Far Cry

By Kristan Reed Published 11 February, 2004

Oh I do love to die beside the seaside! Oh I do love to die beside the sea!

Remind us to laugh heartily in the faces of any first-person developer foolish enough to make confident release date predictions in future. Last year was vintage for that kind of malarkey, with the likes of Breed, Doom III, Half-Life 2, Condition Zero (not to mention, cough, DNF, otherwise known as Did Not Finish) all falling by the wayside for various tenuous reasons, but still I found myself nodding enthusiastically when back at ECTS in August, Crytek's Frank Yerli assured me that Far Cry was "very nearly finished", and that a late November release date was a formality. But just like every first-person shooter ever created, our faith was misplaced and it got pulled back to its current slot of a late March release.

Seeing as the one level demo has recently been released, as well as the commencement of a multiplayer beta test, we thought it was about time we cautiously revised our interest in this German-built FPS - if only to establish whether our PC is still up to the task.

Jack and Val's summer vacation

'Far Cry' Screenshot 1

Having been shown two fully-functioning levels at ECTS, this was another chance for Crytek to come good on their promises that its Caribbean island-based FPS could stand alongside this year's most-anticipated PC titles. But before we go into that, let's refresh your memory as to why we're here.

You're Jack Mariner, a freelance mariner who finds himself fighting for his life after taking a freelance reporter, Valerie, to an apparently unspoiled paradise island. But just as he's about to drop her off, he's greeted by a hail of gunfire from a bunch of angry militia who are not particularly well versed in the art of welcoming guests. Stranded on the island with nothing but a gun, the game eventually sees you unravelling a madman's plot, thus giving you an excuse to shoot everything that moves, and Crytek an excuse to show off its not inconsiderable skills at rendering lush foliage.

With this in mind, it's therefore a bit of a puzzle to kick off this one level demo ('Fort') in a motor powered inflatable dingy. At what point in the proceedings this demo occurs isn't clear, but the purpose of the level is to take out the militia's communications facility, which basically involves blowing up a satellite dish and legging it off the base.

Tears of joy

'Far Cry' Screenshot 2

As we've observed in the past, the Cry engine is something to behold, boasting some of the most technically impressive views ever attempted - and all possible without utterly crippling your system. Being set on a tropical island has given Crytek the room to show off incredibly lush foliage, detailed bump mapping, the shiniest water imaginable as well as the obligatory superb lighting and particle effects. It risks looking samey very quickly, and admittedly the novelty value does wear off surprisingly quickly, but with several underground sections to explore, there's scope for some detailed indoor environments to break up the jungle fever.

Even on a GeForce 4 Ti4600 powered system everything ran with supreme smoothness. The game's auto detect system insisted on putting everything on Medium, but even whacking everything up to Very High didn't cause the PC any problems, and made a big difference in the general detail level - especially the paths, which went from being a bland smudge to crisply detailed in the process. For graphics whores, Far Cry is most certainly something that will cause a lot of excitement - although we'd have to voice concern that the enemies all seem to have the same appearance and have an overly generic look to them from what we've seen so far.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, you start off armed only with a pistol and a machete, and it's clear that you have to tread a little carefully if you want to live more than a few seconds. Should you blunder onto the shore, you'll almost certainly be raked with lead and forced back to the start. After several false starts (and no manual save on the demo), I eventually made it past the first bunch of grunts, grabbed their Assault Rifles and Sub-Machine Guns and from there on it was a fairly straightforward trudge towards the beach, pausing to try out the newly acquired Sniper Rifle before tacking the steep slopes of the island.

For crying out loud

'Far Cry' Screenshot 3

Fairly quickly it's apparent that the game hinges around throwing enemies at you in manageable clusters of fours and fives. You're given a window of opportunity to strike the first blow almost every time, allowing you to take out a couple before the rest are alerted and come hurtling after you. The AI is supposedly 'advanced in adaptive group tactics', but in reality this appears to mean that they run at you shouting insults, lobbing grenades and generally behaving like a gung-ho mob who wouldn't know duck and cover from a Chinese takeaway. Hrm.

Sure, they respond to sight and sound and alert each other, but on the default medium difficulty level they generally make life very easy for you, always rushing into your line of fire with lemming-esque obedience. Having played the likes of Vietcong: Fist Alpha recently it seems almost embarrassingly easy and dumbed down by comparison. Not only that, their behaviour in the demo seems more than a little odd, with some enemies becoming semi-stuck behind boxes. We assumed they were taking cover, but it's not as if they're leaning around corners and returning fire - most of the time they just stand there waiting to be shot. Add to that the fact that the game checkpoint saves for you about 12 times during the demo, and it's not exactly giving the impression of a game that will hold up veterans of the genre for very long.

Doffing its cap to Halo, Far Cry has adopted a limited arsenal system, although in this case you appear to be limited to four weapons as opposed to merely two. Along with the weapons we mentioned previously, we were also given a brief chance to take aim with a tasty rocket launcher in order to take out a plane and a couple of determined choppers. Various gun emplacements are also mounted in key positions, but I never actually had any reason to use one, sadly. On the whole all the weapons look, feel and sound suitably chunky - perhaps not the most imaginative selection ever attempted, but we'll reserve judgement until we get our hands on the finished article.

Whetting

'Far Cry' Screenshot 4

Multiplayer wise, Far Cry has bags of potential with such an industrious engine. Depending on the map design, there's huge scope for the kind of tense jungle combat that Vietcong excelled at - albeit with a far superior ability to render dense foliage. Although we dabbled in the three map beta test last month, there wasn't enough activity to get a proper session going, and the server didn't seem to be up to the job at the time. Apart from the standard deathmatch slugfest, there was a domination mode involving the capture of checkpoints (in this case aerial masts), but the most interesting (and least populated) was the team-based defend/attack mode which consisted of a class-based system where one of your members builds up a wall around a mast that you must defend at all costs. Unfortunately this descended into farce with about three a side, but the potential is definitely there, especially given the number of vehicles supported in the game.

Perhaps the overriding concern from everyone who has played the demo is "yes it's pretty, but it feels like A.N.OTHER shooter", and it's hard to come up with a counter to that argument based on this rather straightforward and downright unimaginative demo, which does little to show off the vehicle mechanics, the potential of the physics (apart from a few opportunities to blow up barrels and watch them bounce around a bit), or how strong the narrative is.

But rather like Ubi's other recent FPS, XIII, taken out of context it's possible to come to hasty conclusions about its overall worth based on the demo. If Far Cry can create anywhere near as compelling an atmosphere as XIII then it may well be able to win over the doubters, but as things stand, all we've really been shown here is a pretty game engine and some fairly rudimentary AI routines - not exactly what we were hoping for to be brutally honest, but we haven't given up on the game yet and will be the first to sing its praises if the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (52) Latest comment 8 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • tiddles #1 8 years ago

    You're Jack Mariner, a freelance mariner

    Good thing he didn't want to be a fireman when he grew up then

  • ssuellid #2 8 years ago

    I thought it was the most promising demo I have played in ages.

    The choice of different routes, vehicles, buildings, stealth or not, etc propelled it way above the usual demos that I delete shortly after downloading.

  • BravoGolf #3 8 years ago

    Meh

  • Tiitiz #4 8 years ago

    Thought it was an excellent demo myself. Runs so smooth on my set up and especially since I got the Prophetview 920 Pro TFT :)

    /awaits release

  • UncleLou #5 8 years ago

    Gah krudster, admit it, this is a reader review submitted by peej! ;-)

    I agree with ssuellid, and I've had more fun with this demo than with a lot of full games I've played. You seem to be pretty harsh on the AI - it has a few flaws, alright, but it's pretty impressive nonetheless. They don't know where you are when you hide, they take cover and hide when you use the sniper rifle and they realise they can't get to you, they sneak up on you, flank you etc. There's more AI here than in many other FPS combined.
    Edited by 1 at 11/02/04 @ 12:37

  • Flib #6 8 years ago

    A wee bit harsh me thinks.

    Best demo i've played since the original C&C and the only game i've pre ordered without waiting for a review. The AIs not perfect but certainly a big step up from your run of the mill FPS AI. It even flanked me a few times
    Edited by 1 at 11/02/04 @ 12:49

  • tiddles #7 8 years ago

    Judging from the demo at least, this game is much more in the Wolfenstein camp than with the realism of Vietcong/Flashpoint. I thought the AI was fine - maybe a bit gung-ho, but that's what you want in this kind of game. I also wouldn't be surprised if later, more difficult enemies turn out to be a bit more devious - the guys in the demo are the grunts after all.

    What really impressed me in the demo was how polished the overall package was - there were no elements that stood out as being significantly less well developed than anything else. I reckon this game's gonna be big.

  • ssuellid #8 8 years ago

    Kai, sounds like your PC is knackered in some way. The demo ran fine on my Athlon 1400 with GF3. I do have 768MB of RAM tho.

  • Roarer #9 8 years ago

    It wasn't very smooth on my P4 2.4 Ghz 512 MB Geforce 4600TI either...

  • ssuellid #10 8 years ago

    Yet it was smooth on 'Very High Detail' on Krudsters GeForce 4 Ti4600? Wierd. But he has problems with Vietcong which works fine on my PC - I have upgraded to a 2600 Athlon but the graphics card is the same GF3 I used when I ran FarCry.
    Edited by 1 at 11/02/04 @ 13:48

  • deadlock #11 8 years ago

    I now have two solid reasons to upgrade my creaking P3-500 w/256Mb RAM and GeForce something or other.

  • Tiger_Walts #12 8 years ago

    It ran surprisingly well on my 486-33DX 32 Mb RAM and Savage 3, I think you guys are having a driver problem. :p

  • deadlock #13 8 years ago

    Tiger_Walts:

    Are you serious, or taking the mick?

  • mugwump #14 8 years ago

    lol @ Tiger - way to go mate...

    That's a heck of a lot of ram for a 486 though! Brings me right back - you could get quite a bit to run on those babies. Most I pushed one running at 66mhz was Wing Commander 3 with a whopping 8mb ram (missions took 10-15 minutes to load). Still managed to complete the game, 50 odd missions and all ;)

  • Kami #15 8 years ago

    So... this should run like melted butter on my new PC then?

    ...

    good.

  • pjmaybe #16 8 years ago

    it *SHOULD* run like hot melted butter through Kylie's thighs on my PC but for some reason it just took exception to both my video card and the PC itself (bog standard P4 3.2ghz running a GeForce4 MX with the latest drivers on etc)

    But I won't lose any sleep over it. When I finally did get it working it didn't quite look as "lush" as I expected...but I'll be mightily miffed if this is the standard for future games (at the very least, having to have a 128mb graphics card...!)

    Peej

  • Tiger_Walts #17 8 years ago

    RAM was never the problem, it was getting a bleeding CD-ROM and a game to run at the same time, ended up with about 5 different boot disks to keep the conventional memory free!

    Took ages to getting '7th Guest' to run, which ended up crashing half way through.

  • deadlock #18 8 years ago

    Note to self: read ENTIRE post before commenting...

  • mugwump #19 8 years ago

    hmm

    I think the demo has issues with radeon cards when it comes to performance (although I've had recommendations that it prefers with cat 3.9 drivers over all others, though I haven't checked). I'm using the 3.10 drivers, and performance bounces around the 30fps mark at 1280x1024 on a 9800 pro with 128mb ram (p4 2.4ghz, 1gig ddr400 ram). FSAA doesn't seem to work either. Not exactly incredibly smooth :p

  • mugwump #20 8 years ago

    Can't remember what spec I ran the 7th guest on, though I do remember using my first cdrom driver (external parallel port connected running at 1x) to play it. The videos were all cut up and jerky, but I still thought it was the best thing since sliced bread - AMAZING graphics! ;)

    Days of boot disks - it was amazing just how much "fun" you could have fiddling with config.sys and autoexec.bat. XMS, HIMEM.SYS, EMM386. RamDrive. Ho hum...

  • Tiger_Walts #21 8 years ago

    ...and I never got Alone in the Dark to work!

  • Nemesis #22 8 years ago

    Well I quite liked it! Ran like /insert dirty mac Peej Comment Here/ on the 9800pro and it was great fun to play through.

    The vehicles need some work, however, as they are akin to driving a Czech car. Slow in a straight line coupled with moments of sheer uncontrolled panic when you try to corner.

    Sniper rifle was excellent, but more ammo would've been nice chaps!

    Other than that, it's all looking very plush and I can't wait to see the full version.
    Edited by 1 at 11/02/04 @ 15:47

  • snibril #23 8 years ago

    I had no problems with it at all.

    ATI 4.1 driver, 9600 pro, P4 2.4, 1 GB ram.

    I did have problems with the Vietcong demo, though.

  • UncleLou #24 8 years ago

    it *SHOULD* run like hot melted butter through Kylie's thighs on my PC but for some reason it just took exception to both my video card and the PC itself (bog standard P4 3.2ghz running a GeForce4 MX with the latest drivers on etc)


    /points at the man with the funny video card

    Peej, you're not telling us you were expecting it would run properly on an 4 MX card? No wonder you weren't impressed. And don't complain about having to upgrade, the 4MX was a crappy card form the day it was released. :-D

  • Whizzo #25 8 years ago

    Oh a 4MX oh dear does that qualify as being a video card? :-)

    Nvidia were really quite naughty naming it that considering how low end it is.
    Edited by 1 at 11/02/04 @ 16:17

  • pjmaybe #26 8 years ago

    Not a good day for me then! First I find out I've been running my Xbox through the wrong SCART slot on my telly for nearly a year, now I find out that my "supposed" geForce 4 is nowt but a pile of old tossage...

    Actually I don't think it's the MX - It's the Leadtek TI4200 Ge Force 4 and I did have driver issues with the thing (downloading the so-called "latest" driver directly from Nvidia actually DOWNGRADED the driver revision from the one I got with the card...DOH!)

    Anyhoo the upshot is that Far Cry will run at 1024 x 768 at low to medium detail levels with no problem whatsoever, but everything still looks a bit low end...

    Answers on a postcard to...
    Tiswas
    ATV Land
    Birmingham B1 2JP

    Peej

  • snibril #27 8 years ago

    Why don't we all just buy a console...

  • pjmaybe #28 8 years ago

    ...because you can't run stuff like this on it, without it looking like everything's made of lego?

    Peej

  • snibril #29 8 years ago

    I like Lego.

  • Gl@eken #30 8 years ago

    The game was originally a tech demo for Nvidia hardware so I guess it is not a surprise it has a few issues with ATI cards.
    Personally it ran quite well on my 9800 Pro (4.1 drivers), 2.8 P4 with 1Gb DDR 400 ram but not as smoothly as I would want from a FPS. It seemed to stutter a few times mid game which is really not great.
    Lets hope they optimise it for ATI hardware in the released version.

    I thought the AI did Ok. I did come across a few moments where it acted pretty dumbly but I also found it to do some pretty intelligent stuff as well.

    Not sure if I will buy this as I tend to play multiplayer games mainly and its release date is pretty much the same as BF:Vietnam which is also going to have a load of jungle fighting and will most likely run silky smooth on my system. Given the choice I will always take smooth performance over flashy graphics.

  • Mugwum Verified Operations Director, Eurogamer Network #31 8 years ago

    At least it runs - I've been trying to play Call of Duty since last year and it still doesn't work on my Radeon 9700 Pro for more than half an hour at a time. VPU errors or hard lock. Cunningly, ATI's suggested solution for this is to download drivers that I am already running.

  • mugwump #32 8 years ago

    I'm not saying that the game doesn't some to run well with the radeons (fraps registers 9800 pro running at around the 30fps mark in 1280x1024, "very high" detail), BUT it seems that the nvidia users are claiming 4xFSAA, plus anisotropic filtering plus extremely high frames per second counts. At least, that's the feedback I've picked up off the beta forums. Can anyone else confirm this? I can't even get FSAA working on Far Cry with my radeon :p

  • snibril #33 8 years ago

    I ran it with 1280x1024 with EVERYTHING turned on, and "very high" on all detail.

    No real slowdown.

    Not a big difference between 1024x768 and 1280x1024...?
    Edited by 2 at 11/02/04 @ 19:18

  • Tyronne #34 8 years ago

    well I have the game on order due to the demo...pretty impressive...especially if you bypass the first set of beach house and go round to the right on your small boat...you end up on a 2nd beach and as you move up and round you find a crashed japenese zero...did like the old ww2 fort look...and some parts actually reminded me of trespasser..which for all its faults I played to the end and considering what it was trying to do was not that bad if you gave it a chance...

  • TennesseeStiff #35 8 years ago

    Excellent preview!

    I agree with 99% of everything that was said. However I have to say I like the weapons a great deal. I'm not sure what you mean by 'unimaginative'. They are standard real world type weapons. If that's the decision the designers made, (and it?s a good decision in my opinion) the fact that there isn't a weapon such as a gun that fires octopus isn't exactly an omission.

    I agree with the IA comments also. The AI did too many stupid things, was too predictable and got stuck or just did bizarre running forwards and backwards things too many times. Having said that, there were genuine moments of greatness there as well. For example I was HUGLY impressed when after shooting one of the guys in the first dock area from underneath the boards, the rest of the mercenaries started to machine gunning me through the boards, systematically spraying bullets towards my position.

    There is a great game in there somewhere, but it's very much hindered by game play, narrative and voice acting that have been done before to death are uninspiring or downright atrocious.

  • silentbob #36 8 years ago

    Interesting Kristan should say most gamers are claiming "yes it's pretty, but it feels like A.N.OTHER shooter", when it doesn't and people aren't. Did he read the Far Cry thread?

    I (as people from the forums will know) am the first to complain about the staggering unoriginality in PC gaming, especially the FPS genre, but Far Cry (as other people have already noted) was the most fun I've had with a demo on 'any' platform for ages.

    At least I've found a gamer in Kristan who is actually MORE jaded than I am. :)

  • Errol #37 8 years ago

    I consider the Far Cry demo to be one of the finest demos I've ever played. If the finished product is in the same vein, the game will be an absolute cracker.

  • Kami #38 8 years ago

    it *SHOULD* run like hot melted butter through Kylie's thighs on my PC

    *must surpress dirty joke in my head... must not think about Kylies thighs... oh, who am I kidding?*

  • wabawov #39 8 years ago

    "Oh I do love to die beside the seaside! Oh I do love to die beside the sea!"

    Erm...

    Given recent events, isn't that a little tasteless?

  • Tyronne #40 8 years ago

    tasteless...nah...not unless they release a death by cockles mod...in super paid-a-pittance-o-rama.

  • badoli #41 8 years ago

    I played it on the hardest level and then the AI gets some interesting. There is this second trio of grunts on the second island. If you listen to them closely, when they get attacked one of them is calling for reinforcements (which causes a gunboat coming from the neighbor base). I guess thats a scripted event, still it felt quite convincing.

    Beside of that, the AI seems to be pretty good in tactical decisions like flanking and so on. Just when it comes to shoot straight or taking cover, the usual deathmatch requirements, they seems to get in heavy troubles. Wherever they hide, they easily get shot, especially with a sniper rifle. And i happened to hide in a bush when a bot stood right next to me without recognizing me... Reminds me on a paintball-session with RTS-players.

  • EVERYGAMER #42 8 years ago

    @ Kristan, Can I ask what the specs of the system you ran it on were? I figure that a 2 Gig Athlon with G-force 5900 should run everything full pelt. am I right, Hmm Hmm? ( Yes I am a graphics Whore )
    Edited by 1 at 12/02/04 @ 12:20

  • Mike_Hunt #43 8 years ago

    Peej Wrote: it *SHOULD* run like hot melted butter through Kylie's thighs on my PC

    See Dirtbox, THIS is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!

    [MH]

  • bainbrge #44 8 years ago

    PJMaybe wrote:
    Anyhoo the upshot is that Far Cry will run at 1024 x 768 at low to medium detail levels with no problem whatsoever, but everything still looks a bit low end...

    Answers on a postcard to...
    Tiswas
    ATV Land
    Birmingham B1 2JP


    it ran quite slowly on my Ti4200 too, they must just be a bit low end (had to goto 800*600 to get smoothness)
    Edited by 1 at 12/02/04 @ 12:40

  • snibril #45 8 years ago

    9600pro here, everything max'd out. Ran smoothly.

  • Errol #46 8 years ago

    Bear in mind that the demo code was not fully optimized.

  • pjmaybe #47 8 years ago

    Peej Wrote: it *SHOULD* run like hot melted butter through Kylie's thighs on my PC

    See Dirtbox, THIS is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!

    [MH]

    EH? Did I miss something?

    Peej

  • Mike_Hunt #48 8 years ago

    No, no mate. DB and I were simply discussing what a great place EG is and that some really funny people post here.

    You've officially been lablled the "Metaphor Man" :)

    [MH]
    Edited by 1 at 13/02/04 @ 15:39

  • pjmaybe #49 8 years ago

    "No, no mate. DB and I were simply discussing what a great place it was and that some really funny people post here.

    You've officially been labled the "Metaphor Man" :)

    [MH] "

    Oh you fibber!!!

    I love metaphors, but I love Kylie's butter-spattered inner thighs even more...

    Peej

  • spiny #50 8 years ago

    Mugwum - turn off fast writes & cod should be fine.

  • Tiger_Walts #51 8 years ago

    Discharging your weapon in the bush will always get you in trouble...

  • Kami #52 8 years ago

    To clear up: this DOES run like hot melted butter on Kylies thighs, on my PC.


    UT2004 still runs painfully slow though...