Review (by Scorpio)
Story.
Set in the not to distant future Jack Carver is a man determined to leave a shadowy past behind.
Now a boat skipper in the Pacific he has been hired by a photo journalist Valarie Constantine to
transport her to an islands to photograph some old Japanses WWII ruins. But dangers afoot as Jacks boat
is sunk by mercenaries and Valarie disappears.
Gameplay.
Having been sternly warned off playing on realistic mode by pyrogenx, I decided to ignore his advice and do
just that. I'm glad I decided to do this as it kept me challenged for a whopping 3 days, which may sound
unimpressive but thats longer than most fps games keep me in the chair for. Gameplay wise this game
although offering little new does all the old tricks well. A.I. is quite good using terrain for cover but I found
after a while that the secret to victory was to pick off the targets from large ranges when outdoors and
constant use of the lean and crouch buttons when in door. As most game designers do they claim "our A.I.
works in teams, Or A.I. is super smart". Not exactly. The distance at which the enemies hear gun fire varies
greatly and you still get that daft occasion when you blast half the pacific away and then stumble around a
corner to find a lone sentry standing still smoking a fag completely oblivious to the carnage that occured
less than 10 feet away from him (must be one of those camp German World War II sentrys that seem to be in
every world war II commando movie). Another handy way of easily defeating the A.I. is simply running in doors
crouching in a corner and waiting for the almost certain arrival of any pursuing enemys who like to wonder on
in doors like there bare footed hula dancers trying to avoid a nest of scorpions. Thats not to say the game is
a cake walk. At close to mid ranges outdoors against multipal hostiles you will find yourself dying quite
abit unless you make good use of the terrain and its almost certain you will recieve several rather sudden
deaths looking for an elusive far away sniper. Later as the game introduces mutant apes and crack troopers
you will find your self looking at a loading screen quite alot. Every second level from about level 10 on
sees the introduction of better armoured opponents who just won't die. But the A.I is more than good enough
to engage you in some excellent shoot outs. If anything annoyed me in this game it was the following two things
and bare in mind these are the harshest words I can muster against it. The tridents (aka mutant apes) have only
melee attacks and have a tendency to kill you without ever getting near you. The second it a rather stupid
animation feature where the mercenaries shoot with out ever drawing there guns. Its a rather bazzare site to
see a machine gun holstered and aiming at the floor defying the laws of physics.Thankfully it only happens now
and then.
Rag doll physics are put to excellent use. On one occasion I manged to lob a gernade among four mercenaries
having a conversation on a pier. I got the satisfaction of watching the four of them being blown out to sea at
various angles along with chairs, beer cans and several nearby crates. Weaponary and vechiles play a big part.
While you get to try your hand at most vehicles by an early stage of the game you have to wait to get the most
satisfying and effective weapons. The vehicles are simple to drive and shoot and aren't just there for being there's
sake. Some levels are massive and while everything is accomplishable on foot vehicles cut down on the time taken. Most
of these are armed with the exception of the para-glider so used wisely they can significantly improve your chances
of survival.
Far Crys designers claim the game is completely open ended alot like Dues Ex. This is true and yet not so.
When your given an objective there is no fixed path to it. For example you will have to steal so a jeep in a heavly
defended base, while you can get to the base via numerous different ways and attack it from any angle you will
find yourself limited to two courses of action go in guns blazing or try to steal it undected (where is the fun
in that). Also in a latter level there is one completely linear mission where your meaning the guns of a jeep
as Valarie drives it. Still thats less linear than most other FPS. Objectives don't vary too much but thats
not a problem as there all highly playable and I never found myself getting bored. Plot wise the story line is
fairly average but enough to keep you entertained. Voice acting in this game is a mixed bunch as the two characters
you most interact with Doyle and Valarie are determined to appear to act like there making a serious documentry on third
world poverty while the main character Jack and the bad guys are Ultra Camp. A nice touch in the game though
is the binoculars with a built in micraphone. You can eavesdrop the enemys conversation at a safe distance.
These conversations change on various playbacks but most of the time they gave hint about locations and talk about
your progress and how determined they are to kick your ass.
Having seen the demo I knew visually this game was very impressive. Infact to date this is probably the most
visually impressive game I have seen on any format. Its hard to do it justice but I'll try. Starting with the water
effects which look near perfect with reflections of the sky and terrain although for some reason buildings and
characters have no reflections but thats just a minor niggle. The attention to detail elsewhere is extremely high
from broken shadows on your gun and arm when you wake under a tree to a angled reflection of terrain on guns
mounting a scope. Top notch stuff. Sound is put to good use and the music rackets its self up nicely when gun
fights. Believe me I say you will dread the sound of the rocket and gernade launchers particularly when it
comes to multiplayer.
Moving on to multiplayer. My current connection a 64k ISDN line I did not expect to have much success
playing this online but surpisingly after difficulty signing up to UBISOFTS online gaming server. I also found
good servers with a low enough ping to encounter no lag with 20+ players. I enjoyed the multplayer acpect as much as
I did single player. Its split into three modes. The Standard free for all Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch both highly
enjoyable for the brain dead frag fest. But the Objective based game was really to my likings. Its split into two teams
one attacks one defends. The defender has to hold the objective for 20 mins (a near impossible task) the longer they
hold out the longer they have to attack in there round. There is three objectives to defend as they fall the defender
falls back to or spawns at the next objective. What makes this of particular interest is the three classes the player
can choose from. The standard well equipped grunt good for assaulting and getting down an dirty. The sniper class
which are obviously good at long range but they also can select the rocket launcher which is good for destroy fortifications.
Finally the support class is the most interesting. You can customize them to come equipped with a reasonable machine gun
or health pick ups. He also comes with demolition charges for blowing up forifications and walls. But they really excell
in defense where they can build forfications, bunkers, machine guns, and walls all of which make an attackers life more
difficult. Playing with this class I had a terrefic game one evening defending the last of the three objectives.
I was positioned prone under a wall that blocked the main entrance to the compound we where defending. On my left was
a bunker with a machine gun I had built and several team mates. To the rigth and the otherside of the wall was several
enemy attackers. I was constantly repairing the wall as the rockets and machine gun fire rained over my head back and forth.
Overall this game has a few very minor niggles and I do mean minor. The gameplay is so damn good you probably be
more than happy to let them slide. Hell you might not even notice them. The system requirements are high but a reasonable
machine will get you through. Those with a high end machine have at last a game that validate spending the big bucks.
You will be hard press to find a better FPS game than this. Perhaps only Call of Duty is in the same league. Can't praise
it enough. Nuff said.
I give it a midlans rating of 94%.
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