Thanks to its combination of unmatched beauty and riveting gameplay, Far Cry earns itself a seat among the FPS gods.
The first thing that should be discussed in any Far Cry review is the game's awesome presentation. It ain't quite Doom 3, but it's damned close. Far Cry's lighting, shading, particle and water effects stand out way above anything the genre has ever seen. Also of note is the game's amazingly long draw distance – you can snipe an enemy guard, safely nestled on a mountain perch literally halfway across the island. Character models are elaborately and painstakingly detailed, and the thermal vision/night vision combo ("CryVision") would blow Sam Fisher off his stealth ninja horse. All this praise adds up to the conclusion that Far Cry is the most beautiful title that any gamer can play right now, period.
It should be noted that all this power comes at a price - namely, the retail price of an insanely powerful PC. Running on an Athlon 3200+ with a Radeon 9700 Pro and 512 MB of PC3200 RAM, Far Cry still dropped to a sluggish framerate with all options turned to the highest level. It was certainly playable, and the slight dip in performance was more than worth the visual splendor; but to get silky smooth framerates, you're going to need an absolute top-of-the-heap system, with no less than a gig of RAM and a 9800 XT/GeForce FX.
That said, the gameplay is truly worth the upgrade for any die-hard FPS fan. While certain portions of Far Cry do feature the option of being stealthy, the emphasis here is most decidedly on shooting things. Almost every weapon, from the Sniper "Invisible-Hand-Of-God" Rifle, right down to the lowly pistol, feels just as an instrument of death incarnate should – deadly, accurate, and powerful. You'll need all this firepower, too – Far Cry features some of the most intense enemy AI since Half-Life. Guards will attempt to flank, snipe, and wait out your character. Thankfully, when things get TOO intense, you often have the choice to either flee or stay and fight, with increased firepower – Far Cry features an abundance of vehicles, all of which are armed to the teeth.
Far Cry has a competent multiplayer component, but the emphasis is squarely focused on the engaging single player campaign. In spite of long load times at the start of each level and almost obscene system requirements, Far Cry is an experience that all shooter fans should play as soon as humanly (and financially) possible.
-George
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