Year: 2004
Type: Original Soundtrack (OST)
Composer(s): Thomas Bärtschi
Number of tracks: 34

★★★★★

For crying out quiet

A good game from Germany? No, it's not a fever dream, but Far Cry. The debut work from Studio Crytek showed in 2004 that while they may only have a knack for island settings, the game still found its fans. I myself didn't encounter the studio until three years later with Crysis, which draped the entire concept in a sci-fi mantle. Objectively, it may be the better game, but fans are likely to fondly remember the adventures of ex-marine Jack Carver in the South Pacific.

Meanwhile, it's evident that a lot has changed in the gaming industry within three years, not only in terms of graphical quality that distinguishes Crysis from its spiritual predecessor, but also in the musical accompaniment. In Far Cry , the music is composed by Thomas Bärtschi, who according to IMDb has only contributed to Hitman: Absolution . The music is okay, but it suffers greatly from segmentation and the short track length. Because the score starts off quite well with Menu : brass, percussion, and vocals underscore the pathos of the story, evoking memories of God of War and Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.

Far Cry (2004)

Far Cry Instincts (2005)

Far Cry Instincts: Evolution (2006)

Far Cry Instincts: Predator (2006)

Far Cry 2 (2008)

However, the remaining tracks are mostly only half a minute long, too short to captivate, but also too long to overlook the potential. This is largely due to the associations that pieces like Menu 2 (Titan Quest), Demo / Demo 2 (Stronghold) or Hightech Drone (Portal) evoke in me. It doesn't quite fit into the realistic setting, making the score – especially for a shooter – stand out from the variety of music of the 2000s. The result are a few disjointed fragments with little entertainment value. Fortunately, this will change over the course of the series – as there are some real gems in there!

No.	Title	Artist(s)	Ratings
01	Installer Music	Thomas Bärtschi	2
02	Intro	Thomas Bärtschi	1
03	Menu	Thomas Bärtschi	4
04	Menu 2	Thomas Bärtschi	3
05	Beginning	Thomas Bärtschi	2
06	Beginning 2	Thomas Bärtschi	2
07	Beginning 3	Thomas Bärtschi	2
08	Carrier Backup	Thomas Bärtschi	2
09	Water Cooler	Thomas Bärtschi	2
10	Boat Sneaking (Fort)	Thomas Bärtschi	2
11	Elevator (Fort)	Thomas Bärtschi	2
12	Research	Thomas Bärtschi	2
13	Research (Elevator)	Thomas Bärtschi	2
14	Boat Fight	Thomas Bärtschi	2
15	Carfight	Thomas Bärtschi	3
16	Training	Thomas Bärtschi	1
17	Demo	Thomas Bärtschi	3
18	Demo 2	Thomas Bärtschi	3
19	Approach Ship	Thomas Bärtschi	2
20	Waterbeat (Ship)	Thomas Bärtschi	2
21	Atmo (Ship)	Thomas Bärtschi	1
22	Deck Fight (Ship)	Thomas Bärtschi	3
23	Whisperpad (Jungle)	Thomas Bärtschi	2
24	Darkflute (Jungle)	Thomas Bärtschi	1
25	Rumble (Jungle)	Thomas Bärtschi	1
26	Cool Rhythm (Jungle)	Thomas Bärtschi	1
27	Rhythm (Jungle)	Thomas Bärtschi	2
28	Sneak String (Jungle)	Thomas Bärtschi	1
29	Soundscape (Jungle)	Thomas Bärtschi	1
30	Boomer (Jungle)	Thomas Bärtschi	1
31	Bell Drone	Thomas Bärtschi	2
32	Hightech Drone	Thomas Bärtschi	1
33	Psycho	Thomas Bärtschi	1
34	Psycho 2	Thomas Bärtschi	1