Since it’s pioneering induction into the series with Far Cry 2; Fire has been a main stay element in the series; and why not? From torching enemy camps, to setting alight fields of drugs to the sound of Skrillex, to simply being a weapon in a hospitable world; Fire is a very useful element in the world of Far Cry. Originally being hailed as to how realistic and effective it was; Fire and Far Cry are like two peas in a pod. It is however rather annoying; and not for the most obvious reason.
Much like many other First Person Shooter (FPS) games; as you play Far Cry, you are very likely to get shot/attacked by an enemy or some animal. When you get injured, your life bar goes down. Now to prevent the oncoming end of your life points, you can heal. To do this, you simply just press a button to heal and you do so. Now; In Far Cry being able to heal can mean one of several things. For instance if you are very low on health, you may get a little animation in front of your eyes showing your character resetting their broken fingers, to using pliers to pull a bullet out of their leg or arms. If however, your character still has some life, you may use one of the healing items on your person to heal up, if you have them! In any way shape or form, it’s still a pretty simple thing, if you are injured: press the correct button and you heal. Simple right?
With fire in the Far Cry series it’s not as simple as that! In many an occasion, if you catch fire anywhere on your person, it’s not as simple as healing in the usual manner. If your character gets injured the screen may change shade for a flash to suggest your character blacking/fading out from the pain, this is one sign your character may be on fire. Another is your character may make a sound to express pain too. Then another is much more simple than those, and it’s the simple sign of flashes of fire around your person, or fire on your person which is visible from the hands. Now in this situation, it should be pretty clear that what you should do is press the heal key/button so your character can then heal up from catching fire.
But that is too obvious a thing to do in the world of Far Cry and in many a situation one of two things can/most likely will, happen. One is that while your character may heal, they may continue to lose health as you are still somehow on fire. The other way though is by far the most annoying! The game (despite probably you already knowing this information) will inform you that you are on fire, and that you need to press the heal key/button to heal, and then by doing so, you will heal from being on fire; which is more than likely what you were already doing!
Fire does have it’s uses in the world of Far Cry, and you can probably tell that Ubisoft are pretty proud with their achievement; and why wouldn’t they be? Making realistic fire in a world which is entirely artificial, that is an amazing achievement! But I don’t think it really requires them to shove it in player’s faces when they can probably already see, given the clues; that their character is on fire! I mean on the one hand it is nice of them to tell the player’s that their character is on fire, but to prevent proper healing until the players read the dialogue telling them that their character’s are on fire; that is pretty ridiculous!
I still Love Far Cry, despite this irritation!
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