Review: Far Cry
Format: PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Producer: Crytek
Genre: FPS
Price: £30 new, £10 - £18 second hand (July 2005), £5 - £20 ebay (July 2005)
Origin: US
Reviewer: Stealth Chimp
The Good: Lets just get it out the way now shall we? Far Cry is bloody beautiful, in terms of sheer looks it blows away Doom 3's plasticy world of shinyness and even out does Half Life 2's grimy city streets (and all its other locations). The first time you step in to the open ans look around Far Cry's sweeping coastline it really blows you away, it's just. Wow. Also good: far Cry isn't as demanding on your pc as you might expect, my rig isn't exactly the newest around, radeon 9600 and all that, yet I run far cry on medium spec with no lag. FC also appeals to me on "realism" grounds, yeah its not realistic in a Rainbow Six way, but like Counter-Strike before it, It's got the balance of realism/Gameplay/Fun pefect. Yeah you can't take as much lead as you can in other shooters, but your weapons can dish out some hefty damage, and a headshot is usually an instant kill. The physics are all present and correct which is nice, and watching mercinaries flop around never really losses its comedy value. Weapons also bop and sway around pleasingly, which makes long distance firefights over the beach a bit more tactical with lots of running from cover to cover until you can lay into the enemies from up close. Plus you can just go off, swimming is great fun and you can happily swim around the islands for ages (at least, until a PT boat finds you). Swimming is also handy for sneaking up undetected then knifing your enem ies before they can ever land a shot.
The Bad: All this clever graphics doesn't really disguise the fact that the weapons are a bit bland. I'm fed up of every modern day combat FPS giving me a M4, Deagle, AWSM and P90. Don't you think its time for a change in our modern combat gunnery? Theres a whole host of weapons being developed all over the world right now so theres no excuse for developers just peddling out the same ones over and over again. The physics may be fancy, but, unlike the sublime Hlaf-Life 2 they serve no practical perpose beyond comical rag doll deaths, its all just another layer of gloss along with the graphics. But gloss over what? Well shootouts on the beach get dull fast, falling into repetitious circles, which is bad. FC is also, just, too hard. Even on easy mode you health goes too quickly, armour is gone in no time and health packs are too few and far between. The AI is insane, circling you and butchering you quickly, and because there's no quicksave option you end up re playing the same sections over and over again, until you learn where all the enemies are, or get lucky. Thats where Far Cry starts to lose it's appeal. The multiplayer also falls well short of CS:S and other modern day shooters MP modes, although co-op is nice. Theres also next to no mod community, which felt wierd for me having come from Half-Life 2 and Dawn of War, both of which have thriving communities.
The Short: Far Cry is a pretty, tricky game. It is sometimes inspired and breathtaking, other times its repetitious and dull. Its weapons behave excellently but are generic. It's fallen short of being a classic, it won't go down in the annals of gaming as Hlaf-Life has done, its destined to fade away into obscurity as many more before it have. However it's actually worth playing now, as its becoming cheaper to buy and more systems can run it, and to be fair it's a pretty good game. Not your average FPS.
CWScore: six (and a half!) out of ten
Publisher: Ubisoft
Producer: Crytek
Genre: FPS
Price: £30 new, £10 - £18 second hand (July 2005), £5 - £20 ebay (July 2005)
Origin: US
Reviewer: Stealth Chimp
The Good: Lets just get it out the way now shall we? Far Cry is bloody beautiful, in terms of sheer looks it blows away Doom 3's plasticy world of shinyness and even out does Half Life 2's grimy city streets (and all its other locations). The first time you step in to the open ans look around Far Cry's sweeping coastline it really blows you away, it's just. Wow. Also good: far Cry isn't as demanding on your pc as you might expect, my rig isn't exactly the newest around, radeon 9600 and all that, yet I run far cry on medium spec with no lag. FC also appeals to me on "realism" grounds, yeah its not realistic in a Rainbow Six way, but like Counter-Strike before it, It's got the balance of realism/Gameplay/Fun pefect. Yeah you can't take as much lead as you can in other shooters, but your weapons can dish out some hefty damage, and a headshot is usually an instant kill. The physics are all present and correct which is nice, and watching mercinaries flop around never really losses its comedy value. Weapons also bop and sway around pleasingly, which makes long distance firefights over the beach a bit more tactical with lots of running from cover to cover until you can lay into the enemies from up close. Plus you can just go off, swimming is great fun and you can happily swim around the islands for ages (at least, until a PT boat finds you). Swimming is also handy for sneaking up undetected then knifing your enem ies before they can ever land a shot.
The Bad: All this clever graphics doesn't really disguise the fact that the weapons are a bit bland. I'm fed up of every modern day combat FPS giving me a M4, Deagle, AWSM and P90. Don't you think its time for a change in our modern combat gunnery? Theres a whole host of weapons being developed all over the world right now so theres no excuse for developers just peddling out the same ones over and over again. The physics may be fancy, but, unlike the sublime Hlaf-Life 2 they serve no practical perpose beyond comical rag doll deaths, its all just another layer of gloss along with the graphics. But gloss over what? Well shootouts on the beach get dull fast, falling into repetitious circles, which is bad. FC is also, just, too hard. Even on easy mode you health goes too quickly, armour is gone in no time and health packs are too few and far between. The AI is insane, circling you and butchering you quickly, and because there's no quicksave option you end up re playing the same sections over and over again, until you learn where all the enemies are, or get lucky. Thats where Far Cry starts to lose it's appeal. The multiplayer also falls well short of CS:S and other modern day shooters MP modes, although co-op is nice. Theres also next to no mod community, which felt wierd for me having come from Half-Life 2 and Dawn of War, both of which have thriving communities.
The Short: Far Cry is a pretty, tricky game. It is sometimes inspired and breathtaking, other times its repetitious and dull. Its weapons behave excellently but are generic. It's fallen short of being a classic, it won't go down in the annals of gaming as Hlaf-Life has done, its destined to fade away into obscurity as many more before it have. However it's actually worth playing now, as its becoming cheaper to buy and more systems can run it, and to be fair it's a pretty good game. Not your average FPS.
CWScore: six (and a half!) out of ten
posted by Anonymous at 7/30/2005 09:13:00 pm
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