Far Cry

Sam journeys to a tropical island that's a Far Cry from paradise...

No, the incredible AI will be the one ensuring that you don't whiz through this game like a partying footballer to the law courts. Any time you are navigating the outdoor sections you have to keep a close eye on the exposure meter, which borders the radar at the bottom left of the screen. If an enemy begins to notice you this bar will rise up. Let it get to the top without backing away or dropping into cover and you are in trouble. Not only will the guy who spotted you begin to take shots at you but he will alert any comrades of his that happen to be in the vicinity. Sometimes one guy will run for help, others will use radios, but normally it is the sound of gunfire that will bring the hordes down upon your head. You can get a silenced MP5 which allows silent take-downs and invigorates the always available stealthier side of Far Cry's abundantly rich gameplay. All other guns will be as noticeable as a belch during a funeral, with grenades and the sniper rifle having the attractive properties like a can of free Special Brew at a tramps day out. You can only carry four weapons at a time, be they of any class, and some of the guns later on are a lot of fun to play with. Unfortunately the melee weapon, a machete, takes up one of these slots, which is a shame as there were a good few times that I had sneaked up behind a guard only to have to blow my stealth by popping a cap in his noggin. A permanent samurai sword, pilfered from the WWII bunker, would have been a welcome friend. You can peer down the barrel of almost all of the guns for increased accuracy and the higher powered weapons all have a built-in zoom function, which comes in very handy for safely picking-off foes from the other side of lagoons and forest clearings. You will need all the different kinds of weapons at some point, and the game is usually very diligent about providing the correct firepower for the occasion, with mounted weapons making frequent, enjoyable appearances.

But all the guns and grenades in the world won't save you unless you are canny in your approach. The AI will lay in wait, flush you out with grenades, and flanking manoeuvres are a constant worry. Firefights are often confusing and messy affairs with shouted orders and gunfire accompanied by explosions and along with the rousing music all combine to make for some of the most enjoyable shooting fun yet. A lot of the situations you will come across in Far cry are better suited to a softly, softly approach. Making good use of the binoculars before wading into a new encampment is always a good idea as they will paint the current location of any enemies spotted onto your radar, a real life saver most of the time. It's no use inside, where the AI tends to work in the same sort of fashion as outdoors but with good knowledge of close quarters combat. Although I never saw one of them use a flashbang against me they aren't shy of lobbing exploding pineapples in your general direction, and they will happily trot off out a door, down a corridor and pop up right behind your back with a welcoming spray from an AR15. The Trigens have some unique behaviours of their own to shock and confound the player, often providing you with those jump-out-of-your-skin moments that the best shooters know how to deliver. When the two factions start fighting each other it's often the best choice to let them slug it out amongst each other and then personally finish off the survivors, a la Doom. These big three-way battles are incredibly realistic with troops from both sides rushing around trying to get the best positions but always with an eye peeled for Jack Carver, as you are always the number one target.

One of the levels involves you having to cross a huge island while the mercs are hunted down by the rampaging Trigens, and vice versa. Utilising almost every one of the game's many vehicles to traverse this level allows the player to see just how much scope there is for doing things your own way, a design element that must have been at the forefront of the developers minds all through production. Even in the claustrophobic interior levels an attempt has been made to give the player some choice, but it is outside where you are given so much freedom to tackle your objectives. While these objectives are usually just a point on the map you can make up your own mind how to get there, be it a frontal assault, by water, by foot, by buggy or even hang-glider. And while there's a good bit of direction going on to prevent the player from getting lost, the illusion of total freedom is of the very highest calibre.

Far Cry isn't perfect. For one, I couldn't check out the multiplayer as my review copy didn't have a key, but that's the marketing machine's fault, not the game's. The physics engine, while on the whole providing much hilarity and realism, doesn't always get things right, so bodies can take on unusual poses. The AI can make mistakes too, with soldiers sometimes turning into statues waiting to be put out of their misery, and on more then one occasion enemies came flying at me from above like suicidal pigeons. The environments could also be more interactive. While you can push all manner of barrels and boxes around - often to distract or even kill enemies, which is a lot of fun - and shoot out screens it would have been nice if you could have shot out the lights and used some of the terminals and such like. While the somewhat static nature of the world around you is a bit of a disappointment, it is only a minor niggle. And that is all I can really do as a reviewer with Far Cry. It's not perfect, and it doesn't really offer up anything radically new to the altar of the FPS, but it is a brilliantly written piece of computer software and it is a thoroughly engrossing and almost criminally enjoyable game to play. The replay factor in this game is huge, and the possibilities that the very impressive bundled editor hints at are almost as mouth-watering as the game itself. Far Cry really sets new standards in the FPS genre, and not just in terms of gameplay, AI, sound and good coding. It looks rather nice as well.

So what are you waiting for? Get to your preferred e-tailer or high street store. Buy it.

92%

By Sam Gibson