Far Cry

GamePro puts the latest version of the hot shooter through its paces.

While it doesn?t sport a fancy big name license or easily definable hook like humans vs. the aliens, Far Cry has been generating an intense amount of buzz despite quite a few unanswered questions. But with amazing graphics and wide open gameplay, there?s a lot to get excited about.

GamePro recently had a chance to meet with the developers in our offices and sit down with the latest build of the game. The full details of the story is still being kept under wraps, but the game opens with your character getting hired to take a mysterious lady to an even more mysterious island. Suffice it to say things go south pretty quickly and you end up left for dead in an old WWII Japanese bunker. As you make your way out, you use stealth and try to get more information from these bad folks who made off with your passenger.

The first level demoed had a relatively straightforward way to advance through the area, but the A.I. of the baddies can change everything. If they hear your weapon or see you, of course they?ll react, but what they do can vary from attacking you or running away to get reinforcements. They may even opt to attack you in a different manner from the last time they offed you. The difficulty can be set manually at the beginning of the game, but will auto-balance as you play. If the game notices you having a hard time, it?ll take it a bit easier on you and vice versa. There is no quick save function, but a good compromise method saves the game roughly every 5 minutes so you won?t lose as much valuable time as hard checkpoints would cause. This also lets you backtrack far enough to a save where you can do over aspects of your play you want to correct.

Controlling the action feels like most any FPS, but the difference is your mental approach as you navigate the environments. Some areas are so wide open that you have to take extra care to spot enemies that could be lurking or on patrol. You pick up a pair of special binoculars early in the game that ?mark? enemies and automatically makes their location appear on your radar. Your radar also shows you the next objective location and how loud your gun is in proximity to your surroundings. The physics of Far Cry?s world are simply amazing, and the only comparison that comes to mind is what has been seen from demos of Half-Life 2. Wood, water, and metal all react in their own realistic way. Of course the stunning screens you see with this article look even better in motion. Even at this stage, the frame rate is smooth and details are very sharp. The only awkward element is that the enemies look a bit too floaty when hit with cars?pretty minor stuff though.

The release is currently scheduled for the first quarter of 2004. Look for more updates soon, but for now enjoy the latest screens.

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