- Far Cry
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For other uses, see Far Cry (disambiguation).
Far Cry 
Developer(s) Crytek Publisher(s) Ubisoft Engine CryEngine Version 1.4 (2005-06-21) Platform(s) Microsoft Windows Release date(s) - NA March 23, 2004
- PAL March 26, 2004
Genre(s) Open world first-person shooter Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer Rating(s) Media/distribution Optical disc, download System requirements Windows 98 SE, ME, 2000, XP, Vista
Far Cry is a first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek Studios from Germany and published by Ubisoft on March 23, 2004, for Microsoft Windows. Far Cry sold 730,000 units within four months of release.[1] It received positive reviews upon release. The original game has since spawned a series of sequels and spin-off games and a movie.
Contents
Synopsis
Setting
The game's story follows an ex-U.S. 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 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 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.
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: Deathmatch, 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 Informer 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."[2]
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.[citation needed] The game features relatively long view or draw distance, similar to Operation Flashpoint, but has a more advanced rendering system for vegetation. 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 HDR in the CryEngine.
Other versions and console ports
On September 1, 2007, Ubisoft released a single player-only version of the game as ad-supported freeware on FilePlanet.[3] According to Ubisoft, the offer is no longer available.
On April 8, 2004, Ubisoft announced Far Cry Instincts for the Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation 2 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 360, 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 Wii (Far Cry Vengeance). In the Wii version, the Wii Remote is used for many of the tasks assigned to buttons in previous iterations of the game, including driving vehicles, shooting, and running.[1] Far Cry 2 has been officially released by Ubisoft, although it was not developed by Crytek, but by Ubisoft's Montreal studio.[4]
On 2 October 2008, a movie 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.
References
- ^ "First quarter sales : €62.5 million". Ubisoft. http://www.ubisoftgroup.com/index.php?p=59&art_id=60&vars=c2VuZGVyPUFMTCZjb21faWQ9MjUwJmZpbHRlcl90eXBlPS0xJmZpbHRlcl9tb250aD0tMSZmaWx0ZXJfeWVhcj0yMDA0. Retrieved 2006-08-02.
- ^ http://www.mobygames.com/game/far-cry/mobyrank
- ^ Fileplanet Far Cry ad-supported release
- ^ "Ubisoft announces Far Cry 2". http://www.thegamergene.com/pc/ubisoft-announces-farcry-2.
External links
Far Cry franchise Games Developers Other Crytek Crysis series: Crysis / Crysis Warhead / Crysis 2 · TimeSplitters series: TimeSplitters / TimeSplitters 2 / TimeSplitters: Future Perfect / TimeSplitters 4 · Other games: Far Cry / Haze / Knights of Honor / Ryse / Second Sight / Warface / WorldShift
Divisions: Crytek / Crytek Black Sea / Crytek Frankfurt / Crytek Hungary Kft. / Crytek Seoul / Crytek UK / Crytek Ukraine · People: Cevat Yerli / Faruk Yerli / David Doak / Graeme Norgate · Software: CryEngine / 2 / 3 (list of CryEngine games) / Sandbox editorCategories:- 2004 video games
- CryEngine games
- Far Cry
- First-person shooters
- Lua-scripted video games
- Multiplayer online games
- Science fiction video games
- Ubisoft Entertainment games
- Video games developed in Germany
- Windows games
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