Those of you who want the short, short, short, Spaceballs version of this review. Get Far Cry now. For those of you wanting the whole enchilada with all the if's, and's, and but's, please stay on the line. During its short time on the retail market, Crytek's Far Cry has earned itself the nickname of PC Cry. Why? Because Far Cry will make your Windows PC whimper, whine, beg, and plead for mercy. This is the most demanding game on the market, hands down, and there's a fair chance that very few people can even load the game, much less run it.

First of all, let's get the hardware requirements out of the way. If you're not packing a 1.5ghz+ Processor, and a Radeon 9500 or above ATi card, or a Geforce 5700 or above card, please. Don't even bother. Just put the box back on the shelf and walk away.

This is Far Cry's first problem: it doesn't scale at all. While the CryEngine is perfectly capable of powering games across a wide range of hardware, the Far Cry game itself requires a monster of a rig in order to run. However, we'll deal with the massive requirements later; for now as tradition dictates, we will focus on the gameplay.

Far Cry comes across at first as a typical realistic First Person Shooter. You take your place behind the gun, then proceed to shoot just about everything that moves. Everything in the game is based in real life, from the weapon ballistics, to the movements of the players. Incredibly, for a game on a virgin Engine, Far Cry manages to top current leader Raven Shield 3 as the most realistic shooter.

The player is even able to control the lazy hand, or how much the players weapon lags behind facial movement in the game. The acts of running and jumping are also carefully measured and implemented. Never is the feel of an arcade game present, as all moves are so natural and fluid, the player feels like he could actually step outside and find themselves in the game world.

Far Cry follows the events of a sail boat captain named Jack Carver. Once the game begins, the player is treated to an interesting movie showing Jack getting blown off a sail boat. The opening movie is meant to be confusing and the pieces of what actually happened fall together as the player completes the game. In the interests of avoiding spoilers, let's just say that Mr. Carver has a Special Forces background, which is why he is in the islands that compose the world of Far Cry.

The fact that Far Cry unfolds on a series of islands has a great impact on how the game is played. Think about games like Jak and Daxter: if you can see it, you can go there. You may not be able to get there yet, but you can go there. Through a combination of boats, trucks, hang gliders (yes, hang gliders), and his own 2 feet, Jack Carver can go just about anywhere on the screen he wants to. However, don't take this to mean that the worlds are built like a typical RPG. Natural features such as cliffs and rivers, and man-made features like fences, roads, and walls ensure that Mr. Carver never does quite leave the intended path.

At the same time, through a unique compass system and continuous dialog, Far Cry enjoys an open feeling not normally associated with first person shooters. For example, during one part of the game the player is given what looks to be two paths to take: either climb a steep hill or take a buggy along a road. However, after climbing the hill it is revealed there are actually 2 paths to take from the hill. If the player enters the bunker at the bottom, they can go underneath the hill and walk down the opposite side. If he remains on top, they can catch a ride down on a hang glider. If he takes the jeep instead, he'll find an additional unseen path that is reached by jumping a broken bridge. These multiple paths add greatly to the games appeal and replay value. However, the multiple paths hide a darker side, which will be dealt with later.

Far Cry'AI is another point of interest. You see, 'revolutionary' as a term to describe any AI has fallen into disuse since Half-Life and the Unreal engine. Most AI systems are simply evolutionary, getting slightly better as time goes on. Far Cry attempts to break the barrier and deliver several different types of AI. To an extent, Far Cry exceeds the goals probably intended. The AI handles squad based human reactions with the ease of Unreal 2k4, and the herd mentality of primitive creatures with the ease of Half-Life.

Perhaps the most interesting feature is that intelligent creatures will not forget Mr. Carver. They may give up on finding Mr. Carver, but they never forget the presence. It's almost like Metal Gear: Twin Snakes on alert mode, except when alerted the guards never do quite get up. Some of the more intelligent human enemies will also raise an alarm, while others will be more gung-ho in the attempt to end Mr. Carver's life. The range of actions possible is almost astounding.

That's not to say the AI is without flaws. For example, the herd mentality creatures are as dumb as rocks. Literally. Many enemies do not react correctly to thrown rocks, and some don't react at all to grenades. It's rather interesting to watch 4 or 5 AI enemies dive for cover as the one standing right next to the grenade just sits there. There are some other gameplay issues as well, but like the multiple paths, we'll cover those a bit later.

What does set Far Cry apart from many other games is that it has been built from the ground up to take advantage of the DirectX 9 standard. While there are other games out there like Gun Metal, Halo PC, and Tomb Raider that can use DirectX 9 shaders, there have been no games, until now, built wholly on DirectX 9. For that reason, Far Cry's high requirements can easily be forgiven.

The entire game is one outstanding graphics demo. From the detail on the guns, to the ripples in fur of the aforementioned herd AI critters, Far Cry is the most detailed game on the market. Period. It will not be until after Half-Life 2 and other Source Engine, or CryEngine, games come along that players will see graphics to rival those of Far Cry. However, the game's dependency on DX9 hardware is confusing. The CryEngine fully supports both OpenGl and DirectX. The Engine can scale from the low end PS2, to the GameCube, to the Xbox with no problem. So why are PC gamers stuck with the monster, power sucking, video hungry final Far Cry? Even more confusing, why does the game have no OpenGl rendering option when the engine supports it?

Far Cry's voice audio is close to Hollywood quality, in several of the languages the game supports. The dialog of the game manages to remain serious and focused, despite the direction the game takes about mid-way through. Overall Far Cry often teeters on the edge between an action title and a horror/survival title, and the dialog manages to keep the story tense and in focus despite what happens in the game. Far Cry's ambient music is strangely addictive. Don't be too surprised if you start humming some of the tunes while not playing the game.

Now to return the focus to the earlier points. What really hurts Far Cry and turns it from a must have title to a high recommendation is not the computing power required, but the games stability.

First, the KISS (Keep it simple stupid) version. The game has some serious issues that when certain events are triggered in the game, the game sends the computer into sleep mode. This drastically harms the playability of the game. Be prepared to restart often while playing Far Cry. While the issue will no doubt be fixed in time, the stability makes the game a rough sell.

Now for the overly long complex version. WARNING: IT GETS TECHNICAL.

The Far Cry game was reviewed on 3 systems.

Viri:
Windows 2000 Pro
Windows Xp 64-bit
Athlon 64 3200+
1gig DDR Ram : 3.3.3.8 400mhz
Asus K8V-Deluxe
Hercules Game Theater Xp
Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro | Chaintech Geforce 4 4200/4600 / Sapphire Radeon 9000 Pro

Virus:
Windows 2000 Pro
Athlon Xp 3200+ / 2500+
1gig DDR Ram : 3.3.3.8 400mhz
Abit NF7-S
Nforce MCP
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro | Chaintech Geforce 4 4200/4600

Virple:
Windows 2000 Pro | HT Enabled
Intel Pentium 4 2.6ghz HT / 1.6ghz
1gig DDR Ram : 3.3.3.8 333mhz
Asus PR4800 VM
AC /97 codec
Sapphire Radeon 9600 Xt | Chaintech Geforce 4 4200/4600 | Radeon 9100 IGP

DirectX 9:
Radeon 9800 Pro
Radeon 9600 Xt

DirectX 8:
Geforce 4
Radeon 9100 IGP
Radeon 9000 Pro


These are the 3 systems Far Cry was tested on, with the respective parts listed to test speed and Graphics capabilities.

DirectX 9:
To try to put this in perspective. The most powerful system here, Viri, was able to run Far Cry in 1024*768 with everything turned onto the highest settings. However, enabling any picture filtering options made the game respond too slowly to be playable. There were also several points during the single player romp where Viri's frame rate fell below 30 frames a second and was rendered nearly unplayable. While running in Windows Xp 64-bit, the game was much more stable, however the image quality suffered. It is well known that the current driver set for Radeon video cards in Windows Xp 64-bit is far from optimized, so the lower image quality is forgivable. The game ran most comfortably in 800*600 on the AthlonXp system with just high settings under both the 2500+ and 3200+ speeds. However, the Intel system required Medium settings at the high speed. As the Radeon 9100 IGP is not good for overclocking, expect to be able to do more with faster systems. However, on the underclock to 1.6ghz, the Intel system required a drop to Low settings to maintain the 800*600 resolution. Granted, this behavior is also due to the halving of the graphics power from the two Athlon Systems.

DirectX 8:
Runs like a dog. The Geforce Speeds were achieved by overclocking a special edition card from ChainTech. Unfortunately a DX9 capable Geforce was not on hand during the review. In any case, there is a noticeable degradation in the image quality when dropping from the DX9 cards to the DX8 cards. The drop in image quality is as drastic as comparing an Xbox to the N64, and the performance really doesn't improve. Then again, as the DX8 cards are far weaker than the DX9 cards, this is not a big surprise. Under the DX8 standard the game ran best at either 640*480, or 800*600 with medium standards. The one plus to the Geforce is that the game appears to be much more stable, and exhibited the sleep bug far less often then when running on the Radeon Cards. The performance under Windows Xp 64-bit with the Geforce also improved quite a bit over the 32bit performance. However, since Nvidia has optimized the Geforce drivers for Xp 64-bit and since Far Cry was built with Athlon64 in mind, this is hardly a surprise.

DirectX 7 and below:
There are other graphic adapters out there, such as Geforce2's, and Radeon 7500's. There also are plenty of people using integrated Nvidia Geforce4 MX and Intel Extreme Graphics II. Word to the wise people. Don't even try to run this game. A Radeon 7500 got shoved into Viri. Even at the lowly Gamecube/X-box resolution of 640*480, getting 15 frames a second was an accomplishment.

This is by no means an authoritative review of how Far Cry runs on different hardware. Factors such as driver versions, run time files, Windows Versions, service packs, and many other different items can have a drastic impact on performance. The bottom line is that you should be packing a hefty system to get the most out of Far Cry.

The technical value questions continue with the game itself. Unreal Tournament 2004 recently launched in several versions: a 7 CD version, and a special edition DVD version. Both of these versions also contain scripts that allow the user to set up and run the game under Linux. Considering that the CryEngine has this capability, one wonders why CryTek didn't release Far Cry in a similar manner. It shouldn't take too much work to create an install shell script if the engine supports the Operating System. Also, as Far Cry weighs in at a massive 5 CD's, a single install DVD would be a welcome addition to the market place.

Overall Far Cry is one of the most important titles to be released this year. It is the herald of things to come, as it represents the new breed of games built on the advanced OpenGl and DirectX graphic systems. The game contains a strong single player romp that positively bursts with extensive replay value. Add to that some excellent vehicular multiplayer maps and Far Cry should have been a clear winner.

However, an unstable game mixed with high system requirements are a decided turnoff. If you're into PC gaming and you can just barely run the game to begin with, save your money for some upgrades. By the time Half-Life 2, Doom III, Counter Strike 2, Unreal 2k5, and Quake 4 arrive you'll have enough to plunk down on a shiney new Radeon 9900 or Geforce 6000, and pick up Far Cry out of the budget aisle.