NOTE: The game originally scheduled for this slot was CounterStrike. But then I thought, well, that’s not really fair to Half-Life, which could also be right in the same spot. But I don’t want to fill up the rest of the list with games of the same genre, so I knew I had to pick one. Totally different games, of course, but the FPS genre definitely needed to be represented by one of them. I went back and forth on it a lot. Counterstrike, Half-Life? Half-Life, Counterstrike? Multiplayer mayhem with a bunch of 14 year olds with foul mouths, or boxes and barrels as far as the eye can see?
It was a difficult decision, but late last night, after much soul-searching, as well as searching for CDs in the unpacked cardboard boxes in the garage and reinstalling games, the answer finally became clear:
#3: FAR CRY (2004)
The most vivid recollection I have of any moment in my history of computer gaming occurred about 30 seconds after I loaded up Wolfenstein 3D for the first time. I downloaded it just because I had been a fan of the 2D version of the game, and didn’t really have any idea what I was about to experience, so when the first screen came up and had me staring straight at the door to my cell, I thought, “hey, cool!” and started hunting around the keyboard to figure out what I needed to type to make the door open. In the middle of this exercise, my arm accidentally brushed my mouse… That’s when I looked up at the screen, and everything had… changed. I grabbed the mouse and moved it around a little, and the room spun and skewed right along with the mouse movements.
Hooooly shit.
In my little universe, the whole world of gaming had completely changed in that one little moment. There had never been anything like it. You were there, and you had full range of motion. You could do whatever you want (except, in Wolfie’s case, go up or down or eat anything other than chicken legs and dog food.) The FPS genre had been born.
In the fifteen years since, FPS and the technology behind it have enjoyed something of a binary relationship, as each continued to push the other forward to greater and greater heights. Things absolutely inconceivable even a handful of years ago have become commonplace. Unprecented levels of immersion and reality are achieved seemingly with every new release.
And yet, for the most part, every FPS game is still just Wolfenstein. You’d grab your gun, you’d go through some corridors, you’d shoot some bad guys, wash, rinse, repeat. Doom came out, which was Wolfenstein with stairs and demons and blinking lights. Half-Life came out and revolutionized the frigging genre, but when you stopped to really look at it, it’s still just Wolfie, with some trains and vehicles (and boxes and barrels) thrown in. Even in Half-Life 2, with its expansive outdoor environments, the gameplay is no different from when you are inside. You’re still pretty much in well-defined (often contrived) corridors, running through the levels like a well-armed rat in a maze, looking for chicken legs and dog food.
Far Cry starts out much the same way, and as you head down the first corridor, it is difficult to think that this is going to be anything more than another souped-up, high-tech version of Wolfenstein 3D.
And then you climb up out of that sewer and get your first look at the lush foliage, swaying palm trees, and expansive white beaches which lay in front of you.
Hoooooly shit.
If Far Cry had just done the whole “expansive playfield” thing, and just done the “pretty island” thing, it wouldn’t have been anything special. What makes it special is that it does absolutely everything else within its gorgeous environment right. Your very first experience outside the sewer, sneaking from hut to hut, is just exhilirating. Swimming through the cove, avoiding patrol boats and trying to get to the hole in the side of the carrier is spine-tingling. Hiding in the bushes and taking out some smug asshole with a headshot from 200 yards away is wonderful. And sitting in the middle of a huge hill, hearing footsteps searching for you, while the palm trees continue to sway, tropical birds flood the sky above you, and the great, shining blue expanse of ocean hissing behind you is just not an experience that you are going to get in any other game at any other price. It is the most replayable FPS I know, not because anything’s different the second or third time, but just because, wow. It’s like a virtual Club Med, but one where you get to shoot people in the face.
It came out well before Half-Life 2, and outdoes it in nearly every respect, except for Far Cry’s middle section, which essentially is Half-Life 2, and which is its weakest element. HL2’s vaunted physics engine has nothing over Far Cry except for silly puzzles involving the gravity gun. Doom 3 does not even come close.
It is the best entry yet in the world of first-person shooters, and deserves any accolade you can throw at it.
Epilogue: In my Caltrops review, I mention that at the time (and even as early as two weeks ago) I didn’t have a computer capable of running Far Cry at anything over the lowest graphical settings. Even at those lame settings, it was an unforgettable experience. I reinstalled last night to try it out on my new fancy graphics card, and set all the settings to “very high”, and it’s almost like a brand new game. Stunning. Phenomenal. And really, really good.
Ice Cream Jonsey