Far Cry is a first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek Studios and published by Ubisoft on March 23, 2004, for Microsoft Windows. 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 games and a movie.
The game's story follows a former U.S. Army Special Forces operative Jack Carver, who is stranded on a mysterious archipelago. 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 engineering and the genocide 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 Pacific archipelago,
the landscape includes beaches, dense rain forests, towering canyons,
mines, swamps, 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 fortifications and bunkers.
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 Valerie takes off on her own with a jet-ski,
Jack's boat is blown apart by a mercenary 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 in order to find
Doyle.
After battling through a horde of Trigens, Jack catches up with Doyle and corners him.
Jack
then escapes just before the volcano, in which Krieger's main offices
were located, erupts and both he and Val are cured from the mutagen. The
offices are 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 CD's tied together labelled "Project Far Cry".
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 fire, 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 binoculars, 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.
The environment includes land, water, indoor and outdoor structures, all during various times of the day. The player has the ability to jump, run, crouch and lie down, and look in just about every direction.
Sound plays an important part in the overall gameplay. For example, the general location of enemies can often be identified by hearing their footsteps.
Throughout the game, the player encounters a variety of weapons from which to choose, including automatic weapons and grenades.
The environment includes land, water, indoor and outdoor structures, all during various times of the day. The player has the ability to jump, run, crouch and lie down, and look in just about every direction.
Sound plays an important part in the overall gameplay. For example, the general location of enemies can often be identified by hearing their footsteps.
Throughout the game, the player encounters a variety of weapons from which to choose, including automatic weapons and grenades.
Map features
The open maps allow the player to complete their 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: Deathmatch, team deathmatch, and
'Assault' - An attack/defend mode where one team must guard three bases
and the other must capture them.
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