Last Update: 3/21/07
Far Cry
Far Cry is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Crytek Studios and published by Ubisoft on March 23, 2004. Far Cry sold 730,000 units within four months of release. The game's story follows an ex-Special Forces man named Jack Carver, who is stranded on a mysterious archipelago in Micronesia. He is searching for a female journalist he was escorting after she went missing when their sailboat was destroyed by mercenaries.
Publisher: Commercial
Plot
Jack Carver has left his mysterious and bitter past behind him and dropped out of society to run a boat-charter business in the South Pacific. He is hired by Valerie Constantine to take her secretly to an uncharted island in Micronesia. After Val is safely delivered to the island, Jack's boat is suddenly attacked by mercenaries. Jack manages to escape but is stranded thousands of miles away from home. With his only friend lost somewhere in the depths of the jungle he must now find his way back to civilization.
With the help of a man named Doyle, Jack travels across the various islands, battling mercenaries in search for Val. Through encounters with the Trigens and information from Doyle, Jack soon discovers that the island is part of an experiment involving genetic modification.
As the game progresses it becomes clear that the Trigens are becoming too large a problem for the mercenaries to handle, and that the experiments are not limited to just animal mutations. When Jack finally catches up with Val, she is being taken to another area by a helicopter. Jack attempts to stop the helicopter and Val manages to escape. After swimming to shore, Val reveals that she is an undercover CIA agent and is investigating Krieger's operations. Val then suggests that the two of them split up in order to better investigate the islands.
After further exploration, Jack must again search for and rescue Val. This is made increasingly difficult as more trigens have escaped, and have begun a revolt against the mercenaries on the island. As a result Krieger has called in elite mercenaries, including their commander, Crowe. After battling Crowe, Jack is reunited again with Val.
Jack and Val then begin a plan to destroy the islands, and the Trigens, with a nuclear weapon. After they successfully arm the weapon, the pair again separate, with Val searching for a way off the islands, while Jack seeks out Krieger and the treacherous Doyle.
With the help of a man named Doyle, Jack travels across the various islands, battling mercenaries in search for Val. Through encounters with the Trigens and information from Doyle, Jack soon discovers that the island is part of an experiment involving genetic modification.
As the game progresses it becomes clear that the Trigens are becoming too large a problem for the mercenaries to handle, and that the experiments are not limited to just animal mutations. When Jack finally catches up with Val, she is being taken to another area by a helicopter. Jack attempts to stop the helicopter and Val manages to escape. After swimming to shore, Val reveals that she is an undercover CIA agent and is investigating Krieger's operations. Val then suggests that the two of them split up in order to better investigate the islands.
After further exploration, Jack must again search for and rescue Val. This is made increasingly difficult as more trigens have escaped, and have begun a revolt against the mercenaries on the island. As a result Krieger has called in elite mercenaries, including their commander, Crowe. After battling Crowe, Jack is reunited again with Val.
Jack and Val then begin a plan to destroy the islands, and the Trigens, with a nuclear weapon. After they successfully arm the weapon, the pair again separate, with Val searching for a way off the islands, while Jack seeks out Krieger and the treacherous Doyle.
Graphics
Crytek developed a new game engine called "CryENGINE" for Far Cry. Reportedly, the game was born out of a technology demo called X-Isle: Dinosaur Island made by Crytek to showcase the capabilities of the NVIDIA GeForce 3. The game features relatively long view or draw distance, similar to Operation Flashpoint, but has a better rendering system for vegetation. Also, all of the level territory is accessible to the player without loading pauses. The game engine features seamless transitions between indoor and outdoor areas (that utilises slightly different lighting and rendering models).
Graphically, the game makes extensive use of pixel shaders. For example, water shaders are frequently used throughout the levels and have a significant effect on visual quality.
Character detail is also improved thanks to Crytek's Polybump normal mapping technology. These effects are used extensively in both indoor and outdoor levels.
The release of the 1.3 patch saw the introduction of HDR (High Dynamic Range) in the CryENGINE. It can only be enabled on a graphics card that supports Shader Model 3.0 and 64bit blending support.
Graphically, the game makes extensive use of pixel shaders. For example, water shaders are frequently used throughout the levels and have a significant effect on visual quality.
Character detail is also improved thanks to Crytek's Polybump normal mapping technology. These effects are used extensively in both indoor and outdoor levels.
The release of the 1.3 patch saw the introduction of HDR (High Dynamic Range) in the CryENGINE. It can only be enabled on a graphics card that supports Shader Model 3.0 and 64bit blending support.
Gameplay
The game was notable for its open ended structure, providing a multitude of ways to complete a given objective. It incorporates a mix of arcade-like and realistic gameplay, forcing the player to effectively use cover while still allowing an upfront approach. For instance, there are no forced stealth segments and setting off an alarm would not result in mission failure.
However, Far Cry was criticised for being poorly balanced. The difficulty increased sharply in the later levels with the introduction of incredibly tough creatures created by the game's villain, causing many problems when combined with the game's "checkpoint" saving system, which eliminated manual saving. The increased difficulty required stealth and precision to even up the odds against the player, but many found being forced to replay the same sections over and over tedious or frustrating. The promised quicksave-update was never widely publicised, however it could be activated by bringing down the console (pressing ~), and typing "\save_game filename".
However, Far Cry was criticised for being poorly balanced. The difficulty increased sharply in the later levels with the introduction of incredibly tough creatures created by the game's villain, causing many problems when combined with the game's "checkpoint" saving system, which eliminated manual saving. The increased difficulty required stealth and precision to even up the odds against the player, but many found being forced to replay the same sections over and over tedious or frustrating. The promised quicksave-update was never widely publicised, however it could be activated by bringing down the console (pressing ~), and typing "\save_game filename".
