I remember the original Far Cry like it was yesterday. It was a technical powerhouse that needed some major hardware to make it look as good as the developers intended. It was one of those games that when it was released in 2004, showed that as awesome as the PS2, Xbox and GameCube were, PC was still king in terms of graphics.
How to Download Far Cry
To download the game, click on the Download button at the end of the review. Check out also more recent Far Cry games that we have reviewed: Far Cry 3, Far Cry 4, and Far Cry 5.
The Game Review
I will admit that by today’s standards, Far Cry is probably nothing to write home about. This is a first-person shooter that is set in a jungle type environment which was a breath of fresh air from all the WW2 style shooters at the time. I remember before release a massive deal was made about how you could use the environment to your advantage.
The plot of the game is like a generic action movie, but it works. You play as Jack Carver who is an ex-soldier and picking up a few bucks escorting a journalist on a job. Things go wrong, he gets left for dead, she gets kidnapped and he is trying to get her back and also survive. It may not be as cinematic as the Far Cry games that followed, but at the time I do not remember anyone having complaints.
The game looks fantastic, I think even now the jungle while not as detailed as what would come is still fairly impressive. It was re-released a little while back so you can still check it out. Far Cry is always known for its impressive presentation and that was the case right from the very start.
Sound design is a major part of the game design here. You can listen out for enemy footsteps, conversations, and the sounds of the jungle. The AI can also hear you so you have to watch out for that. The voice acting is actually pretty damn good and I feel this was about the time voice acting in games was really starting to get to a high-quality.
It would be so easy to pass Far Cry off as a game that is just trying to get by on its looks, but this is a damn fine first-person shooter. It is not the Far Cry that we have these days, but it is still a fun time. The gunplay here is very satisfying and you have a nice number of guns to make use of. You even have these special binoculars that let you see heat signatures and let you listen in on conversations.
By today’s standards, I would have to say it is a fairly standard first-person shooter. However, this is still a pretty fun experience and if you are one of the many people who jumped in at 3 or even 4, I am sure you are going to be quite impressed with how much of a high-quality game this has been since the beginning.
