Looking at: the Far Cry series

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The ultimate shooter package?

Far Cry has always been one of my favorite shooter series, up there with STALKER, Half Life, and Doom. Each game in the series is something new and different, and they're all really damn fun to play. Far Cry 4 is coming out in just a few short days, so in anticipation of it here are my thoughts on the series, going through game by game.

Disclaimer: I won't be talking about the console spinoffs of the original game, just the main three games and Blood Dragon. None of the spinoffs are particularly that good anyway.

Far Cry

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A Far Cry from other shooters.

2004 was a pretty good year for PC shooters. We got Unreal 2004, Doom 3, Half Life 2, and Far Cry. If it wasn't for Half Life 2, there is no doubt in my mind that Far Cry would've been the best shooter that year. It was an interesting and ambitious game that certainly drew a lot of attention away from the other shooters.

Unlike every other shooter, Far Cry was all about openness. You weren't confined to tight quarters, but rather given huge, open maps with a variety of different ways to reach your objective. Coupled with that was some truly impressive AI for the time, with enemies that could communicate with each other.

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One of the first things you see, setting the tone for much of the game.

In terms of... well, everything Far Cry 2 was a love letter to cheesey, over the top 80's action flicks. You play as Jack Carver, former marine now running a Caribbean tour for reporter Val Cortez. When Carver's ship is blown up, and Val is captured, he finds himself surrounded by evil mercenaries and crazy scientists that all need a good killing.

It's a dumb, fun yarn with almost no plot development worth noting. Where it really fails is in the last quarter or so when the island is over run with alien mutants, turning the game into a really crappy sci-fi shooter. It's fun, and the idea of an open world shooter certainly caught enough attention that a sequel was inevitable.


Far Cry 2

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Blood, Guns, and Malaria.

If Far Cry was an 80's action flick, Far Cry 2 was a Gulf War documentary. Gone were the lush Caribbean islands, replaced by the arid deserts and muggy rain forests of central Africa. Gone was the good guy/bad guy dynamic, replaced with fifty shades of moral grey. Gone was the curated experience and focused plot, replaced with a truly open world and a series of barely connected missions.

Far Cry 2 set the standard for the series, in that every iteration of a Far Cry game should have nothing to do with the previous. There are no references to Far Cry, outside of fan speculation. This is a completely different game, and it kind of hates itself.

Rather then an actual character, you play as a mostly faceless and nameless mercenary, sent into an unnamed central African country to hunt down an arms dealer known as The Jackal. Jackal's been arming both sides of a brewing conflict, and sure enough the civil war breaks out within hours of your arrival.

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Far Cry 2 features a realistic fire propagation system, allowing you to set things ablaze.

You're not a hero this time around, for a few reasons. First of all, you're barely alive, with Malaria slowly eating away at you. Second, you're a mercenary, only working for the money. Third, you suck at your job, since the Jackal tracks you down first and threatens you if you follow him. Trapped in a shithole with no way home you decide to sign up with both sides of the war and try and make a living, all while staying alive.

Unlike Far Cry, the map is actually open this time. There are two locations, North and South, and they're both massive. You'll travel through fields of grass, dense jungles, and arid deserts in your hunt for the Jackal, and the world is visually impressive overall.

Where Far Cry 2 really fails is in it's balance. It's brutally unfair at times, with weapons jamming, and the constant need to pop Malaria pills to stay alive. Enemies respawn mere moments after clearing a camp, and new weapons take a long time to acquire. This isn't always a fun shooter, but it is immersive.

That's really the selling point of Far Cry 2, it's immersion. All of the negative points, bleed into this, and you'll truly feel like your in an African country. Weapons jam because they're old and warn. You're slowly dying of Malaria, whether or not your in a gunfight. I strongly suggest playing Far Cry 2 on the highest difficulty setting to really get into the game.

Far Cry 3

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A return to form, and a new way forward.

Far Cry 3 was something of a return to form from Far Cry 2, while also an attempt to remedy it. It's a sleeker, smoother game, and still stands as one of my all time favorite shooters.

You're back in the tropics this time around. As Jason Brody you find yourself in the Rook Islands, down near Thailand. A botched skydiving trip brought you here, and the heavily armed pirates that kidnapped you and your friends are keeping you here. You'll have to fight your way off the island, slowly rescuing your friends and truly putting yourself to the test as you face off against the insane Vaas and cruel Hoyte.

Far Cry 3 plays like a best-of compilation of the first two games. The world is this great, lush, vibrant tropical setting from the first game, with the fine tuned open world shooting nature of the second game. It also throws in RPG mechanics for good measure, with Brody earning XP for doing various actions that he can spend to upgrade three skill paths: Stealth, Combat, and Movement. The skills are cool, and most of them serve really practical uses, but the progression system is crippled by attaching itself to the story progression, meaning there's several instances where you can't spend any gained points.

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Far Cry 3 has a re-worked stealth system, allowing you to play the predator.

As for the story, the first half is really good. There has been some debate back and forth about Jason Brody as a protagonist, since he comes across as an arrogant douche for much of the story. I liked him, and found that as he lost more of his humanity to the island he became more interesting. But the real stand out is Michael Mando's Vaas Montenegro. Rather then explain the brilliance of Vaas, I'm just going to link to his spine-tingling appearance in the original E3 demo, a performance left largely unchanged in the final game.

Unfortunately the latter half of the story doesn't fare so well, replacing the scrappy David and Goliath feel of the first half with an Asshole VS Asshole type feel. It's not necessarily bad, but considering how good the first half is, it's a damn shame.

Far Cry 3 is the best of the series, pretty much by virtue of being the third game. It's fun, wacky, and crazy, but apparently not crazy enough.

Blood Dragon

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YES.

Holy shit.

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Fuck YES!

That's really all that can be said about Far Cry Blood Dragon. We all thought it was an April Fools joke. But no, it's real, and it's really damn good.

It's a neon soaked love letter to 80's sci-fi action, with lasers, robots, and shitload of blood soaked f-bombs. It's wonderful, funny, and batshit insane in the best way.

You play as Rex "Power" Colt, voiced by 80's action star Michael Biehn (Aliens, Terminator, The Rock), an eyepatch having cyborg commando sent to hunt down and kill his former master. There's robots to shoot, scientists to rescue, and ladies to woo, and even a training montage for good measure in there.

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SO MUCH YES!

I won't spend to much more time on Blood Dragon, since in every way outside of the story it's just a re-skin of Far Cry 3. A glorious, insane re-skin, but a re-skin nonetheless.

Far Cry 4 and beyond

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The insidious Pagan Min, villian of Far Cry 4.

That's all I'll say about the Far Cry series. Far Cry 4 is out in a few days, although for budget reasons I'll probably not be talking about it for a while. I hope it's good, and that the Far Cry series remains as good as it has been.

I'm fearful because of Ubisoft's recent bouts of fucking up. Far Cry is a series that deserves to live on, often braking away from what other shooters are doing, and focusing on fun, open world, single player experiences. Please, Ubisoft, don't become a far cry of your former self, and keep the series good.