I don't want to give away too much but Half-Life suddenly changed about two thirds of the way through as you left Earth and ended up in an alien world. It's not quite as bad here, but I feel that the change does have a negative impact on the gameplay, mainly in the difficulty stakes, as things get a lot tougher, but also in terms of gameplay. Luckily, you always know roughly where you're meant to be going, so getting lost in the large levels is not an issue.

Far Cry is a very tough game. There were times that I thought it was too difficult and that was on one of the easier difficulty levels (and I consider myself to be a decent enough FPS player). The final few levels were nigh on impossible though and I very nearly gave up before persevering with it and completing it. That would be the only major negative point I would have to say goes against this game.

Part of the reason for this is the AI (artificial intelligence) of your enemies. Gone are the days when you can walk right in front of an enemy, get spotted and then hide for 30 seconds until you've been forgotten. If you're spotted you can either shoot it out or hide, but be warned that your pursuers will explore the area around where you were seen. This is a huge plus point for the game as the typical FPS tactics need adjusted when trying to get past a group of mercenary guards.

The graphics were the best in the genre when Far Cry was first released (March 2004) and will require a hefty PC to utilise to their fullest. The audio aspect is also impressive. The ambient noise provides loads of atmosphere and the weaponry clatters loudly when fired. The voice acting is standard fayre, but it's not that big an issue as it plays a relatively minor part in the scheme of things.

There is a multi-player side to the game, too. I've indulged in it a couple of times and it was pretty good fun, but apart from the nice graphics, it's all been done elsewhere. Don't expect too much in the way of innovation in game types or whatnot.

If you've got a decently spec-ed PC and have £12 in your pocket (yes, that's what it costs these days) and you like FPSs, then this is a definite recommendation. You can't go wrong at twelve quid for a quality game such as this. It also has replay value, too, if you want to hunt out the alternative routes through the game. If you enjoy online aspects, then you might also get value for money with the solid but not outstanding multiplayer aspect.

Far Cry recommends (minimum specifications are lower again):
CPU: AMD Athlon 2400-3000+ or Pentium 4 2-3 GHz
RAM: 512-1024 MB
Graphics Card: 128 MB GeForce 4 128 MB to GeForce FX 5950; ATI Radeon 9500-9800 XT
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy series
Operating System: Windows 98SE/2000/XP (only)
DirectX: DirectX 9.0b (included on DVD)
Multiplayer: Broadband Internet Connection

My PC has:
CPU: 2.5 GHz Athlon
Memory: 1GB
Graphics card: Radeon 9600 Atlantis
Soundcard: Soundblaster 24
Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP2

Summary: Modern day FPS set on a series of tropical islands.