There's something about the claim of bar-raising graphics and revolutionary AI that elicits a reaction deep down inside all gamers, even in the most jaded of hearts, however blackened and scarred by a thousand cruel press releases they may be. Still, hope lives eternal and is occasionally rewarded. Certainly when German developer Crytek began showing off Far Cry, some gamers may have been understandably leery of a FPS set in a tropical paradise, much less one claiming to have revolutionary AI and physics. While Crytek may not have accomplished all these goals with the first commercial demonstration of the CryENGINE, they certainly have made a very pretty little shooter. It is however, one that ultimately may leave the player wanting for those half-realized PR promises.

The game begins with the player cast in the role of Jack Carver, a boating guide with a penchant for utilizing military hardware to thwart ne'er-do-wells. There's a fine veneer of a story about rescuing your fare that the mercenaries have absconded with, a surly reporter by the name of Val, but it all breaks into so much flotsam and jetsam after the first few missions. All one really needs to know is that there's an evil corporation, they're up to the usual shenanigans, and it's your job to set things right. The plot is left somewhat jarring with the transitions in area and setting, with the verdant jungle swapped for murky underground industrial complexes and back again.

To be fair however, Crytek has done an admirable job of creating compelling levels and goals in both environments, though there is often a feeling of disjointed purpose and direction. Aside from Val, Jack is also aided in his endeavors by a scientist within the forces of the enemy by the name of Doyle, a turncoat who communicates and guides Jack via a videophone acquired early in the game. Doyle not only opens doors and offers solutions to the obstacles in Jack's path; he also provides banter and interaction for most of the levels in the game when you're working solo. This is arguably preferable to having the protagonist mutter to himself, particularly when the two characters develop an entertaining passive-aggressive relationship that is made even more palatable by highly competent voice acting.

Outshining all of this however, are the sprawling jungle vistas and pristine white beaches stretching into the distance. It's fairly hard to not be impressed when sneaking through the underbrush and watching the sunlight striping your weapon as you move forward, the terrain ahead of you shrunk and distorted in the eyepiece of your rifle scope… a seven course meal for the eyes, and one that the developers made the most of. Whether skimming across the sun-dappled lagoon waters in a patrol boat or soaring over a moonlit battlefield in a hang glider with explosions and tracers lighting up the ground far beneath you, Far Cry is packed with enough eye candy to sate the most demanding gamer. And while the poorly lit underground complexes suffer from FPS-blandness in setting and theme, they are artfully detailed; with blood-spattered tile, age-pitted metal, steam hissing out of vents distorting perception, and overhead fluorescents swinging and flickering for dramatic effect.

The physics engine is a bit spotty in application, with the vehicles or miscellaneous objects sometimes feeling weightless, whereas the player is victimized by the crushing effects of gravity when falling more than six feet off a structure. Driving along in a humvee and running into a smallish crate can render your vehicle a smoking ruin or send it tumbling through the air, while other similar-looking crates can be easily pushed about by hand. Some parts of the game utilize the physics to some success, requiring the player to move objects or clear paths in order to progress, but the rest of the time it feels somewhat abandoned, a feature implemented but not overly utilized during the course of the game.

Weaponry is fairly standard issue: pistol, shotgun, various machine guns, and a sniper rifle. The combat that ensues can be somewhat frustrating at times, as the player character feels no sturdier than any of the enemies he encounters, and often less so. This necessitates an awful lot of luring enemies out with thrown stones and then attempting to take them down quietly before they can alert their allies. Running in with guns blazing will result in your having to reload the last save point repeatedly, as enemies are just as heavily armed, just as heavily armored, and just as healthy as you yourself. However, this harsh glimpse of reality does allow one to enjoy the various visual effects applied to the player's field of view when they're being hammered with missiles, grenades, and heavy caliber fire. Early on in the game, the weaponry seems up to snuff but the latter half incorporates many enemy characters that are heavily armored or horribly mutated to the point of requiring multiple shotgun blasts to the face before they go down, even on the Easy difficulty setting. Enemy AI seems hypersensitive to sound, and gifted with x-ray vision when it comes to seeing through thick underbrush, while the player is effectively blinded. More often than not, it may feel as though failing to jump through the hoops as the developers intended results in swift and brutal punishment, an experience that does not tend to encourage extended play.

In the end, Far Cry is perhaps what the developers originally intended it to be: a stellar demonstration of what their engine is capable of, with a somewhat tacked-on game for the purposes of retail distribution. While the goals set by Crytek may not have been fully realized, the viability of their product for licensing is undeniable, and a ready competitor for the market-dominating Unreal engine. However, for the end user who is not actively prioritizing graphics over content and fine-tuned gameplay, Far Cry may not be the most ideal purchase possible. With stealth elements being arbitrarily forced on the player and then later removed, combined with nigh-omniscient AI, play experience after the first few levels can become an exercise in frustration and tedium. Coupling that with inconsistent plot coherency and questionable physics, it seems important to stress that while this is a very shiny game demonstrating a very robust engine, there is more beauty than guts here, and many players may find the colorful candy shell does not deliver as delicious a gaming experience.