I have always been a sucker for first-person shooters. Even with some of the worst ones, I can find something redeeming about the game to make it fun. Maybe the reason I am such a sucker for these shooters is that after playing a game as good as Far Cry, it just makes you feel lucky that we have the games we do today. While Far Cry doesn't necessarily do anything revolutionary, it definately delivers the best all-around FPS experience since the orignal Halo.
The last FPS I played was Doom 3. So to say I was going into this game spoiled by visuals, was an understatement. Far Cry doesn't look as good as Doom 3, but what does? This game does have the best graphics I have seen on this console other than that game. And people may argue that the visuals are just as good, but used in a different way. The enviroments are gorgeous and varied. When you first start playing, you will be blown away by how nice a jungle can look in a game. You definately get the feel that you are actually there. While the lighting is great at that point, you really don't notice it until you move to a darker area where the game really shows it's stuff.
And the enviroments are huge! When you first start the game, you might feel a little intimidated by how large the jungle area is. It feels like you could literally walk in hour in each direction. What's even better is that you could have an enemy 3 feet in front of you, but not see him because of the foilage that is in your way. It brings a nice tension to exploring your surroundings. The characters all look very nice as well. It's great to see the use of rag-doll physics when you smack a soldier upside his head. The weapons all look cool and feel realistic. My only slight complaint is that there is some noticible draw-in at a few parts in the game.
While the music didn't blow me away, it has it's moments. It kicks in more when you are about to encounter a large group of enemies that you have to take out. I didn't care for that audio cue too much, though. I would rather just be surprised by a bullet whizzing by my skull. All of the voice acting is pretty good. Stephen Dorff does the voice of Jack Carver (the main character). And it was nice to play a FPS where the main character actually speaks!! I also love how all of the weapons sound. The shotgun is a particular favorite of mine and how it shook my speakers (and probably annoyed my roomates) every time I used it.
Like I said, Far Cry doesn't do anything revolutionary really. It's mainly get from point A to point B alive and kill as many enemies as you can. But everything about the game is done so well and you have so much fun doing it that you don't really care. The story isn't much to chew on, but it still delivers. The whole evil mad-doctor thing (think 'Island Of Dr. Moreau') has been done before. I do like how everything in the game is shown from a first person view. Kinda reminds me of Half-Life in that way. So what is so special about the gameplay? It's just that it combines everything into a really fun package and it doesn't really do anything wrong. I literally sat back and tried to think of one gameplay flaw and I couldn't. There are some really tough parts in the game that bring up a question of difficulty balance, but the auto-save points are placed so well that it's not really an issue.
Far Cry really gives you the feel like you are actually in the game, which is important in a FPS. The weapons all handle well and they are well balanced. Not one stands out as over-powerful and none of them feel useless even later in the game. The enemy AI is pretty good and will take cover and chuck grenades at you if you aren't careful. The enemy definately likes to use the enviroment to it's advantage and flank you whenever possible. The controls are very tight and mapped to the controller well. Far Cry just does everything right and almost nothing wrong. Some games might do one or two things better than Far Cry, but they also have problems that Far Cry doesn't even come close to having. This is just a great all-around game. I highly recommend this to any videogame fan and any shooter fan should go pick this up immediately.
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