Any game developers out there, please take note... The in-game and cut-scene dialog needs to be a lot louder. In reality, it should be louder than any other part of the game.

Plays like...
Far Cry has some pretty stern hardware requirements. It is, of course, playable on lower-spec machines, but gameplay will suffer as a result, being jumpy and choppy, even at the lowest detail setting. To truly appreciate Far Cry, and get the most from it, you need a high-spec machine; at least the recommended configuration.

Far Cry is something a little different when it comes to the FPS (first-person shooter) genre. It has twenty missions, giving a good twenty hours or more of gameplay. Most shooters only give you ten or twelve missions. In this respect, it reminded me a lot of the No One Lives Forever series and the first Red Faction.

The back-story for Far Cry is pretty flimsy. That is to say, almost non-existent. There are two very brief paragraphs in the manual that offer very little. The opening intro isn't much help either. It's an assaulting barrage of imagery that really does nothing but confuse.

The story itself certainly isn't going to win a Pulitzer or Hugo. This is, after all, a shooter, with a shooter-type story. It is sufficiently different though to separate Far Cry from the typical blast and smash FPS.

One of the really nice things Crytek has done with Far Cry is to make the maps extremely large. The loads may take a while, but its well worth it to be able to cover a lot of ground, only loading about once an hour or so.

The environment of Far Cry is relatively free-roaming, allowing you to go pretty much anywhere. Helicopter patrols are the only thing to keep you from heading out to open sea.

Being an FPS, Far Cry is basically linear, but the free-roaming aspect generally gives you more than one way to reach your goal.

Stealth will be your friend in Far Cry as the enemy AI is on the level of psychic. Most of the time, they will see you long before you see them.

Beware. The enemy mercenaries use squad tactics, shout orders to one another, and they'll call in Blackhawk air support and Osprey-delivered reinforcements if you're stomping them too bad. They wear body armor and get tougher, with more body armor, the further along you get.

You'll be limited in your weapon carrying capacity, forcing you to occasionally drop one in order to acquire a new one. There's an ample array of real-life weapons, grenades, mounted weapons, and other equipment to toy with. Gadgets like combination night vision/infrared goggles, and binoculars, shown in Figure C, equipped with a directional microphone, allow you to hear conversations from nearly a kilometer away.

FIGURE C


These shots show the view through the binoculars at different distances. Roll over picture for a larger image.

One thing that disappointed me was the inability to holster your weapon. Your movement speed is based on the terrain and the weapon your holding. There were times when Jack needed to move fast, and could have if he wasn't holding a weapon.