Far Cry

Far Cry is a first-person shooter video game developed by German video game company Crytek and published by Ubisoft on March 23, 2004, for Microsoft Windows. It is the first installment in the Far Cry series and sold 730,000 units within four months of release. It received positive reviews upon release. The original game has since spawned a series of sequels and spin-off games.

Plot

Jack Carver has left his mysterious and bitter past behind him and dropped out of society to run a boat-charter business in the South Pacific. He is hired by a woman named Val Cortez to take her secretly to an uncharted island in Micronesia. After Val takes off on her own with a jet-ski, Jack's boat is blown apart by a rocket. With the help of a man named Doyle, Jack travels across the various islands, battling mysterious mercenaries in search for Val. Through encounters with Trigens (genetically altered beasts) and information from Doyle, Jack soon discovers that the island is part of an experiment involving genetic modification, funded by the genetic company Krieger Corp. and led by its CEO, Dr Krieger.


As the game progresses, it becomes clear that the Trigens, who are running loose, are becoming too large a problem for the mercenaries to handle, and that the experiments are not limited to just primate mutations, but moved on to mutating mercenaries. When Jack finally catches up with Val, she is being taken to another area by a helicopter, stopped by Jack. After swimming to shore, Val reveals that she is an undercover CIA agent and is investigating Krieger’s operations.
After further exploration, Jack must again search for and rescue Val while the human Trigens have escaped and have begun a revolt against the mercenaries on the island. After rescuing Val, they split up again and reunite when Jack has killed the mercenary commander, Crowe. Information Crowe had with him indicates Krieger has a tactical nuke on the island, that he intended to use as a last resort in covering his tracks, should his projects be investigated.

After the Department of Defense has supposedly analyzed the situation, Jack and Val steal the nuclear weapon, despite Jack's protests. Before entering the factory, Doyle warns that the mutagen might infect them when the blast goes off, and advises them to take a mutagen-resistant serum before arming the nuke. Inside the factory, they do so and arm the nuke, which detonates directly behind Jack and Val as they exit the factory, leaving them unconscious.

While Jack and Val are unconscious, Krieger captures them before leaving to his main base in helicopter. Jack, kicked off the helicopter, has to fight through the Trigen-infested area to rescue Val and escape the islands with his life. Upon reaching a mercenary weapons cache, Jack notices his arm is turning green. Doyle responds that the mutagen concentration on the air might be too strong for the antidote, but Krieger is working on a cure in a laboratory nearby. Jack is thus directed to find Krieger, who injected himself with the mutagen but is ultimately defeated.

In his last breath, Krieger reveals that there is no cure for the mutagen. Doyle reveals the ‘antidote’ they took earlier was the very mutagen they were trying to protect themselves from and reveals that he plans to sell the mutagen formula on the black market before fleeing. After battling through a horde of Trigens, Jack catches up with Doyle and kills him. Jack then escapes just before the volcano, in which Krieger's main offices were located, erupts and both he and Val are cured from the mutagen and manage to sail off on a boat.

Gameplay

The tropical rain forest provides cover and concealment, of which the player and enemies can take advantage. Enemies react dynamically to the player's tactics and actions. If a lone mercenary spots a player, he occasionally runs for help, signaling reinforcements through use of flareguns. Enemies will work together to outmaneuver, outflank, surround, and provide suppressive fire, providing them a tactical advantage over the player, who, in turn, is able to spot and mark enemies on his minimap through use of special binoculars, which also grant the player the ability to listen to enemy conversations from afar, merely by pointing the binoculars in the direction of the enemies. Later in the gameplay, use of thermo binoculars can be used to locate the heat signatures of enemies, that would be otherwise concealed by foliage or darkness.

The environment includes land, water, indoor and outdoor structures, all during various times of the day. The player has the ability to jump, run, crouch and lie down, and look in just about every direction.

Sound plays an important part in the overall gameplay. For example, the general location of enemies can often be identified by hearing their footsteps or conversations.

Throughout the game, the player encounters a variety of weapons from which to choose, including automatic weapons and grenades.

Map features

The open maps allow the player to complete their objectives in several different manners. When outdoors, the player is usually presented with a fairly simple possible route to his objective, but this doesn't necessarily have to be used. The jungle of the maps tends to sprawl out in all directions, allowing players to achieve different angles for assaults, or even completely circumvent enemies (given enough time to manoeuvre). However, during the indoor sections of the game, level design tends to lose this attribute in favour of a more traditional linear gameplay.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer features three different modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and 'Assault' - An attack/defend mode where one team must guard three bases and the other must capture them.