I'm considering picking the game up during the current promo.

I have heard good thing about Far Cry 1. I just want to make sure that the game isn't impossible to complete because of unbalanced enemies.

Are the enemies balanced and if not, are there any fan made mods or patches to correct this?

Thank you in advance for your input.

http://www.gog.com/forum/far_cry_series/omg_farcry_1_is_hard_lol

That thread pretty much covers it.

I saw that thread but I didn't want to bump the topic since it was old. Are the problems listed in that thread still accurate?

Greetings; I have played this game for close to ten years and I have completed it on all levels except the most difficult level the I call hell hall, it's near the end (Volcano) I just can't seem to get my timing right to knock out my opponents. Other than that you can have a ball with it thru lots of different conditions and with many weapons using stealth or just running and gunning the graphics were probably the best for years. and with new video cards and processors it looks fluid. Get it you won't regret it. Jim.

I remember the game could be challenging especially near the end it could get insane on hard difficulty. When I played it I remember the big brutes near the end where so tough I started running out of ammo taking them on and that included scavenging any ammo and using a vehicles gun and even ramming into them, it was pretty ridiculous but satisfying.

If you're worried about the difficulty I'd just suggest playing on an easier mode and trying to keep in mind some things. Like you aren't super human, head shots worked well if I remember right, using cover and hit and run tactics can help as can ambushing and stealth, you can often thin out the bad guys before all hell breaks loose, using vehicles or fixed guns can make some things much easier just know when to bug out.

There's often different kinds of routes you can take, like a tunnel vs the open, choosing based on what weapons you have can make a big difference. Though when you have to go a certain route such as indoors try have weapons that are well suited like a shotgun rather than a sniper rifle for obvious reasons, there are times when having a certain weapon makes the world of difference.

Perhaps the most important thing is to remember that you don't have some mission or objective to kill everyone but rather to survive, there are only certain points where you have to kill everything to progress. Otherwise it's all about getting by any way you can to the next area. It's not like most modern games where you kill and see everything in one pass along a narrow path, here there's almost always the option to run for your life and try sneak around areas or even sprint through the checkpoint/door with a bunch chasing you.

That's one of the great things about the game, not only does it have very high replay value but also it gives you a sense of vulnerability or fear despite you being heavily armed, something which is rare. You aren't some super soldier where you clear out everything in your path like in most newer FPS games which result in almost no replay value. There will be times where you have to run for you life, frantically looking for something to help you hoping you don't get squashed, this forces you into new areas or areas you didn't see on your last playthrough, even coming upon an enemy area you know but from a different direction by mistake can make it seem new and surprise you.

Playing it on hard I remember it being just that, hard, to the point where I would swear going "WTF" (especially at the end, near the end it really could get crazy on hard) but it also gave a great sense of accomplishment.

I would suggest playing it on a difficulty that makes you struggle because you are meant to and the end result of kicking it's arse it great, I'd say it's much better having to restart on an easier difficulty at some point than playing through this game on a setting that doesn't kick your arse. If it doesn't have you running for you life in many places you are missing an important part of the Far Cry experience.

Allow me to necro this thread to note that Grogger's post above summarizes all my thoughts on this fantastic game.
This is not run-and-gun, it's more like "snipe-hide-shoot-change position-shoot from cover-run for your life-approach with caution". I am currently in the "hell hall" josephthediviner mentioned and struggling on "challenging" difficulty. It hasn't been easy thus far, but it's DAMN enjoyable when you manage to neutralize (slaughter) a bunch of heavily armed mercenaries by outsmarting them. Actually, sometimes the AI doesn't work 100% perfectly, and enemies will not spot you easily, or not take cover when a colleague of them dies. This helps you to clear the area, but it takes away the fun! The game doesn't have quicksaves, or manual save, only checkpoints and this adds to the difficulty, but in a good way. It also has a "auto-adjust" difficulty option, but haven't tried so far.

To provide some rough "skill" measurement, I have completed
Quake 3 Arena on "Hurt Me Plenty" [reached Xaero on Hardcore, but no chance on him]
Unreal Tournament ['99] on "Adept"
Crysis on "Delta" [this is like Farcry but easier, due to nanosuit abilities]

As I mentioned above, for Farcry struggling on "challenging" atm!

edit: just finished it, the last level is ridiculous indeed. bah. the problem is not the high skilled enemies, but the lack of maneuverability and lack of tactical options due to limited space. whatever

It can be pretty easy or Damn near impossible to complete, I still can't get thru the next to last last area I call Hell hall I just can't get the timing down with an old PC.
That being said I still play the game every week or two it's special the graphics give my 5 year old build a good run for the money I have a 5700 video card and it still runs it as hard as any modern game. the graphics are amazing and worth it.
I much prefer it over Far Cry 2 and I just don't want to be disappointed with far cry 3 or 4 or whatever.

There are a lot of tips available on the web forums the best part of the game is that you can drop a weapon and go back for it which allows caching and stockpiling weapons for either ammo or new weapons as the need be..

Get it you won't be disappointed.

The game can be brutally difficult, especially on the higher levels. This is because it was a PC game that came before consoles ruined them. Having said that, it does feature, what, about 5 skill levels, so you'll bound to find one that suits.

Ho ho ha ha! Hell Hall is aptly named; always my biggest hurdle.
If something is too hard, try to solve it in another way. Remember your endless supply of rocks! Lean, crouch, lie prone, crawl, take cover! Do not forget about the secondary use of the weapons / alternative weapon (eg grenade launcher on an AG36; rocket launcher on the machine gun on the HMMWV) and that X button helps me a lot in the first third of the game.

It kicks your glute for some legitimate and illegitimate reasons. The Trigen... never again.

okay, old thread, I know

But seriously, I didn't find the game too hard except for the wide open area at the end. The fight with the chopper could also be a bit tricky too but that's basically it.

Maybe I should play on a harder difficulty setting next time

Same here, for the most part. The last chapter / area, in particular that final building, was what stopped me cold. I simply don't have the FPS chops these days to get through the ending on Normal, though everything up to that point was manageable.

These are different from the normal FPS action and get much harder if you brought the wrong weapons with you.

Bring these from the previous chapter:
OICW
Shotgun
Rocket launcher
M249 MG

First hall:
Keep the enemies at distance and kill the rocket launcher guy in the back of the hall. Use only the explosive ammunition of the OICW and the rocket launcher.

Second hall:
Shoot one OICW explosive to the farther pillar on the right, taking one of six guards down (if I remember correct). Go to the left and do it again. If you are skilled, you might succeed with explosives. Go directly to the desk and duck yourself, switch to shotgun and hit one guard each arriving from the right and left. Back to the center of the desk and reload. If Krieger stand on it, the shotgun will push him back. The remaining fight isn't difficult. Use OICW explosives or rockets to take the guards and Krieger down, you can cause likely the most damage if he comes to the desk. By ducking, Krieger will throw grenades on a low level and they will we stopped on the other side of the desk, causing no harm.

Weapons for volcano:
M249 MG
Rocket launcher
OICW
Sniper rifle

After opening the gate to the volcano, go directly back into the niche on the right (ducked) and sniped the trigen on the installations on the left. If you can do it with one headshot, you can also still care about the trigen left of the center of the satellite dish in the volcano. (You can also do it later.) Back into the niche. First rocket trigen arrives, either plug lead into its shoulder/upper body from the nice or slide to the left until you can see its temple. Four sniper shots take it down. Wait for rocket trigen 2 in the nice, use the MG to take it down. Sometimes rocket trigen 3 and 4 already show up. You can throw grenades to the left side of the gate and they will bounce to the position of the rocket trigens and damage their health, but keep in mind that the blast also can push them more to the left so they can spot you easier. After all four are down, care about the rifle/solder trigen 2 if you haven't already done that. Sneak out of the gate either ducked or crouching with the sniper rifle ready. There will be a soldier trigen on the installation on the right, it usually pauses before moving positions, a good opportunity to take care of it. If you now take your binoculars and look at the installations on the right, especially on its left side, there is a soldier trigen waiting, mostly covered by the wire fence from a stairway going from the center to the installation. A few sniper shots and it is history.

Now scan the area for enemies. Rocket trigens 5 and 6 might already be heading your way, if not, go down, take the rocket launcher (haven't tried other weapons) and aim at the opposite gate. This will make them curious and come out. Go back to the front of your gate and shoot rockets on the ground near the rocket trigens. They should arrive heavily weakened at your position, if you go down the other side while they get near you, they might not come up. Use the MG to finish them. It's possible to do this without losing any health. There is a healthkit in the opposite gate and the elevate switch which you have to use. You can now go up and to some positions of soldier trigens you silenced before and collect their ammo.

In the center, starting moving to the installations with many tanks, hear someone cough and retreat. Depending on what you have left, fire rockets and OICW explosives near the tanks and concrete (you can also scan the area with the nightvision). Hitting the lower part of the vertical tank between the two horizontal tanks seems especially useful in taking the guards behind them down. Hide behind the steel parts of the dish in the center for reloading. After you are out of this ammo, go to the installations on the left, lay down and use the sniper rifle to shoot into the arms of guards near the tanks (they cover the other body parts with a shield. After you are done with that, approach the installations with the tanks. If you have still grenades left, throw them over the tanks. Sneak around the stairs with the MG ready. It's possible that you already finished everybody. Then up the long stairs and get the job done.

Latest version has a glitch with enemies able to see you through tents and stuff. I highly recommend unofficial patch 1.6 which fixes a few other things as well.

Under 1.4 playing stealthy doesn't work well.