Far Cry is a
first-person shooterFirst-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
video game developed by
CrytekCrytek is a German video game company founded in 1999 by three Turkish brothers: Cevat, Avni and Faruk Yerli. Crytek's main headquarters are in Frankfurt, Germany, with five other studios in Kiev, Budapest, Nottingham, Sofia and Seoul. The company is best known for developing the game Far Cry and...
Studios from
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and published by
UbisoftUbisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
on March 23, 2004, for
Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
.
Far Cry sold 730,000 units within four months of release. It received positive reviews upon release. The original game has since spawned
a series of sequels and spin-off gamesFar Cry is a franchise of first person shooter computer and video games, following the name of the first game of the series. Crysis is a conceptual sequel to Far Cry, but is not part of the Far Cry series.-Games:-Far Cry: The Movie:...
and a
movieFar Cry is a German film adapted from the video game of the same name. The film is directed by Uwe Boll and stars Til Schweiger.- Plot :Jack Carver, a former member of Germany's Special Forces, takes journalist Valerie Cardinal to visit her Uncle Max on an island, where he works in a military...
.
Setting
The game's story follows an ex-U.S. Special Forces
operativeEspionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
Jack CarverFar Cry is a franchise of first person shooter computer and video games, following the name of the first game of the series. Crysis is a conceptual sequel to Far Cry, but is not part of the Far Cry series.-Games:-Far Cry: The Movie:...
, who is stranded on a mysterious
archipelagoAn archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
. He is searching for a female journalist he was escorting after she went missing when their boat was destroyed by mercenaries. The game includes thematic elements relating to the dangers of weaponizing
genetic engineeringGenetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...
and the
genocideGenocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
of local islanders as can be seen by the deformed creatures created by a mad scientist named Krieger.
The terrain in
Far Cry varies greatly. Set on a
South PacificOceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
archipelago, the landscape includes beaches, dense
rain forestsTropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests , also known as tropical moist forests, are a tropical and subtropical forest biome....
, towering
canyonA canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...
s,
mineMining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
s,
swampA swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...
s, and even volcanic forests. Many of the interiors range from simple beach huts and army camps to elaborate complexes, an underground temple, and ultra-modern research labs. Several of these mazes use the remains of
Japanese WWII-era-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
fortifications and bunkers.
Plot
Jack CarverFar Cry is a franchise of first person shooter computer and video games, following the name of the first game of the series. Crysis is a conceptual sequel to Far Cry, but is not part of the Far Cry series.-Games:-Far Cry: The Movie:...
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
MicronesiaMicronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines lie to the west, and Indonesia to the southwest....
. After Valerie takes off on her own with a jet-ski, Jack's boat is blown apart by a
mercenaryA mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
rocket. Jack manages to escape but is stranded thousands of miles away from home. With his employer 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 (genetically altered beasts) 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 primate mutations, but moved on to mutating mercenaries. 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, and Jack must battle them to reach Val. After that they split up again, and reunite when Jack has killed the mercenary commander, Crowe. Information Crowe had with him indicates Krieger has a tactical nuke on the island.
After the Department of Defense has supposedly analyzed the situation, Jack and Val steal a tactical nuclear weapon Krieger had intended to use as a last resort in covering his tracks, should his projects be investigated. Jack seems uncomfortable about setting off a nuclear weapon, but Val assures him “its only a tactical nuke, just enough to take out the factory and the base. By the time it goes off we’ll be upwind and out of range.” Before entering the factory Doyle warns that the mutagen might infect them when the blast goes off, and advises them to take some antidote before arming the nuke. Inside the factory, he directs them to inject themselves with serum from a red box with a biohazard symbol on it. They do so and arm the nuke, which detonates directly behind Jack and Val as they exit the factory, leaving them unconscious.
While Jack and Val are unconscious, Krieger has visited the site, and abducted them. Jack wakes up on a helicopter with Krieger and Val, and is kicked off by an elite mercenary as Krieger says “survival of the fittest, good luck!” On the ground, he finds a rifle has been tossed out as well, with 10 bullets. The player, as Jack, now has to fight through the trigen infested area to rescue Val - for the third time - and escape the islands with his life. Upon reaching a mercenary weapons cache, Jack notices his arm is turning green. Doyle responds “The antidote should have been able to handle it, but the explosion could have saturated the air with mutagen. That’s what happened to Dr. Krieger. He developed a serum to keep it from spreading, and he’s still on the treatment.” Jack is thus directed to find Krieger.
However, once Jack reaches and defeats Krieger the plot twists. Jack asks a dying Krieger where the antidote is, and Krieger responds “Who infected you? The mutagen can only be administered through sub-dermal injection. I wish I could take credit, but I had no time to prepare the serum. You should turn out to be a beautiful specimen. Give it another hour… much less for her [Val].” Doyle comes up on the nearby volumetric display and says “The old man was always one for melodrama. Too bad he had no head for business,” and reveals the ‘antidote’ they took earlier was the very mutagen they were trying to protect themselves from. He also remarks that “Working for the government taught me that where there’s a weapon, there’s money to be made.” Jack threatens Doyle, who refuses to give them the real antidote, and then leaves Val at a dock with a Falcon .357 (high-power handgun) to find Doyle.
After battling through a horde of Trigens angry at him for killing their “father” (Krieger - this is why Doyle needed Jack to kill Krieger), Jack catches up with Doyle and corners him. Doyle’s last words were, “You don’t understand. They sent me. They’re all watching. They’re always watching. You can’t change this. You can’t change the future,” to which Jack replies, “Probably not, but I can make sure you’re not a part of it!” and shoots Doyle, killing him. “Stupid bastard,” Jack remarks.
Jack then escapes just before the volcano in which Krieger’s main offices were located erupts, and both he and Val are cured of the mutagen. The offices were completely destroyed by the explosion and he and Val sail off on the boat. The ending cutscene shows Val looking at a thick folder of papers and two CDs tied together labeled “Project Far Cry” (in French, it is labeled “Project Mutant”)
Gameplay
The tropical rain forest provides cover and concealment, of which the player and enemies can take advantage. Enemies react dynamically to the player's tactics and actions. If a lone mercenary spots a player, he occasionally runs for help, signaling reinforcements through use of flareguns. Enemies will work together to outmaneuver, outflank, surround, and provide
suppressive fireIn military science, suppressive fire is a fire that degrades the performance of a target below the level needed to fulfill its mission. Suppression is usually only effective for the duration of the fire. Suppressive fire is not always a direct form of fire towards targets; it can be an effective...
, providing them a tactical advantage over the player, who, in turn, is able to spot and mark enemies on his minimap through use of special
binocularsBinoculars, field glasses or binocular telescopes are a pair of identical or mirror-symmetrical telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point accurately in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes when viewing distant objects...
, which also grant the player the ability to listen to enemy conversations from afar, merely by pointing the binoculars in the direction of the enemies.
Sandbox features
The sandbox style maps allow the player to complete his objectives in several different manners. When outdoors, the player is usually presented with a fairly simple possible route to his objective, but this doesn't necessarily have to be used. The jungle of the maps tends to sprawl out in all directions, allowing players to achieve different angles for assaults, or even completely circumvent enemies (given enough time to maneuver). However, during the indoor sections of the game, level design tends to lose this attribute in favor of a more traditional linear gameplay.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer features three different modes:
DeathmatchDeathmatch or Player vs All is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy computer games...
, team deathmatch, and 'Assault' - An attack/defend mode where one team must guard three bases and the other must capture them.
Reception
The game received positive reviews from multiple sources.
Game InformerGame Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
published a supportive review. "It's not often that an upstart developer comes out with a new engine along with an incredibly polished game," it read, "Far Cry, though, is not only notable for being the first entry by Crytek into the crowded PC first-person shooter market – it is quite possibly the best one-player, action-intensive shooter ever."
Graphics
Crytek developed a new
game engineA game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
called "
CryEngineCryEngine is a game engine used for the first-person shooter computer game Far Cry. It was originally developed by Crytek as a technology demo for Nvidia and, when the company saw its potential, it was turned into a game....
" for
Far Cry. Reportedly, the game was born out of a
technology demoA tech demo is a prototype, rough example or an otherwise incomplete version of a product, put together with the primary purpose of showcasing the idea, performance, method or the features of the product...
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 distanceDraw distance is a computer graphics term, defined as the maximum distance of objects in a three dimensional scene that are drawn by the rendering engine. Polygons that lie behind the draw distance won't be drawn to the screen....
, similar to
Operation Flashpoint, but has a more advanced rendering system for
vegetationVegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader...
. All of the level territory is accessible to the player without loading pauses. The game engine features seamless transitions between indoor and outdoor areas.
The release of the 1.3 patch saw the introduction of
HDRIn 3D computer graphics, high dynamic range rendering , also known as high dynamic range lighting, is the rendering of computer graphics scenes by using lighting calculations done in a larger dynamic range. This allows preservation of details that may be lost due to limiting contrast ratios...
in the CryEngine.
Other versions and console ports
On September 1, 2007, Ubisoft released a single player-only version of the game as
ad-supportedAdvertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
freewareFreeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
on
FilePlanetFilePlanet is a video game download service that provides demos, patches, mods and other gaming media and other gaming media downloads to its users. FilePlanet was launched, and is run by, GameSpy, which is now a subsidiary of IGN, and is one of the most used video game download sites on the...
. According to Ubisoft, the offer is no longer available.
On April 8, 2004, Ubisoft announced
Far Cry InstinctsFar Cry Instincts is a video game developed and published by Ubisoft for Xbox that was released on September 27, 2005. A remake of the original PC version, Instincts is less open-ended and more linear, due to the console's reduced processing power which prevents the full rendering of the PC...
for the
XboxThe Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
,
GameCubeThe , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
and
PlayStation 2The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
systems.
Far Cry Instincts is not a direct port of the original, being designed specifically for consoles. The game uses a similar premise as the original PC version and same game engine, but by comparison,
Instincts is less open-ended and more linear, due to the console's reduced processing power which prevents the full rendering of the PC version's vast islands and landscape. However,
Instincts added new multiplayer modes, weapons, dual wielding and feral abilities, which is also added to the storyline. The PS2 and GC ports were later canceled.
Far Cry Instincts was exclusive to the Xbox and was released to acclaim in North America on September 27, 2005.
On March 28, 2006, Ubisoft released a sequel,
Far Cry Instincts: Evolution for the Xbox, which was met with less enthusiasm than the first versions of
Far Cry. On the same day, for the
Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
,
Far Cry Instincts: Predator was released, which essentially contains both
Instincts and
Evolution, running in 720p high-definition.
Evolution includes a new single-player campaign, although it is considerably shorter than the campaign found in the original
Far Cry Instincts. The storyline focuses on Jack Carver's work for a woman named Kade, which results in him being hunted by local governments due to a frame-up during a botched arms deal. Jack again meets up with Doyle, who is practicing damage control, and eventually must battle a native warrior named Semeru who possesses the same "feral abilities" as Jack.
A game based on the franchise was released as part of Ubisoft's launch lineup for the
WiiThe Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
(
Far Cry VengeanceFar Cry Vengeance is a video game developed and published by Ubisoft for the Wii console. It was released on December 12, 2006 in North America and December 20, 2006 in Australia...
). In the Wii version, the
Wii RemoteThe , also known as the Wiimote, is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and...
is used for many of the tasks assigned to buttons in previous iterations of the game, including driving vehicles, shooting, and running.
http://www.ubisoftgroup.com/index.php?p=59&art_id=60&vars=c2VuZGVyPUFMTCZzZW5kZXJfdXJsPWluZGV4LnBocCUzRnAlM0Q1OSUyNmFydF9pZCUzRCZjb21faWQ9MzYxJmZpbHRlcl90eXBlPSZmaWx0ZXJfbW9udGg9JmZpbHRlcl95ZWFyPQ%3D%3D
Far Cry 2Far Cry 2 is an open world first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 21, 2008 in North America and on October 23, 2008 in Europe and Australia. It was made available on Steam on October 22, 2008...
has been officially released by Ubisoft, although it was not developed by Crytek, but by Ubisoft's Montreal studio.
On 2 October 2008, a
movieFar Cry is a German film adapted from the video game of the same name. The film is directed by Uwe Boll and stars Til Schweiger.- Plot :Jack Carver, a former member of Germany's Special Forces, takes journalist Valerie Cardinal to visit her Uncle Max on an island, where he works in a military...
based on the video game was released in Germany and later on 17 December 2008 in American theaters.
On June 6th, 2011, Far Cry 3 was announced by Ubisoft at E3 2011 in Los Angeles, California. A demo of the game was also shown. It has no release date yet.