welcome to paradise

(Updated May 19, 2004)

At a time when everyone's just about had enough of Valve's not-so-subtle marketing doublespeak, PC Gamer decides to slap their "World Exclusive Playtest" of Half Life 2 on the front cover of their June issue. Gabe Newell's flighty responses to fan questions leaves the release date up in the air, all the while comparisons to Duke Nukem Forever riccochet off of bulletin boards with head spinning frequencies. After poring through an article cleverly designed to make you soil your pants in anticipation coupled with some more E3 gameplay footage, I quickly put all thoughts aside of whatever I had planned on doing for the summer, and will begin a lineup for Half-Life 2 at my local software retailer. Anyone who's up for it can contact me.

The euphoria left me before it even had a chance to make itself comfortable deep in my chest because there's more in this issue that caught my attention. Specifically, a very glowing review of Far Cry. When I first played the demo, I was definitely amazed at the capabilities of the engine, the infuriating tactics of the AI and the overall scope of the game world. The painstakingly detailed island paradise was big, and the inclusion of vehicles would be something a developer would suggest in a preliminary design document, but not necessarily know how to implement them. Naturally these things get cut and you're stuck with a scripted vehicle sequence like the MOHAA games, Call of Duty and Enter the Matrix. But Crytek managed to pull it off - and although the controls are really, really sloppy you're still afforded the freedom to travel wherever you please whether by boat or by buggy. Anyone who's tried the multiplayer will tell you that it needs work - and UbiSoft hopes to address this with a patch - but with such a strong single-player component it seems there's no reason to turn to the fairly standard frag contests.

So did I submit to overwhelmingly positive reviews despite my nocommittal first impressions? Well if you count that box on my desk that says Far Cry then yes, I think I did.

I was fairly flippant in my original assessment of Far Cry's massive gameworld, but it really is incredible. I didn't fully realize it until I was standing at the top of a large canyon, complete with a waterfall and an assault helicopter heading in for a strafing run. I had to run to a hang glider nearby and get the hell out of there before I was overrun by mercenaries, but the view - I just couldn't believe it. The CryEngine, in a word, is revolutionary. There are no mid-level load screens or pop-in. The viewing distance is enough to blur the lines of reality, and travelling through the world feels smooth and natural. Believe me, I tried to find those invisible walls that many traditional FPS games fall victim to. This fluidity comes at a cost, though: even with my GF4 Ti4600, I had to turn settings down to get a decent framerate The game will run at 1600x1200 with details, but it turns into a slideshow when there is a lot of action going on on screen. The load times between level segments can also be a bit slow. Don't be fooled by most of the screenshots though: the jungle environments are not the only backdrops to the missions. I found myself inside an abandoned aircraft carrier and an underground research complex. I honestly believe the demo did a really terrible job of convincing you of the game's openness because the mission included was merely a stepping stone towards the next portion of the story, something you would only realize with the full version. I felt that I had been dropped into a war zone and simply had to dispatch all hostiles. It didn't exactly feel revolutionary, or something that you could step aside from and truly appreciate the game world. Because the environments are so open, the potential solutions to each objective are as unique as the player's approach. You could run in guns ablaze, or sneak up and carefully snipe off your enemies from a safe distance. Fresh out of the stealth action of Pandora Tomorrow I tended to lean towards the latter, also integrating some of my tactics from navigating the jungles of Battlefield: Vietnam.

Combat is fairly visceral, and is helped by the eardrum-popping weapon sounds. It can even be comical at times, watching the sheer lunacy as your enemies run after you shooting madly and yelling hilarious taunts. They're suprisingly smart though, taking cover or strafing behind objects where necessary, and they will see you if you shoot first, preferring to take you out from a distance instead of making themselves easy targets. The game is really challenging, and gives you the impression that you are completely surrounded - everywhere you turn there's someone shooting at you. Some minor gripes come into focus, here: you can't aim very well while running. It makes sense, but for a straight ahead FPS it was unncessary realism. Especially when ammo for most of the weapons is interchangable. Call of Duty did this really well - you would have to pick up the exact weapon's ammo to stock up. Hit detection is also a bit off. Either that, or the mercanaries can take an awful lot of punishment.

Another major complaint I had originally was the lack of in-game saves. You can save anywhere using a hidden command in the ~ console, but it's very buggy. You might find yourself on top of a building, in a completely different spot or the HUD disappears when you try and reload. After extended play I found the checkpoints are decently spaced, so I only used this as a safety. Apparently quicksaves will be added with the next patch, though, so this may become a nonissue.

Then the mutants show up, which are able to take you out with one swing of their malformed claws. It's not the same heart-sinking plot twist as when you find out what's really going on at Black Mesa, but pretty close. I was a little upset that you didn't get the shotgun until deep into the heart of the research complex, because I was shitting myself every time the beasts jumped at me and all I had to retaliate was an erratically firing M-4 assault rifle. With a level name like "Treehouse", happy images are conjured up. But the sick bastards at Crytek have created a twisted jungle gym that is inhabited by these mutant apes and is the setpiece for your first encounter with them. It would be easy for this game to rely on cheap scares to keep you on your toes, but I think where Far Cry excels is the atmosphere of the unknown - very similar to Half Life. Because the tension is constantly building in the background, it doesn't take much to get you to jump out of your seat. The in-game tension and intermittent plot revelations keep the story moving forward and prevents Far Cry from quickly devolving into a typical shooter. In the aftermath of Unreal Tournament, Quake III Arena and the Battlefield games, it's refreshing to find a FPS that makes the single player campaign top priority. It also says a lot about Crytek - being the first of three highly anticipated shooters this year, it has managed to suprise a lot of people and even distract them from the coming launch of two of the most popular franchises in PC gaming history.

i live through everything, because i'm overdressed