Far Cry: Difference between revisions

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The original ''Far Cry'' was a PC game that was perhaps the first of the "next-gen" [[First Person Shooter|first-person shooter]] games exemplified by the likes of ''[[Half Life]] 2, [[Doom (series)|Doom]] 3'', and ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.E.A.R]]''. It was released a few months before ''Doom 3'' and ''Half Life 2'' by the then-unknown developers Crytek, for whom it was their debut title.

The game was critically acclaimed for what was at the time truly mind-blowing graphics, wide-open open-ended levels set in lush tropical jungle islands, and advanced enemy A.I.

The basic premise of the game has boat captain Jack Carver, a sarcastic, ill-tempered man in a gaudy Hawaiian T-shirt, having his boat blown up and forced into battling a small army of mercenaries on a series of tropical islands owned by reclusive geneticist Dr. Krieger. After several levels, killer mutants known as Trigens start attacking both Jack and the mercenaries, and it is revealed that Krieger has been working on creating mutants [[For Science!]]!

The game's popularity spawned a console version, ''Far Cry: Instincts'', which was made by Ubisoft instead of Crytek and had the same characters and basic plot premise, but markedly different gameplay, levels, and story. Besides simplified A.I. and graphics and more console-style gameplay, ''Far Cry: Instincts'' also gave the player character access to special mutant "feral powers" which included regenerating health, super-speed, super-jumps, and super-melee attacks. ''Far Cry Instincts: Evolution'' was the sequel to the console version, and switched from fighting mercenaries and mutants in a fictional series of tropical islands to fighting pirates and feral warriors in Indonesia. The story for ''Evolution'' has Jack being lured into a gunrunning scheme by half-native [[Femme Fatale]] Kade, which ultimately leads to him battling pirates and government soldiers while being hunted by Westerner-hating native warrior Semeru and his tribe of feral warriors, who all possess the same feral powers as Jack.

After publisher Ubisoft and developer Crytek parted ways, Crytek kept their engine and went on to create ''[[Crysis (series)|Crysis]]'', while Ubisoft retained the name rights and went on to develop ''Far Cry 2'', a sequel [[In Name Only]] that has the player take the role of one of a dozen mercenaries working in a war-torn African nation, playing both sides while hunting a notorious arms dealer known as the Jackal. The game lacks the mutants and sci-fi aspects of the original ''Far Cry'', instead opting for a darker, morally ambiguous story inspired by the Joseph Conrad novel ''The [[Heart of Darkness]]'' (not to mention Frederick Forsyth's ''The Day of the Jackal''). ''Far Cry 2'' features a completely [[Wide Open Sandbox]] game structure. There are no levels, and the game takes place in a 20 square mile area that the player can explore freely, traveling on foot, via vehicles, or by riding buses from station to station.

''Far Cry 3'' has just been announced and is in development. The game returns back to the island setting and see you play as Jason Brody, part of a group of vacationers that had the misfortune of getting stranded on an island in the middle of a civil war. Jason's brother is killed and his girlfriend is kidnapped by Vaas, the deranged leader of a group of armed mercenaries. Now Jason must take on his entire army to get her back, though his sanity may be on the line along the way.

There was also a [[The Movie|movie]] made of ''Far Cry'' made by... Uwe Boll. Most notable in that Stuttering Craig and Handsome Tom of ''[[~~Screw Attack~~]]'' are in it ( {{spoiler|Though not in the main, cut feature}}), and so are [[Inglourious Basterds|Hugo Stiglitz]] and [[No Reservations|Anthony Bourdain]], oddly enough.

There was also a [[The Movie|movie]] made of ''Far Cry'' made by... Uwe Boll. Most notable in that Stuttering Craig and Handsome Tom of ''[[ScrewAttack]]'' are in it ( {{spoiler|Though not in the main, cut feature}}), and so are [[Inglourious Basterds|Hugo Stiglitz]] and [[No Reservations|Anthony Bourdain]], oddly enough.

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* [[Dungeon Bypass]]: In the PC version, you can shoot the chains holding the lifeboat from the lower deck of the carrier in the second level. Doing so lets you skip the shootout on top of the carrier.

* [[Enemy Scan]]: One function of the binoculars is the ability to tag enemies so they appear on your radar.

* [[Elite Mooks]]: The gasmask-wearing Elite Mercenaries in ''Far Cry'', armed with the best weapons and armor and possessing superior tactics and thermal-vision goggles. These guys can take about half a mag of assault rifle fire to kill, compared to just a few shots for the standard enemy [[Mooks]].

** They appear in the last 2 levels of ''Far Cry Instincts'', too. There's also the Alpha Trigen Soldiers; you fight a few dozen of them just before the final boss fight. Both of these enemy types also have a 50% damage bonus to their bullets, which means they can kill you much faster than you can kill them.

* [[Escort Mission]]: In ''Far Cry'', Valerie tags along for about 10 minutes at the beginning of the Swamp level, but she's tolerable as long as you don't try to shove her into an actual firefight. In ''Instincts'' you have to protect Doyle through a gauntlet of a few dozen [[Elite Mooks]], and again in ''Evolution'' you have to defend him from waves of attacking rebels.

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* [[Giant Mook]]: The 9-foot tall "Fat Boy" Trigens, who have a rocket launcher for an arm and can soak almost a hundred bullets worth of assault rifle fire. In a game with otherwise "realistic" combat where enemies can be brought down with about 3 assault rifle hits each, this can be quite jarring at first.

* [[Harder Than Hard]]: Realistic difficulty. Made easier if you know how to take cover and dodge shots efficiently, and know the enemy locations, but good luck if you can't find any armor... highest levels are straight up [[Nintendo Hard]].

* [[Hopeless Boss Fight]]: Your first encounter with [[Big Bad]] Semeru in ''Instincts: Evolution''. You can't kill him, and the fight ends as soon as he lands a hit on you.

* [[Invisibility Flicker]]: Averted. The Stealth Trigen are ''truly'' invisible, with almost no distortion giving them away (fortunately, you're armed with special goggles that reveal them). However, when the player first encounters them there's a pool of shallow water nearby that makes plainly visible ripples when they step in it.

* [[Lighter and Softer]]: ''Vengeance'', the Wii version of ''Evolution'', is a bit lighter and softer; notably Jack is a ''slightly'' nicer guy (even suffering something of the [[Dulcinea Effect]] in regards to Kade). He also never manages to sleep with her in ''Vengeance''.

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* [[Never Found the Body]]: Lampshaded by Val in ''Instincts'' after Doyle disappears following a huge helicopter crash. Sure enough, he turns up again at the end just fine. Averted in ''Evolution'', where {{spoiler|you find his corpse at the end.}}

* [[No-Gear Level]]: One of the final levels has Dr. Krieger taking away all your guns and dropping you into a jungle full of battling Trigens and mercenaries.

** He does give you ONE weapon... An assault rifle with ten rounds in it, just enough to kill the first trigen you see. After that, it is a [[No-Gear Level]].

* [[One-Man Army]]: Jack Carver. Enemy mooks speculate about how one person could not possibly pull off the stunts he does. However, his [[Genre Savvy]] allies Val and Doyle both expect and demand that he be a [[One-Man Army]] on a regular basis.

** Even lampshaded at one point in ''Evolution''. Carver asks Doyle why he has to do 3 mission objectives while Doyle only gets one, Doyle replies simply that he doesn't have Jack's "skills".

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* [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]]: In ''Evolution'', after going through one of the game's most annoying difficult fights in order to protect a badly injured Doyle from attacking rebels, you go off to look for an escape vehicle, and when you get back Doyle has apparently crawled off, leaving a trail of blood for you to follow. After following his trail for 2 entire levels, {{spoiler|you come across his corpse, and realize that an indeterminate amount of the trail was just the [[Big Bad]] leaving a trail of clues by dragging his corpse along, all just to dick with you}}.

* [[The Starscream]]: {{spoiler|Doyle again}}. In the ''Instincts'' storyline, Crowe turns against Krieger about 3/4ths of the way through the game and tries to take over the operation himself.

* [[Stripperiffic]]: Val again. Notable mostly because while Jack takes the time to put on a bulletproof vest over his attention-attracting shirt, she goes everywhere wearing short shorts and a tank top. Or less.

** In ''Instincts'', Val starts out like this (wearing nothing but shorts and a tube top to show off her perfect abs), but puts on a reasonably sensible khaki safari shirt, long pants, and hiking boots after the shooting starts. No flak vest, though.

* [[Super Drowning Skills]]: The Trigens' one weakness. It's still unclear whether this was intentional or not. Given that the Korean soldiers in ''[[Crysis (series)|Crysis]]'' suffer a similar problem, perhaps not.

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** All the weapons fall into this as they all explode in some way once they run out of durability.

* [[Cutscene Incompetence]]: The Jackal ''always'' gets the drop on you. In addition, the player character manages to contract Malaria during the opening cinematic.

** And after you get Malaria, the Jackal nurses you back to health. Yes. It is just as embarrassing as it sounds.

* [[Darker and Edgier]]

* [[Difficult but Awesome]]: If you know how to aim the mortar (hint: press reload to fire HE rounds), you can take down whole bases of heavily armed mercenaries without any resistance.

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* [[Every Car Is a Pinto]]: Apparently cars in this country are powered by blasting caps and dynamite.

* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: Unlike [[STALKER]] or ''[[Boiling Point: Road to Hell]]'', the game is a near-constant firefight as everyone in the game world will try to shoot you on sight. Only a few mission givers in no-weapon areas can be talked to.

** Allied with one faction? Don't expect help. Or even neutrality: "your" side will try to kill you too.

* [[Evil Versus Evil]]: The UFLL and APR, the game's two main factions, both claim to have the people's best interests at heart, but both are ultimately shown to be evil, led by greedy ambitious men and staffed with psychopathic killers and thugs. The player character himself/herself also commits a number of morally questionable actions throughout the course of the game, notably shutting off fresh water supplies to a neighboring country, leading to the climactic "final battle" where they {{spoiler|kill almost all their mercenary buddies in a large firefight to steal blood diamonds needed as a bribe to save the lives of fleeing civilians)}}.

* [[Exploding Barrels]]: They might not have much else left in this country, but they seem to have a limitless supply of propane and gasoline.

* [[Expy]]: The Jackal is on of Kurtz, from ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''.

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* [[Motor Mouth]]: Everyone in the game speaks rapidly and quietly. It's very difficult to make out what people are saying without subtitles sometimes.

* [[Multinational Team]]: The player's band of mercenary buddies is a wide assortment of various nationalities, from former US Special Forces to Middle-Eastern guns-for-hire.

* [[New Era Speech]]: At the end of Act 1, after you assassinate one of the faction leaders, the opposing leader will take over the entire northern region and give one of these to his troops.

* [[Non-Action Guy]]: Reuben Oluwagembi, an African reporter who serves as the only really "good" main character in the game.

* [[No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom]]: A common criticism of the map design is the presence of a large number of impassible mountains, effectively turning the wide-open map into a series of fairly wide trails.

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* [[Offscreen Teleportation]]: All major characters get around this way; rather than traveling across the game world like the player, they just appear in safe houses or at objectives, most likely to stop the player killing them and sabotaging the plot.

** You can however kill them when they show up to help you after you have fallen. Plot based mission help generally has to be kept alive though.

** The Arms dealer gets around too.

* [[One-Man Army]]: The player, of course. Also, to a lesser extent, the player's mercenary buddies, who are quite capable of taking out a couple squads of enemy soldiers by themselves. Finally, the Jackal is also a [[One-Man Army]], if the massive carnage and property destruction seen in the aftermath of his attacks is any indication.

* [[Only Sane Man]]: The Jackal, being an [[Expy]] of Kurtz from ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'', believes himself to be this.

** Hector Voorhees and especially Nick Greaves both come across as noticeably saner and more self-aware than their propaganda-spewing, [[Ax Crazy]] bosses. Like your own character, however, they've decided to just go along with the madness instead of doing anything about it so as to get paid.

* [[Patchwork Map]]: Rivers... do not work that way.

** The GPS pointer's ability to end up on top of the player character's thumb in certain locations means the patchwork is 3D!

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* [[Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness]]: Guns from the Arms Dealer gradually get better as the game goes on, though some wear out faster to balance this.

* [[Spiritual Successor]]: ''[[Crysis (series)|Crysis]]''.

** The developers of ''Far Cry 2'' have also stated that it was meant to be a sequel in spirit, not in plot.

* [[Stuck Items]]: The machete in the melee slot, grenades, and Molotovs.

* [[Suicidal Overconfidence]]: Enemies will often drive their cars into you, even if they are in an unarmed car or jeep and you are driving a machine-gun armed truck which can perforate them in seconds.

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* [[Taking You with Me]]: Mortally wounded enemies will draw a pistol if they see you. It's rare to have this happen unless you insist on using the machete on the higher difficulties.

* [[Tech Demo Game]]: The original ''Far Cry'' definitely qualifies, even having developed out of Crytek's ''X-Isle'' tech demo.

* [[Thematic Series]]: While not so much a thematic successor to the original PC ''Far Cry'', it is something of a thematic successor to ''Far Cry Instincts'' and especially ''Far Cry Evolution'' (both developed by Ubisoft instead of Crytek), with the overarcing theme of third world strife and suffering. From what's been seen of the plot of ''Far Cry 3'', it will continue the trend.

* [[Truce Zone]]: The main cities.

** Also a case of [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]. If you do start waving guns in people's faces, they stick their hands up and taunt/threaten/try to calm the player. Their buddies however, will all aim their guns at you. If you aim at a dude too long, all the buddies will open fire even if you haven't let off a shot.

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* [[Universal Driver's License]]: Trucks, boats, cars...If you can get in, you can drive it.

* [[Useless Item]]: The flaregun; sure, it can cause fires, but so can Molotovs, without wasting the pistol slot. It also doesn't produce a useful amount of light, even at night.

** Also, the Homeland 37. It's the slowest shotgun with the smallest magazine and it doesn't reload that fast either.

** There are several useless upgrades, as well, such as the repair upgrades for vehicles (there's replacements pretty much everywhere) and accuracy upgrades for weapons that don't need them at all, such as the Flamethrower and the laser-guided Carl-G.

* [[Useless Useful Stealth]]: "Conventional" stealth really isn't the best option; you need to pay a ton for a special stealth suit, the silenced weapons are puny and expensive (save the dart rifle, which just has a tiny ammo count), and sneaking around just means if you mess up you'll be surrounded rather than being able to make the enemies come to you. However, a more limited stealth approach of sneaking around the edges of a camp, in order to have the best position to begin an assault, is a very useful and viable tactic.

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[[Category:Stealth Based Game]]

[[Category:Wide Open Sandbox]]

[[Category:~~Far Cry~~]]

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