Far Cry is a tactical first person shooter where you’re a lone wolf in an idyllic island paradise. However, you’re imminently pitted in opposition to mercenaries that are hunting you down. Due to this you need to select your battles and strategies accordingly. Using stealth is a very effective way of sneaking through the islands to keep away from your enemies. It is particularly beneficial at times as ammo is scarce for the first half of the game (at least anyway based on play style and the difficulty selected). Especially when you need to scavenge through huts, bases and other areas for weapons and resources you need in order to survive.
This game is very enjoyable. At first, I enjoyed the feeling of being a lone wolf on a dangerous island. This game also requires you to think everything through in every possible way. In order to accomplish your goals, you must put together your plans on how approach an objective. Whether it is through performing reconnaissance on a given location to know what you are up against. Then infiltrating an area and eliminating mercenaries when needed in order to gather needed supplies. Alternately, a full frontal attack can be used to finish tasks. Depending on what occurs, you can mix and match your strategies. By eliminating a few mercenaries you can create dread and panic before launching a full frontal assault. Sadly, this just applies to the game’s opening. As the second part’s narrative/play style changes, it becomes something else.
This game is lengthy, taking 18.5 hours to complete. Whilst the first half of the game is great because you can play however you like. But after the games focus starts to focus more on Trigens than survival/tactics. The game switches from being a realistic military simulation to a straight-forward sci-fi shooter. This places a greater emphasis on combat than on survival or strategy. This is noticeable in some of the latter game circumstances where you have to engage in direct combat.
Whilst this is an old game it is fun and graphically the game still holds up. I like the intricate details present in game like wildlife roaming around and bullet casings exit the gun when fired. The plethora of visual effects used in game is impressive for a game of that era. Whether that is splash effects in the water/the bubble effects while swimming underwater. It is also prevalent on land such as bullet holes or the wildlife that is existent in the background. Â Regardless of the level of visual detail that this game has. The game does have many bugs; although the majority of them are mainly visual.
However, the present build of the game is the biggest issue because it is practically unplayable. Due to the enemy AI, this is explicitly with build (1.4). As the opponent can fire through walls and sense you through them. This does make the game very difficult and eliminates the use of fear or stealth. Even though I’ve beat the game on build 1.4’s realistic setting, it was an extremely frustrating experience.
One last criticism I have is the fact that you can only play as the game’s main character. This game has lost some of its potential by not including a campaign for Valerie. Since the game should have included a campaign that was about Valerie. Â As Valerie only appears in one section of the game (excluding cutscenes), in which you accompany her. For the rest of the game she isn’t present. I would have liked a standalone campaign that showed her role in game was present. As I would have liked to find out about her back story and her involvement in the games plot.
Overall, I’d recommend buying the game during the steam sales because it isn’t worth paying full price. As it is one campaign that lacks replay value. In spite of this I’d recommend the game to older gamers who like first person/survival games. However this game is old and the graphics aren’t mind blowing. It is also necessary to repair the steam version of the game. To do this you need to download patches for older versions of the game. The patches are available from the hyperlink below which offers the required patches (versions 1.3 through to 1.33.). Each patch must be installed into your far cry folder on steam folder (Steam/steamapps/common/FarCry).
