Far Cry is a franchise of first-person shooter games, all of which have been published by Ubisoft. The first game, Far Cry, was developed by Creek to premiere their Cry Engine software, and released in March 2004. Subsequently, Ubisoft obtained the rights to the franchise and the bulk of the development is handled by Ubisoft Montreal with assistance from other Ubisoft satellite studios. The following games in the series have used an Ubisoft-modified version of the Cry Engine, the Dania Engine, allowing for open world gameplay. In the present, the franchise consists of six mainline games, a standalone expansion, and several spin-offs; additionally, the first game, initially developed for Microsoft Windows, saw a number of ports to video game consoles, which changed several elements and are therefore considered standalone releases.
The Far Cry games, due to the history of their development, do not have any significant shared narrative elements, but instead share a theme of placing the player in a wilderness environment where they must help fight against one or more despots that control the region as well as surviving against wild animals that roam the open spaces. The Far Cry games feature a robust single-player campaign, with later titles offering co-operative campaign, support. The games also offer competitive multiplayer options and the ability for users to edit the games' maps for these matches.
The Far Cry games have generally been well-received for their open world gameplay despite their stories receiving mixed reviews, and are considered commercial successes. Ubisoft reports that through 2014, lifetime sales of the Far Cry franchise has exceeded 20 million units.
Premise and gameplay
The main Far Cry games are first-person shooters (FPS) with action-adventure elements. Whereas the first Far Cry and its spin-offs/remakes were typical FPS with discrete levels, Far Cry 2 and the subsequent games have adapted an open world-style of gameplay, with main story and side missions and optional quests to complete.
There are minimal narrative elements or chronology between the games. Instead, the Far Cry games have generally shared the theme of taking the player to "a lawless frontier" where "values and laws of today are non-functional", along with elements of having to survive in the wilderness including hunting and crafting.[2] The player often needs to work with freedom fighters attempting to regain control of a region from a ruling party, and may have to pit different sides of a conflict against each other through their actions. Some series' games have been more rooted in realistic conflicts, while others have involved elements of the supernatural or science fiction.[3] Ubisoft Montreal, the principal developers of the series, do consider that all games share the same common fictional universe, and have reused some minor characters to maintain that, but otherwise anticipate each game can be enjoyed as a standalone title without knowledge of the other games.
Far Cry, the first game in the series, was developed as an open-ended first-person shooter by German studio Creek, being the first title to use their Cry Engine software. The game is set on a mysterious archipelago in Micronesia, where ex-special forces operative Jack Carver must use various weapons, tools, and his surroundings to survive against hostile mercenaries that control the islands while searching for the journalist who was accompanying him and who went missing. As Jack explores the islands, he uncovers the horrific genetic experiments being conducted on the local wildlife and must confront the mad scientist behind them.
The game was published by Ubisoft on March 23, 2004, for Microsoft Windows. It received generally positive reviews, with praise for its visuals, gameplay mechanics, and the level of freedom given to the player, and sold 730,000 units within four months of release.
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