Far Cry (PC)

Far Cry (2005)

When I heard about Far Cry 2 and saw the development reviews and previews of the game, I thought it would be a great 3D game and got the first installment of the title since at that time I haven't played Far Cry... yet. The other day I have just finished the game in "Challenging" difficulty and played in "Realistic" afterwards and I am now halfway through with no other sign of difficulty changes except for more accurate enemy fire that kills you with four hits on a full armor and health status. With the upcoming second installment of Far Cry with a more realistic and stunningly beautiful environment, I can say that the first game already has a great jungle environment that makes me wonder what Far Cry 2 would look when released.

Anyway, you are Jack who has been hired to take this lady Valerie into a group of islands somewhere out in the middle of nowhere where you get hit by a rocket propelled grenade. You have no choice but to swim to the nearest island and figure out how to get out of the jungle. As the story unfolds you will then find out that Valerie is a CIA agent on a mission and have chosen you to get her into the "jungle islands" because you are the only boat for hire with special forces training and thought that you might be able to help. There have been mutation experiments on the islands and both of you are there to stop it whether you like it or not.

The first encounters with the mutated creatures are mutations of monkeys/apes. You later find out that what you encountered were just the untrained mutants, which means there are trained ones out there and I'm not talking about monkeys trained to hunt down prey. They have been inoculating trained human soldiers that mutated into firearm-carrying mutants that could kill you not only with their guns but with one or two swipes of their claws. This game feels very similar to Half-Life but with a jungle theme and mercenaries. I like the part where you get to blow out everything in your path and also the stealth infiltrations at night with your night vision goggles.

The boss fights are very frustration as you get to battle not only the boss but some mercenaries and soldiers as well who snipe you if you don't take them all out first to concentrate on the boss. Better carry that rocket launcher all the way in the game with full ammo as it will help you clear out these enemy soldiers on boss battles very quickly. And when you get the chance to carry that Machine Gun with a capacity of 100 bullets, then do so as it will help kill those big nasties with rocket launchers on their arms with a full burst at their heads.

Some jungle tips. Before entering an enemy encampment on the jungle, try to get everyone on the binoculars as this would enable tracking of your enemies on your radar. Just prone in a good distance away from the camp, use the binoculars and wait for most of them to get registered for tracking. Then snipe or shoot the enemies on guard towers first as they would be your most likely killers from above with sniper rifles and rocket launchers. Move to another location as the mercenaries would be converging on the last known disturbance, which you can see as red dots on the radar which means they are alarmed by your presence. Always aim for the head to deal with them swiftly. You can drown mutant apes if you are near deep water by letting them follow you to the depths. And finally, do not waste your ammo!

I will be gaming with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Shadow of Chernobyl) tomorrow as my game break is still ongoing. Stalker is very much similar to Fallout which I am a fan of, and I'm also waiting for Bethesda's Fallout 3. Will also try to acquire the Stalker film for the Stalker game review after playing the game.