I'm generally not a shooter guy. Sure, I love Goldeneye, Halo, and Half-Life, but I'm usually content to stick with my role-playing and strategy games. Even so, Far Cry sucked me in, kept me shamelessly addicted for several days, and rocketed its way up my list of all-time favorites.
STORY: You play as Jack Carver, an special forces operative turned tour guide. During a seemingly normal tour of a tropical island, Jack's boat is destroyed by a rocket. Jack swims to shore to find the tropical paradise swarming with mercenaries who, for all their trash-talking, never really stood a chance against me and my medium difficulty level badassedness. As Jack tries to get off the island, he uncovers a nefarious scheme concerning a mutant army. This plot is serviceable for an FPS, but the dialogue is atrocious. Surprisingly, this doesn't seem to hurt the game. In fact, it almost adds a layer of camp, as you can take a break from the action to laugh at the terrible lines. Imagine going back and forth between playing Half-Life and watching scenes from Commando or Red Dawn. That's Far Cry for you, and its undeniably fun.
GAMEPLAY: One of the things I liked about Far Cry was that it was more like Counter-Strike than Unreal Tournament. Guns decrease in accuracy while you run and increase in accuracy while you crouch or go prone. Far Cry is never a mindless strafe war. Its all about quickly planting yourself and taking out your opponents with cold efficiency. Its like CS on steroids. Add to that the drivable vehicles and stationary gun mounts, and you've got some very fun and addictive FPS gameplay.
PLAYABILITY: Far Cry is very well designed. The open levels allow for lots of freedom in how you get from point A to point B. Also, Far Cry features a Halo-style checkpoint system. I personally like the lack of a quick save because it forces you to get good at the game. Fortunately, the check points come often enough so that you never get to frustrated. There are some extremely frustrating moments that require a lot of trial and error, but they don't get in the way too much. Also, Far Cry doesn't get old fast. Just when you think that the game is starting to get repetitive, you suddenly reach a new level, encounter a new bad guy, or end up in a new scenario. And here's the best part: unlike most action games, Far Cry is not ridiculously short. I wasn't keeping track, but I'd estimate that its at least as long as Max Payne 2 and Chronicles of Riddick combined.
GRAPHICS/SOUND: Amazing. Simply amazing, though you'll probably need one hell of a computer to run it well (fortunately, I'd just upgraded for Half-Life 2 purposes). Everything from the insanely good water effects to the little details never ceased to amaze me.
GOOD: Stunning graphics; intense gameplay; a lot of freedom in the outdoor level; lots of memorable moments; not too short and never boring.
BAD: Writing could be better; you need a really good computer to run it well; a few amazingly frustrating parts.
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