Sat Jun 16, 2007 9:22 am by Killa
Far Cry
(Yes I know it's an old game, but I just now got it.)
Graphics- 8
In 2004 this was probably the best looking game ever released. Today, it still doesn't look bad, although it's not nearly as impressive as it was three years ago. The main draw here is the beautiful environments. The water looks nice, the many islands look beautiful, and really gives you the sense of being in paradise-gone-wrong.
Controls- 9
They're not overly complex, but they're not too simple either. They're just perfect. Only problem I have is that I can't bind anything to the two extra buttons on my mouse.
Sound- 9
This game sounds incredable (my sound card blows, so that's saying something coming from me.) The music is very well done, switching attitudes (don't know if that's the right word to use here) depending on the situation. Some people say that listening to the music in games is like cheating because it'll tell you if an enemy has seen you, but trust me here, in this game, if an enemy sees you you'll know it, music or not. If you're hearing them yelling out to their buddies and shooting at you, I think anyone could figure out they've been spotted even with no music. Aside from the music, the ambient noises are also very nice. You'll hear birds and other critters while you're in the jungle, the sounds of waves on beaches (that's if you overlook the yelling, sound of rotor blades and gunshots) and when you're inside, the sound really helps give the sense of some claustrophobic environments.
Playability- 8
Here's my main problem with this game: even on normal difficulty around level 10 or so this game gets hard as hell. The mercs are wearing body armor, and unless you hit them in the head it can take up to twenty rounds to drop them, and this is especally annoying when there's six of them in the same room and your grenades don't do the trick. However, as agrivating as the mercs can be with their body armor and powerful guns, by far those mutants roaming the island are the worst. The smaller ones (called thidgens or something) aren't smart, but when they can jump at you and be right on top of you from thirty feet away and kill you in two hits, they don't need to be. Just running across one is no big deal, but you're usually in trouble if you happen upon three or four at once. Also, when I first got the game I noticed after I installed that the mouse would not work in-game. This is a bug with the 1.4 patch, and so is the fact that the mercs can see you through some solid surfaces like tent canvaces and such (and since bullets in this game go through most surfaces like that, you can imagine how annoying that gets.) If you have the option, I'd recommend going back to the 1.3 patch, but if you're like me and had to get it from direct2drive.com (no stores within a hundred miles of me carried this game) then just google the Far Cry 1.41 unofficial patch, and it'll fix the whole see through thing.
Gameplay- 9
With the exception of the before-mentioned severe difficulty at some parts, this game is an absolute joy to play. Say you're dropped onto a beach, and your objective is a communications station on the top of a mountain, well, you can pretty much get there any way you want. Sure you can plow through guns blazing and kill every merc you see in the camps, or you can sneak around, preform silent kills and avoid the enemy camps alltogether. There's also plenty of weapons to choose from M4s and sniper rifles, to silenced machine guns and machetes and a combat shotgun. It's nothing you wouldn't expect, but you'll definatly come across some more that others. About three quarters of the mercs you kill will drop ammo which can be used for the M4, so this will probably be your primary weapon for a while, but some drop shotgun ammo, grenades, and rarely you'll find a sniper rifle with usually five rounds in it, which is usually enough to drop a small number of enemies from a distance, but after that you'll probably want to ditch the sniper for a more suitable close quarters weapon.
Replay- 8
The fact that most of the levels are so open ended means you'll want to play them multiple times to try different approaches and tactics. The AI is very good, so no two battles will ever play out the same (this is what America's Army's AI was supposed to be.) The fact that you'll rarely feel cheated by the AI also makes playing through the same level over and over again bearable, they actually have to see you to come after you, and they don't just automatically know you're there, which is refreshing. Now, the indoor levels are kind of linear, and will usually play out the same way each time (with the exception of the firefights, which are rarely similair.)
Overall- Far Cry was an amazing game in 2004, and is still pretty damn good today. (Just wait for Far Cry 2.) Beautiful environments, good AI, non-linear gameplay, and overall just fun to play.
