Pack your bags and grab some sunscreen, because you’re heading off to our beautiful tropical islands. Our islands are filled with gorgeous wild life and various fun activities. Some of these great activities include a joyful ride in one of our boats with an attached rocket launcher and machine gun or playing around with one of our many strategically positioned mini-guns. Just be careful you don’t disturb the local natives though. They may not look nice, but as long as you don’t bother them they won’t hurt you; much. Welcome to the beautiful land of Far Cry where all your vacation needs can be fulfilled and where bloodthirsty mercenaries stalk your every move.
Crytek and Ubisoft’s upcoming game, Far Cry, looks to revolutionize the first person shooter genre. From open-ended gameplay to great graphics and sound, Far Cry seems to have it all. For those of you who don’t have the means of downloading the recent 500MB demo, we’ll discuss the demo in detail as well as giving you the latest scoop on the multiplayer component of Far Cry and the storyline behind this great looking shooter.
As Jack Carver, you run a charter-boat business with just one boat serving as your home. Valerie, a female reporter, offers Mr. Carver a nice sum of money to charter his boat to an island full of mysterious military activity. The next thing you know your boat’s destroyed, Valerie has been kidnapped, and your adventure has just begun. Throughout the course of the game you’re out to get back at the mercenary soldiers who destroyed all of your belongings and to rescue Valerie. It’s not exactly our perfect idea of a tropical island vacation.
Recently a 500MB demo has been released letting you try out the action in Far Cry. It’s basically a beta demo as many graphical features are missing from the demo, but it still gives us enough gameplay to see how this great shooter will turn out. In Far Cry there are many different islands you can go to and the demo takes place on the course of one island. Your main objective is to get to the top of the island and destroy the radar dish. The first outstanding thing you’ll probably notice is the draw distance. Far Cry has very long draw distances that seem to be miles long and by using your binoculars you can easily spy on people and even hear what they have to say to each other. This allows for more opportunities to sneak around easier and makes the game more open-ended.
The game is linear to a certain point. When first going onto the island, you’re basically limited to three direct paths, or beaches, to take. Once you’re on the island, however, you can do and go wherever you want. You have the complete choice of going in like Rambo or just sneaking around by using your stealth meter and radar.
Yes, you can actually sneak your way by the mercenaries throughout the whole level. While sneaking around the environment, one of your main allies is the dense foliage. The island is covered in realistic trees, grass, and bushes that all sway with the wind and even cast shadows on you. It’s some of the most believable forests we’ve ever seen in a game. Occasionally you’ll see some more wild life including birds, fish, and even a wild boar. Also, the inclusion of vehicles such as boats, jeeps, and hang gliders will help you get around the huge environment much easier.
Far Cry also includes some awesome ragdoll effects and AI. The enemy soldiers will take orders from their squad leader, try to flank you depending on where and how you attacked them, and they will also hunt you down at the best of their ability. As an added plus in realism, it doesn’t take much to kill them. Usually one bullet to the head, or even the chest, will take them down. If their bodies fall into the water, the ragdoll physics make for a very believable corpse floating up and down with their misty blood seeping into the water. Hit detection is also being used which creates a bullet hole on your enemy at the exact spot where you shot him.
One thing that wasn’t included in this demo is the multiplayer component of Far Cry. The multiplayer game modes will include deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture-the-flag. The multiplayer maps will also be quite large for just a dozen or so players.
Far Cry will also ship with an easy-to-use editor. It will enable you to easily put together a large outdoor environment or an indoor area by simply dragging and clicking. You’ll also be able to easily morph the terrain as well as adjust the starting time of day and change the wind direction and speed. The editor even allows you to make your own cinematic sequences. You will also be able to play your newly created map directly at the same time you’re editing it allowing you to make the smallest of changes to your design.
With its multiplayer gameplay, open-ended single-player environments, and its easy-to-use editor, Far Cry will have plenty of great gameplay to offer. After only playing a beta demo we’re really impressed with what we saw and can’t wait to get our hands on the full version. Far Cry should be exploding its way onto your PC on March 23, 2004.
