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.

The score

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 MenuThomas Bärtschi4 : brass, percussion, and vocals underscore the pathos of the story, evoking memories of God of War and Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.

Other entries in the Far Cry -series

Soundtrack

Far Cry (2004)

Soundtrack

Far Cry Instincts (2005)

Soundtrack

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 2Thomas Bärtschi3 (Titan Quest), DemoThomas Bärtschi3 / Demo 2Thomas Bärtschi3 (Stronghold) or Hightech DroneThomas Bärtschi1 (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!