Farcry - Far Cry developed by German studio Crytek and published by Ubisoft on March 23, 2004. Before I start, I want to say this is my first game review... So..

Farcry, oh Farcry.

So firstly, this game is FUCKING HARD. I walked into this game like a playful butterfly just curiously flapping around to see what it had to offer and instead got demolished. Over and over again.

I do want to point out that I’m a Xbox gamer first and this is the first PC game I've played and the mouse and keyboard set-up was very disorienting for me. But even after acclimating I died. A. lot.

After an hour+ of being slaughtered on the first level I beat it at normal settings. So, with great despair, I decided to lower the difficulty to easy... Yes, shun me please. This is the first game (hopefully last) that I've ever had to make easier and I can honestly say I wouldn’t have beaten the game if I hadn't.

So is the game impossibly hard? no, absolutely not. As I progressed through the game, I found myself utilizing the weapons, health packs and armor and cover more than I have in any other shooter and I got better after my first play through. Do I think I could beat it at normal with another go round? No. Hell no. Nor would I want too sadly.

So where does the difficulty come from? I believe it’s the AI. It’s smart for an 04' release title, maybe too smart. They have flawless aim and they're strong, couple shots your dead strong and when new enemies are introduced that can leap large distances and slash you to death within seconds... You feel underpowered and defenseless. It feels like a balance failure vs. a game design choice.

The gun play is simple with the weapons only consisting of the basic rifle, shotgun, pistol and smg.

There is some transportation elements in the game, like a Humvee and a boat but nothing memorable happened with those elements besides frequent death... Because of rocket strapped baddies with perfect aim.

There is no sense of plot at all. The main character spouts cheesy one liner’s from time to time but that's it. The entire objective of the game is to survive and escape the island. Some sci-fi elements are added but it’s so senseless and bare it’s hardly worth mentioning.

The only positive is the graphical power of this game, considering when it was released of course, but damn it still holds up. This game runs on some early Cryware which is a beast of a game engine. What it allows is a huge sandbox esque landscape for each of the 20 levels.

The game does have length, at least 12 hours if your quick, which is long compared to today’s shooters. It took me about 15 hours to beat it, not counting replay attempts after hundreds of deaths. Towards the last third of the game, I found myself playing not for joy but out of frustration that it wouldn't end. Nothing for me evolved the game further or pushed me to want to progress in the game. It was just another level woo.. kill some more monsters yaaay.. The only thing pushing me was the fact I kept dying and it got personal to the point where I had to finish the game.

Would I play this game again? No, I don't think I would. The game seems to serve as a tech demo of what Cryengine was capable of, and where the Farcry franchise could evolve to (which it has extraordinarily).

I recommend this game to Farcry fans that would want to see the origins of their beloved series, or shooter fans looking for a challenge and a lengthy campaign but for the average Joe looking for a great game? I would skip.

So in ending,

4/10   Bad.

The graphics stand the test of time, design wise everything was cliché and subpar. It has solid enough gunplay, but it is overtly simple and has no sense of progression. The score was unmemorable as were The sound effects. There was no plot and I doubt ill play it again as nothing draws me in.

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