Far Cry
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Wikipedia-Article "Far Cry"
| Far Cry | |
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| Developer(s) | Crytek |
| Publisher(s) | Ubisoft |
| Designer(s) | |
| Engine | CryENGINE |
| Latest version | {{{version}}} |
| Release date(s) | March 23, 2004 |
| Genre | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M) PEGI: 16+ |
| Platform(s) | PC (Windows) |
| Media | CD or DVD |
| System requirements | 1 GHz processor, 256 MiB RAM, DirectX 9.0b or higher |
| Input | |
Far Cry is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Crytek Studios and published by Ubisoft on March 23, 2004. The game's story follows an ex-Special Forces man named Jack Carver, who is stranded on a mysterious Pacific archipelago. He is searching for a female journalist he was escorting after she went missing when their sailboat was destroyed by mercenaries.
On April 7, 2004, CryTek announced Far Cry Instincts for Xbox and PS2 systems. The PS2 port was later cancelled because the system was not powerful enough. Far Cry Instincts is now exclusive to Xbox and was released to wide acclaim on September 27, 2005 in the U.S.
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Graphics
Crytek developed a new game engine called "CryENGINE" for Far Cry. Reportedly the game was born out of a technology demo made by Crytek to showcase the capabilities of the nVidia GeForce 3. The game features relatively long view or draw distance, similar to Operation Flashpoint, but has a better rendering system for vegetation. Also, all of the level territory is accessible to the player without loading pauses. The game engine features seamless transitions between indoor and outdoor areas (that utilises slightly different lighting and rendering models).
Graphically, the game makes extensive use of pixel shaders. For example, water shaders are frequently used throughout the levels and have a significant effect on visual quality.
Character detail is also improved thanks to Crytek's Polybump normal mapping technology. These effects are used extensively in both indoor and outdoor levels.
The release of the 1.3 patch saw the introduction of HDR (High Dynamic Range) in the CryEngine. When enabled (and running on a graphics card that supports the technology), this allows for increased graphical capabilities by simulating the opening and closing of the eye's iris, depending on the amount of light seen at any given time. For example, staring directly at the sun and then looking back at the beach would result in the beach appearing darker than normal for a few seconds, then gradually returning to normal luminance after the "exposure" levels became normal once more. This also means that in low-light conditions (such as a darkened passageway), the player would notice a greater viewing capability as the simulated iris would have widened to see greater details, but the moment he or she exits back to the outside, the iris would narrow and hence the player would notice a shift in brightness levels. HDR was only implemented in beta form in the CryEngine, and several other games have more complete and convincing examples of the technology. Another example of games using the High Dynamic Range rendering are Half-Life 2 (but only the Lost Coast Addon-map that is free and downloadable over Steam), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Age of Empires 3 (with shaders set to Very High/Max). It is important to differ between Bloom and HDR-rendering since Bloom was/is mostly used to simulate a true HDR implementation. Despite this fact, you might find Bloom and HDR together in a game. Bloom adds some sort of blurry look, but might hide details.
Artificial intelligence
Human enemies in the game have advanced artificial intelligence (AI), which favourably compared with other shooters (though its capabilities made minor glitches more apparent). The enemies are capable of navigating the large levels, using vehicles when necessary. They are frequently visible patrolling, chatting with each other (CryTek wrote a lot of humorous dialog for mercenaries that provides a backstory, showing how players' actions affect the archipelago population (although some people complained about the quality of the voice acting)), idling, fishing, fixing equipment, etc. They can call for reinforcements and execute coordinated attacks, outflanking and surrounding the player.
The tropical jungle provides a lot of cover and the game allows the player to use it to hide from the enemies. These enemies don't know the position of the player unless they see or hear him, but notably, they can remember his last known position and go there to investigate. The enemy's actions are generally not scripted, although scripts are used to time sequences, eg. spawning enemies to populate a base when the player entered the area. After the start of a sequence, every enemy is driven by its AI.
AI movement area and cover are defined in the level design. Without this definition set by the designer the enemies are far less effective against the player. They will also not move as realistically as would otherwise be expected.
Gameplay
The game was notable for its open ended structure, providing a multitude of ways to complete a given objective. It incorporates a good mix of arcade-like and realistic gameplay, forcing to the player to effectively use cover while still allowing an upfront approach. For instance, there are no forced stealth segments and setting off an alarm would not result in mission failure.
Several vehicles exist that can be used in the levels. Some of them are:
- Buggy
- Jeep (armed with machine gun/rocket turret)
- Inflatable boat
- Patrol boat (armed with machine gun/rocket Launcher)
- Large truck
- Forklift
The ambient sounds of the game are worthy of mention. The score is variegated from a quiet melody (when exploring large landscapes) to high tempo beats (while at close encounters). The transformation from one mood to another is smooth.
However, many players found Far Cry to be poorly balanced. The difficulty increased sharply in the later levels, causing much frustration when combined with the game's "checkpoint" saving system, which eliminated manual saving. The increased difficulty changes the game, requiring more stealth and precision to even up the odds against the player. An update patch released later added a quicksave feature found in most single player first-person shooter games.
Multiplayer game types
- FFA or "Free For All" - score points by killing other opponents
- TDM or "Team Death Match" - score points by killing opponents in the other team
- Assault - a "Capture The Flag" type of game, where one team is defending flags, and the other is attacking. 3 types of player classes can be selected for this type of game: sniper, engineer and soldier/grunt. The sniper has a sniper rifle and binoculars, and can hit targets at great distances. The engineer has a wrench to build walls, towers, guns etc. and also has bombs to be placed to destruct the same if on attacking team. This game type has optimal numbers. With too many or too little players objectives can become impossible to take or to hold.
Level Editor
The game engine features a built-in real-time editor that makes creating large outdoor levels easier, circumventing the need to load the game to test a custom level, or to see the in-game effects of any changes. This enabled CryTek designers to add much detail to levels, creating many different paths while reducing the time spent on level design. This allows the player to choose more approaches to solving goals, providing a more open and non-linear experience.
Game-to-film Adaptation
The game-to-film enthusiast Uwe Boll (Alone in the Dark and House of the Dead) gained the rights to a Far Cry movie, purportedly even before it came out. Shooting is set to start in late 2005.
System Requirements
Minimum:
- Operating system: Windows 98 SE/ME/2000/XP/64 Bit.
- 1 GHz CPU
- 256 MB RAM
- DirectX 9.0b
- Video Card: 64 MB DirectX 9.0b-compatible graphics card
- Sound Card: DirectX 9.0b-compatible PCI expansion card
- 4x DVD-ROM; CD-ROM
- 4 GB hard drive space
- Multiplayer: Broadband with 64 kbit/s upstream to play (512 kbit/s upstream to host 8 players)
Recommended:
- AMD Athlon 2400-3000+ or Intel Pentium 4 2-3 GHz
- 512-1024 MB RAM
- Video Card: 128 MB GeForce 4 to GeForce FX 5950; ATI Radeon 9500-9800 XT
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy series
- 8x-16x DVD-ROM
There is also a 400mb patch for the game to upgrade to the 64 bit edition. This version only works with a 64 bit CPU and Windows XP 64 bit edition. Crytek claims this improves performance and some elements of the graphical display.
Weapons
- Machete — Boomerang Machete
- Jungle Falcon — a fictional Desert Eagle clone
- Jackhammer Shotgun — semi-auto/auto shotgun
- P90 — fires 5.7mm KE rounds (in the game, shares ammunition with the MP5SD)
- MP5SD — fires 9mm KE suppressed rounds (in the game, shares ammunition with the P90)
- M4 Carbine — fires 5.56mm KE rounds
- G36 w/ AG36 — an assault rifle firing 5.56 KE rounds, with an underslung 40mm grenade launcher
- XM-29 OICW — an assault rifle firing 5.56mm KE rounds as well as 20mm airburst fragmentation rounds
- AW50 Sniper Rifle — fires .338 Lapua Magnum rounds
- M249 — machine gun, fires 5.56mm KE rounds
- Rocket Launcher
- Mortar (Stationary)
- Vulcan Minigun (Stationary) — Fires 7.62 KE rounds
- Grenade
- Flashbang (non-lethal)
- Smoke Grenade (non-lethal)