shots
| Far Cry PC review | |
| patched to: | v. 1.1 |
| developer | Crytek |
| publisher | UbiSoft |
| author | Marcin |
| date | May. 25, 2004 |
| graphics |  |
| sound |  |
| gameplay | |
| value | |
| reviewer's toast | |
| overall | |
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| pros: Lovely engine; fluid level design; clever AI. | |
| cons: Directional enemy sounds missing; bland multiplayer; savepoints may prove annoying to some. | |
Chromehounds
NA Review by Marcin
Oblivion-The First 3 Hours
PC Quicktake by walTer
Comic Quick Takes January 25, 2006
Feature by Mike
I wanted to like Chrome, I really did. Breed seemed like it had some potential too. Both first person shooters with multivehicular action, huge environments, lots of weaponry and seemingly open approaches to obstacles. Unfortunately, Chrome was nearly unplayable due to the erratically invincible AI, and Breed ... well, let's not go there.
So when Far Cry finally came out, after having secured a spot on my "Most Wanted List" (and then getting kicked off when the first screenshots came out), I was fairly skeptical. This wasn't improved by the mediocre quality of both demos, with AI that was too jerky and eager to shoot me in the head from entirely too far out, to fairly linear progression from A to B.
Thankfully, the full game dispels all of those woes and worries, even if the beginning seems to be aimed right at all stereotypes of shoddy FPS games. After the extremely chaotic intro movie which tells you nothing at all (typical!), Jack Carver (the square-jawed, yet Hawaiian shirt wearing hero) wakes up in the dark, dripping bowels of ... well, you're not sure what, but you're thinking "OMG! Sewer level in the very beginning of the game!" This can't be good.
But then you get to throw a rock to distract the guard, dive through the shaft of sunlight briefly illuminating your outline and presenting a tempting target, dodge bullets as wood splinters around in a hailstorm of lead, then duck into another room as a voice on your comm unit orders you to MOVE IT! You grab a pistol, put on some armor over your hideously conspicuous Hawaiian shirt (Hmm, maybe you get to play as walTer?) and step out into brilliant sunshine, a light breeze, and a tropical paradise as far as the eye can see - literally, the visibility distance is tremendous. The fun begins.
The entire game is structured like this: a breather, reload and rearm, then you're launched into action. From hiding out in a flimsy hut as bullets rip away the walls (thin walls no cover from lead, Confucius sez!) and ricochet into you, taking potshots at troops advancing from all sides (yeah, all sides - amazing), to getting raided by an Osprey VTOL plane and rappeling mercs, to taking out choppers with a bazooka, or racing across sand dunes rocketing dune buggies and desperately trying to keep alive - the game takes you from one tactical situation (tactical situation, that's a military term for complete chaos) to another, with small breathers in between.
Lagniappe
So it's a very well done shooter at heart, with the usual paper-thin story which I will not spoil. In addition, it has some neat tweaks done to the gameplay that easily set it apart from the competition.
Death by AI. That's right, the much vaunted AI in Far Cry is no laughing matter. It will trap, dominate, and mess you up with tactics such as encircling, grenade lobbing, using multiple approaches and taking cover behind trees and roocks. Fortunately, the AI also comes with built-in handicaps such as standing entirely too close to explosives or firing in bursts with long pauses, or yelling out their battleplan - "Go left! Go left!" - so it balances out quite well. I have also not seen any instances of stupid vehicle using - all of it was quite purposeful and intent on hunting me down; they'll even hop out if the car takes too much damage and proceed on foot! All in all, it does quite a lot of what was promised, even running away in panic on occasion. Even though a few scripted scenes seemed out of place, on the average the AI tends more to the "lethal" than "stupid" side. Later you get to see it in action from the sidelines, as it were...
Death by Physics. We've had Max Payne 2 and Deus Ex: Invisible War try to offer us the next generation physics - both failed, although Payne's laughably exaggerated Flying Corpse Brigade was at least amusing, whereas DXIW's was just wrong. Far Cry's physics are not only useful, in that "blow up a gas tank to send deadly shrapnel and people flying" manner. You can run into things with a vehicle to send them on their merry way as well, or push barrels down the hill into oncoming mercenaries to hear them yell in righteous indignation. There's a lot of ways to have fun with this. In addition, bodies finally have accurate reactions to bullets, and slump, fold and topple over in an extremely convincing manner. No more freaky DXIW twitch-flying corpses, thank you.
Death by Stealth. That's right, Far Cry can (with difficulty) be played as a crossbreed stealth game. By crouching or going prone you can minimize your movement noise and improve your accuracy - some weapons are louder than others, and you can see the noise you make on your radar as concentric circles. You also have a machete, two whacks of which make mercs dead in a silent manner. Finally, the radar shows the agitation state of enemies - green for calm patrol, yellow for alerted, orange for alerted and actively seeking, and red of course stands for fiery death by bullets. By watching your radar carefully, running in bursts to seek cover, and using the machete vigorously, you can postpone and minimize your discovery - it's tough though, pros only. With the significant quantities of bad guys in each scenario, getting a stealth kill is its own reward. Unfortunately this is only viable early on in the game...
Death on Four Wheels. Far Cry boasts solid and entertaining vehicle support. The cars are quick, responsive and have turrets, while the boats are slightly more sluggish, feel like they're really on water, and ... have turrets. It's a sign of genius when every (not counting the Big Rig, as it's not really used for anything) vehicle has turrets in a game where you generally blow stuff up and make a nuisance of yourself to the local arch-villain. Far Cry doesn't mess about, but sends several vehicles at a time at you, sometimes equipped with rockets. Some fast wheeling and shooting is required, and every such encounter is a blast (hah, hah, blast!...ahem) to play. Every vehicular bit is spread out between walking and sneaking - pretty fair balance, although I still wish there was more driving about.
Graphics and Sound
All of this is rendered on the magnificently fast and beautiful Cry engine, which is quite possibly the prettiest 3D engine in existence at the moment. As you can see from my system specs, I'm not running the fastest machine in the world, but I have no problems running the game at a decent speed - visibility is unparalleled, and the level of detail is pretty nice too, although I'd to like to crank up my textures one more notch. There are enough options provided that just about anyone with halfway decent specs can play the game and enjoy it. Performance is slightly less in indoor areas, and they don't look as good as the outside - fortunately the gameplay takes you inside and outside in even intervals.
The sound is also very good, from weaponry to vehicles to incidentals, such as sneaking your way through the undergrowth or bottoming out your boat. The cool binoculars you get to use throughout the game come with a directional mic, so you can eavesdrop on merc conversations - and I suggest you do, some of them are doozies - very corny stuff. The one area that is lacking is the sound of enemies moving in your direction in the external areas - I repeatedly got surprised and shot in the face (hey Mike) by enemies I had no idea were there. I should have been able to hear boots stomping or leaves getting brushed aside, or equipment jingling as the mercs get closer ... something. As it is, they're unnaturally quiet in an otherwise rich world. The sound gets a ding for that, as knowing where the bad guys are is crucial.
The end?
That's the only sad part, that the single player campaign has to end at some point. There's still the multiplayer, which is a fairly bland deathmatch affair turned snipefest (the vehicles blow up too fast for the engineer class to be worthwhile, so long range death is your main option), and the somewhat complexified map editor - not for amateurs, although there are already a few maps for you to enjoy - mods are being made as well (hopefully one that incorporates a "trigens vs. mercs" mode! You'll know what I mean when you get about halfway through the game...). In the end however, Far Cry is the game you should go out and buy right now if you enjoy shooters in the least. Just don't look for plot or stellar voice acting - just a lot of tight-packed and challenging action, excellent feel to all aspects and a lot of fun.
End Note: It appears that a lot of folks had issues with FC's savepoint system; I found it to be a complete non-issue however. Compulsive quicksavers may want to check out the quicksave patch (try Googling for it if that site isn't responding). I personally prefer not to worry about saves, and FC's built-in savepoint system meant that I could focus on enjoying the game instead. Still, with the patch this should not be a problem for anyone.