The Farcry series of games hold a unique position among the first person shooter genre--blending tactical and Stealth elements with the traditional run-n-gun playstyles which results in both accessible and addictive gameplay experiences that also warrants a huge replay value. But after nearly two decades' worth of Videogames, there's several reasons why the first game in the series, Farcry (2004), is still one of most true-to-form experiences from the franchise and is actually the most Farcry game in the series, both in terms of themes and the overall gameplay experience. And that's what this article is all about.
What makes the Farcry series of FPS' stand out from most other shooters is that these games are characterized by an underlying relationship between the player and the environment, or the world where the game is taking place. In a way, the World becomes a character of it's own, which really drives home the point that the player is stranded in a faraway place where everything, including the World is hostile to him. And the first Farcry absolutely nailed this idea with it's gameplay in many ways that easily make it one of the most memorable games in the series.
The modern Farcry titles (Farcry 3 and beyond) are ingrained with an RPG-like progression system that makes the player become more powerful and unlock new abilities and skills the more he plays and is basically geared to move the player into a 'King-of-the-Hill' level of experience. While this does make the games a lot more enjoyable and satisfying, they also take away all of the hostility and vulnerability factor that's an integral part of the experience.
And that's what made the first Farcry so brutal and unique--it's tropical island was as beautiful as it was haunting, as serene in the daytime and just as harrowing in the night levels (with the Mutants). While this may seem pretty unfair by today's gaming standards, but that's exactly what fits the whole theme of Farcry where the feeling of vulnerability is very real and constant. This element of danger-around-the-corner is what has become somewhat diminished and in most cases, completely absent in the modern Farcry titles where you practically become a one-man-army by the end which completely removes all sense of threats in the game World.
On a more personal level, I even once had a dream of being in the tropical setting of the first Farcry game with many of it's overpowered mutants roaming around, such was the emotional impact of the game that even after more than 15 years it stays in the memory. This also goes to show just how effective the game was to evoke the feeling of lurking terror and a sense of helplessness in the player, which fits it's theme of being stranded on a faraway hostile land like a glove, and something I don't think the modern titles in the series have quite managed to achieve.
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| Farcry had the mighty Cryengine powering it's visuals... |
In fact, all of that creates a strong psychological sense of survival-horror that makes the game effortlessly scary at many of it's levels, and the feeling of dread is as real as it is difficult from a gameplay perspective, which makes the first Farcry easily one of the hardest in the series and among it's genre as well. Honestly very few games made me gasp and play with as much sense of caution and danger as the first Farcry, and oddly, it didn't detract or took away anything from the experience but enriched it instead cause the difficulty felt only natural in a setting like that.
Of course Farcry 2 is also an amazing game in this aspect, but I chose to keep it out of discussion cause it doesn't have the tropical island landscape of the first game which has also become sort of a staple setting for the series. Besides, as game Worlds go, the island setting really embodies the whole 'stranded on a faraway hostile land' much better than anything else, and is pretty hard to beat in creating that sense of disconnect and abandonment which serves as the foundation of the Farcry series.
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| Non-linear gameplay was the DNA of Farcry... |
And in the same vein, both Farcry and Farcry 2 were the only games where the Worlds felt like they had a particularly threatening characteristic to them that made them so unique, afterwards the series took a dramatic turn from Farcry 3 and beyond where the focus of the experience shifted from a hostile World to deranged, psychopathic characters who became the main antagonist for the player while the Worlds themselves became more far placid and neutral. So in a way, the earliest two games in the franchise are also the most 'true-to-form' to the theme of the series and looking back, they certainly feel like they're part of a bygone era in the series.
So to wrap it all up, the first Farcry still (and always will) has a special place in my heart as a gamer and feels as the definitive game in the series. Sure in terms of gameplay and shooting mechanics', it's pretty dated by today's standards but in terms of themes and settings, it's still distinctly Farcry, maybe more so than most other titles in the series.
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