released 18 years ago Far Cry is one of the most technological shooters of its time, which became the ancestor of an entire series. Today we will remember what delighted and upset Far Cry in 2004.
Perhaps every generation of gamers has a game that becomes a milestone, dividing the industry into “before” and “after”. Individual players also have such games – sometimes they don’t coincide with the generally recognized pillars. For me, that was Far Cry, which gave rise to the now-living franchise. Let’s try to explain how this shooter surprised and disappointed 18 years ago.
I think a lot of people have the title track of the game in their headLet’s start with the background. 2004, every respected gamer awaits! Half-Life 2 and, to a lesser extent, Doom 3. Well, the players from the vast territories of the former USSR were waiting for STALKER, which for a long time “was about to come out”. Sure, dozens of other games were announced and released at the time, but it was these shooters that were most anticipated, it was the “nextgen” after which, it seemed, the games weren’t going to get any better.
Did you play the first Far Cry?
Of course, the development of Far Cry was not hidden, but who needs it? Especially when Igromania remains the main source of news and there is still no opportunity to study in detail the potential of each product before the release of the game. You don’t have hundreds of publics, blogs, news portals. In general, the game was released “in our time” (comes with a hoarse old voice) when a copy of the conditional “Fargus” appeared in the local “Department Store” or your friend became the owner of the disc. At least that’s how it was in my small town.
Space is the most important achievement and hallmark of Far CrySo on one of the first days of summer, when there were still some school supplies left, but with all your mind you are already on vacation, my classmate suggested we go downtown. His friend has some kind of “coolest” game, and we can throw money right away today so he writes it down for us. Without going into details and not remembering the names, I agreed: you can skip the consultation for the exams, there are a few bills in your pocket, and we’ll go for a walk in the end.
Soon we were standing at the counter of our own “Department Store” and choosing blanks. But a classmate reminded me that I need three discs, and four is better (in reserve), so my budget dictated the choice – the cheapest Esperanza and a large box of four discs, which was my first. With this farm we went to the mythical acquaintance of my classmate. “Mythical” – because I’ve never seen anyone in my area buy licensed discs, and not even shortly after release. Not that everyone around were villains, but ideological pirates. It’s just that the license was, of course, more expensive and therefore apparently not brought to the local chapters with disks. Maximum – a shelf with not the most recent publications from 1C, which was in the far corner.
The downside of a huge world for mediocre PC owners was long downloadsSoon I was home with disks decorated with a “Far Cry” mark, and patiently swapping disks in the drive at the installer’s request. I even had to delete a few games to make room for Far Сry. Such a scope was striking and gave rise to doubts – will it go? After all, I didn’t see the requirements of the game. But everything went well and now I’m in a kind of catacombs. Although no – I ended up in the catacombs after an unbearably long charge. Despite the fact that my PC had exactly as much RAM as recommended by the developers, the machine worked to its limits, loading each location in record time. I even deliberately kept a few issues of Chip magazine or Igromania on hand to amuse myself while I waited.
Graphics that amazed 18 years agoAnd as soon as I got out of the catacombs, I briefly lost control of my jaw, which involuntarily fell down. What a beauty! Space, mountains, such a real sea, sand and such a living jungle. And you see that this is not a landscape, that you will get there soon. It’s important to note here that this was all done at 800×600 resolution and perhaps almost the lowest graphics settings.
The game was based on the improved CryEngine 1, which was created in 2002. The engine made it possible to seamlessly draw open and closed locations, and advanced physics supported the rag doll – a once surprising feature that forced young players to fire bursts at already defeated opponents – to see how this set of textures virtual limbs. moves with each hit. And what was the terrain of opponents’ models?
Binoculars that mark opponents and terrain are one of the pillars of survival in Far CryBut this is a theory, but in practice Far Cry was great – yes, in the way the much more technologically advanced Doom 3 I had the chance to try on a powerful machine failed to hit all the capabilities of the engine. And this is the first advantage of the game – space (it was drawn at a distance of up to 2 kilometers) and the rejection of corridors and crowds. And it wasn’t just a decoration, but a moment that influences the gameplay. If you want, drive straight at the enemy, shoot everyone from a machine gun on an SUV, or if you want, go around, find a knoll and wait for someone to approach you (or throw a pebble where she will respond – yet a small but important feature of the game). Perhaps today it is unlikely that anyone would believe that this was considered an advantage, but then it seemed like a breakthrough. And it was a breakthrough.
And what a shooting! Maybe someone will argue and be right, but I’m going to assume Far Cry was at its best in this discipline – the gun shook during continuous shooting, of course, and you could feel it in an incomprehensible way. Coupled with the excellent sound design, it created a good atmosphere. Yes, the sound was also a full part of the gameplay, allowing you to navigate without seeing the enemy in the dense jungle.
Let’s dwell on the AI of opponents separately. While showing wonders of slowness at times, mercenaries and mutants often tried to act together, requiring some tactical thinking from young players. We also have a variety of locations that required a different approach: dense jungle, underground labs, rusting aircraft carriers, overgrown Japanese fortifications. In addition, they were all clearly connected with each other: on one level you could see a conditional hill on which the next task will take place. And that is why a hang glider, off-road vehicles, boats and a truck are not a luxury and a weapon carrier, but a means of transport.
After meeting “genetically modified” opponents, ordinary mercenaries seemed like old acquaintancesBut every island paradise vacation comes to an end – and so do the Far Cry perks. Let them pay no attention to it then, and even now they can be called nit-picking. The plot of the game was full of clichés: a journalist hires a man with a yacht to drive near the islands of Micronesia, goes to the island and asks him to wait … But after a while flies there a missile on the yacht, and the man miraculously survives (he suddenly turned out to be a former commando). And, as befits a former commando, he does not go for help, but to the island to find out who destroyed his boat. But on the island it is not so easy. On the island, there are mercenaries guarding a certain scientist who is breeding mutants in an attempt to find a recipe for a superhuman. Does it remind you of anything? And I was very much thinking of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which, according to the same formula, alternated abnormal wonders with completely “traditional” opponents, who after dungeons were enchanted with mummies and super-soldiers. And it was also nice to come out of the labs to the surface in Far Cry and happy to meet a very ordinary mercenary.
There was a personal pain for me in Far Cry – the “helicopter mission” (“Cargo Ship”). When you are on a sinking ship and try to shoot down a helicopter that is shooting at you but nothing comes out. In the age of the lack of walkthroughs that the internet is full of, this was very sad. Yes, and in the subsequent missions there were times when it seemed like the developers were too lazy. For example, how do you get through a crowd of mutants with one machine gun? And the icing on the cake was the automatic save system with checkpoints, through which I learned every maneuver in the last missions – like ever on the first console.
Although perhaps a person who, after many years, has played many games, already speaks in me, and criticism is inappropriate here. After all, I thoroughly enjoyed the first Far Cry and recently replayed it, with no regrets for the time I spent on it and with an indescribable amount of nostalgia. I immediately remembered how my father and I alternately tried to shoot down a helicopter (and he was the first to do so), how he asked me to complete the levels with mutants, and how we rejoiced when we got the hang of it late at night. reached the end. Here’s such a chaotic reminder of one of the most important childhood games, which itself was controversial in some places.
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Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.