I first came across the inaugural Far Cry game in the now-popular series back in 2004, the year of its launch. I was eight and wandering around the “Toys & Games” section in a department store (I believe it was Takashimaya) and the cover caught my eye. I’ve always been drawn towards First-Person Shooter (FPS) games, and I thought I’d give it a try. Thus, I got my parents to buy it for me, and the second we got home, I loaded it up.

Back in the day, CDs were still very much the norm, and the bulky disc casing held four. For the younger readers, this was how old-school gamers installed our new fixations: We inserted the first disc (they were labelled in numerical order), started the installation process, and waited for the prompt to insert the next disc (if the file size of the game was too large for a single disc) to continue. And if we wanted to play another game, we had to swap out the CDs. Ah, the nostalgia tax is real.

Can you believe this game came out in 2004? Definite trailblazer

But back to the topic at hand: As a self-confessed Far Cry aficionado with 21 years and thousands upon thousands of hours dedicated to all seven main games in the series so far, let me give you my thoughts and experiences with the gameplay mechanics, in the hopes that if you’re a gamer and you haven’t already tried Far Cry, you really should.

Oh and by the way, I am primarily a PC gamer, and as such, I will not be including the three console-exclusive Far Cry games of the mid-2000s as I’ve never tried them (although I’ve seen the gameplay via YouTube videos). I’m also a “filthy casual”, so I will only be ranking the single-player experience; although this is the main reason people are drawn to it, and what the Far Cry series does best anyway.

On the Research level, you get your first glimpse of the trigen, a science experience gone wrong that gave me many nightmares as a kid

Far Cry (2004)

Set on islands scattered in the Micronesian subregion in the Pacific, players will assume the character of Jack Carver, a former Green Beret turned boat captain, as he fights off mercenaries and hoards of various mutated monkeys called trigens (a creation of the game’s villain: Dr Krieger) in a bid to rescue his client, Valerie Constantine, who was taken by the villains and is later revealed to be a CIA agent.

Players are restricted by a boundary; stray too far out of the map and the game will send invincible mercenaries to kill you off (believe me, I’ve tried). The game also incorporates weapons such as the Pancor Jackhammer shotgun and the M202A1 FLASH rocket launcher that never made it to mass production and were mostly relegated to prototypes. Although the gameplay is largely linear, discerning players will soon find that it is possible to bypass groups of enemies entirely and finish certain levels without firing a single shot.

Fair warning, it does take a lot of patience, and this game is not built for stealth, but by golly does it feel good to pull it off.

Man's best friend against trigens in close quarter combat is undoubtedly the Pancor Jackhammer shotgun

As far as mechanics go, I’d say it does the job. Point, shoot, reload. Gameplay is pretty much linear, with checkpoints and different levels, although players can still go off exploring all that the map has to offer. Aesthetically, it still looks amazing, even today. And bear in mind this is a game that came out in 2004.

In my opinion, this game has everything a casual FPS player looking for a challenge wants, plus a host of weapons that players can utilise to customise their loadout. A true cult classic and a must-try for FPS gamers. FAIR WARNING: If you’re planning to try it out on Steam, download this patch and follow the instructions to install it into the game folders before playing, unless you like being shot through thin walls. It’s a long story, but it seems Steam integrated the wrong version of the game.

Some levels feature a night mode and invariably far more trigen enemies, which kept my heart rate at an all-time high

Fun fact: This game was the brainchild of German video game developer Crytek, before Ubisoft took over for all subsequent Far Cry games.

In Part Two, I will focus on the second game of the series.

~ Fremont

(Images by PCGamer, Hexus, Reddit, and Xfire)