Far Cry - Welcome to the Jungle

[StewShearerOld]

Far Cry - Welcome to the Jungle

It's been 10 years since Far Cry's release and we look at how it holds up today.

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[ScrabbitRabbit]

I remember briefly playing this at my friend's house at release and having blast, as well as being utterly blown away by how gorgeous it was. I still think parts of it look quite nice now, but if you put yourself in a 2004 mindframe, it's just silly.

I wound up picking up Instincts: Predator cheap for my Xbox (didn't have a gaming PC at the time) thinking it was the same game. I was a little disappointed but it wound up being worth the money on its own merits anyway.

 

[Zombie Badger]

I tried playing this game a year or so ago and personally I found it to be extremely ugly. The graphics, while technically good for their time have not held up and the art design is nowhere near good enough to compensate (unlike Shadow of the Colossus or MGS3 in my opinion). I also couldn't get past the second level. Instincts on the Xbox was fun, though.

 

[Evonisia]

I agree with most of the points, though if you ask me the enemy types can't be that varied in the setting. Off the top of my head:
Scientist/Engineer (different outfits, same health and weapon)
Standard Merc (AR, more health)
Captain (AR, more health, will call for help more often)
Lightweight Merc (SMG, will call for help more often)
Helicopter (LMG plus high mobility)
Boat (LMG plus high mobility)
Sniper (Sniper Rifle, very large sight range, calls for help)
Rocket user (essentially Sniper but with a Rocket Launcher)
Armoured Mercs (use team work, heavy ARs)
Armoured Crowd Control (use shields)
Small Primate Trigen (melee, jumps quite far)
Large Primate Trigen (melee, jumps for longer ranges, has higher melee range)
Trigen Marine (sniper range, uses ARs and MP5s)
Spec Ops Trigen (invisibility, usually in crowded spaces)
Fat Dude (large pool of health, limited movement but uses rocket launcher)
Unarmed Fat Dude (same as Fat Dude but uses melee)

Granted it's not the most variety in a game 'cause many of those are interchangeable but given the setting it's pretty decent. FarCry's original version is my favourite game so this review makes me smile. The console version's pretty good as well.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I agree with the review, but I still hate Far Cry. One reason: the AI can spot you from beyond the game's draw distance even on lower difficulty levels, making it incredibly unfair. I never finished it, but got a good way into it, and just wasn't enjoying it after getting killed something like 15 times in a row by some blurry pixel from 2 kilometers away.

 

[MonkeyPunch]

I loved this game when it first came out. Huge open world, vehicles. The lot, and it looked pretty to boot. At the time Far Cry had some of the best graphics around.
Though cheesy, the plot was fun in a popcorn-action-flick sort of way.
I even played the multiplayer for a fair while.

Must try and locate my copy again. (or maybe buy from GOG again, though that CD key issue sounds annoying)

 

[moosemaimer]

I agree with the review, but I still hate Far Cry. One reason: the AI can spot you from beyond the game's draw distance even on lower difficulty levels, making it incredibly unfair. I never finished it, but got a good way into it, and just wasn't enjoying it after getting killed something like 15 times in a row by some blurry pixel from 2 kilometers away.

The best part about that is they can see you through terrain while they're doing it. You might head inside a building or a tunnel and they'll still be blasting away at you from miles away.

 

[Tanis]

How does the, recent, HD release stack up to the original?

I know, sometimes, the original release is better than the HD (SEE: DMC - Thanks, Crapcom!).

 

[Evonisia]

How does the, recent, HD release stack up to the original?

I know, sometimes, the original release is better than the HD (SEE: DMC - Thanks, Crapcom!).

I'd say it holds up rather well. My biggest issue with it is that the stealth is more broken (in that enemy's will see you if you run back into the bushes, and their sight range is unfair). Things like the binoculars putting a marker above the enemy heads really helps in the bigger levels though.

 

[Rad Party God]

In GOG's defense, they pretty much include a generic CD-Key on every game that needs one, the same happened to me with Neverwinter Nights and Unreal Tournament 2004, you are only required to have a unique key for multiplayer and my experience with ther customer support wasn't as slow, they gave me my keys pretty much the next day.

Other than that, yup, this and Crysis 1 / Warhead are still pretty fun to play, despite their many flaws, I still come back to these games every once in a while.

 

[Stabinbac]

The biggest issue with Far Cry is one of the last patches broke the AI. I don't know the exact details, but I believe the issue is that the AI can see through any material that isn't completely opaque like it isn't there. That means bushes and tents that should provide cover are just invisible walls to them. Add in that they can see you from really far away, and you have a broken pain in the ass game.

 

[Sgt Pepper]

Multiplayer was a blast back in the day, especially the mode where you had to defend/attack a set of 3 points. The only downside was PunkBuster could be a nightmare, kicking one for no reason.

Other than that, still the best FC to date, 3 wasn't bad but still, to my mind, not as good as the first.

 

[Evonisia]

The biggest issue with Far Cry is one of the last patches broke the AI. I don't know the exact details, but I believe the issue is that the AI can see through any material that isn't completely opaque like it isn't there. That means bushes and tents that should provide cover are just invisible walls to them. Add in that they can see you from really far away, and you have a broken pain in the ass game.

Oh, this might explain many complaints about the whole "cover is useless" thing I keep hearing. My PC version was just a physical copy and I never bothered with setting up for multiplayer so it never got patches.

 

[fix-the-spade]

And to think, less than a decade later Crytek would go all the way from releasing this gem of a game to being the people behind Ryse: Son of Rome.

That's a pretty epic freaking drop, especially since they followed up Far Cry with Crysis and Warhead, which were astounding both visually and in how open they were.

In fact, Crytek never truly topped Far Cry and Crysis, it seems the pressure of relying on triple A publisher money took away from the ambition of their games, Crysis 2 and 3 were notable downgrades on the original, while Ryse was, Ryse.

Still as debut titles go Far Cry is a pretty special one, nothing can ever take that away from them.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Never played FC1, FC2 was shit but FC3 was awesome. Bring on FC4.

 

[Evonisia]

The biggest issue with Far Cry is one of the last patches broke the AI. I don't know the exact details, but I believe the issue is that the AI can see through any material that isn't completely opaque like it isn't there. That means bushes and tents that should provide cover are just invisible walls to them. Add in that they can see you from really far away, and you have a broken pain in the ass game.

Surely this has been fixed in the HD edition? It would be odd to re-release the game and not fix such a game breaking bug.

They can't see you through it, but they will see you if you run back into cover (if they've seen you previously, obviously).

 

[Stabinbac]

Surely this has been fixed in the HD edition? It would be odd to re-release the game and not fix such a game breaking bug.

I was referring to the last official patch for the original (1.4). Never tried the HD edition.

There is an unofficial 1.41 patch that has "Reverted canvas bullet stoppage to full. This will stop the single player AI from seeing through buildings." as a feature. Sounds like vision may be treated as a projectile?!

It's kind of absurd that they released the final patch with such a glaring error. This is why PC gaming, and people having the ability to make unofficial patches is such a good thing.

 

[praetor_alpha]

I've played countless hours of Far Cry. So much so, that I had to buy it twice because I wore out the disc!

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

it is worth playing if you have a newer entry of the series, say Farcry 3?


btw i was thinking about all those poor miserable souls that died at the hands of EA the other day, and i got reminded of pandemic, you should totally review Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, id consider it their magnum opus and one of the best open world games there are, its just a shame a PC version was never made, the game is only avaliable on the original Xbox and PS2