They disabled cheats with the last main patch. I ended up editing script files to change the game. Here are the changes I made. The game is much more run and gun (and fun) now.

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Download the IronSights MOD to use Iron Sights when you zoom,. Create a Mods folder in your Farcry installation folder (with a capital M, Mods .. not mods) and unzip the mod into that folder. Start game with shortcut that reads::

FarCry -MOD:IronSights -DEVMODE


Now, let's edit the Script files for the IronSights mod (they're in this folder: Far Cry/Mods/IronSights/Scripts/Default/Entities/Weapons). Edit each weapon's lua script file. Find the text that says Sway=X (where X is an integer). Make sure that Sway is set to 0 in each file. If the text Sway=0, doesn't exist, create it.

In each script file also make sure you set PlayerSlowDown = 1. Values less than 1 will make your character move like a slug when that weapon is on screen.


Now, let's enable shooting underwater. Go to your FarCry/FCData folder. Change the name of the file Scripts.pak to Scripts.zip

Open Scripts.zip. Now, find the BasicWeapon.lua. It's in this folder: /SCRIPTS/Default/Entities/Weapons/

Copy that file into your Far Cry/Mods/IronSights/Scripts/Default/Entities/Weapons folder. Create that folder if necessary.

Now, open it in a text editor.

Set following parameter:

shoot_underwater = 1,

Now, go back to the Scripts.zip file. find your /SCRIPTS/Default/GameRules.lua file. Copy it to your Far Cry/Mods/IronSights/Scripts/Default/ directory.

Open your GameRules.lua. These options will make your player stronger and enemies weaker:

ai_to_player_damage = { .25, .25, .25, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1 },
player_to_ai_damage = { 15, 4.0, 2, 1, 1, 2 },

These are the values I have set. Compare them to the original files and set the values to whatever you want.

Now let's improve your stamina so you can run for longer without getting tired. Open the Scripts.zip file again and go to /SCRIPTS/Default/Entities/PLAYER/. Copy BasicPlayer.lua to your Far Cry/Mods/IronSights/Scripts/Default/Entities/PLAYER/ directory. Create the directory if necessary. Now, open that copy of BasicPlayer.lua and set the following values:

StaminaTable = {
sprintScale = 1.4,
sprintSwimScale = 1.4,
decoyRun = 10,
decoyJump = 10,
restoreRun = 20,
restoreWalk = 20,
restoreIdle = 20,

breathDecoyUnderwater = 2.0,
breathDecoyAim = 3,
breathRestore = 80,


Lastly, change the name of Scripts.zip back to Scripts.pak.

Open your DevMode.lua file in your Far Cry directory. Add these two lines to the top:

w_recoil_max_degree = 1.5
w_accuracy_decay_speed = 0

That will make it easier to stay on target while shooting.


Now, the game will be more run and gun. Next, let's focus on immersion.

To enable HDR, bring up console in game with ~. type:

r_HDRRendering 1

The setting will hold and only needs to be set once.

Let's make a holster gun option so that you can put your gun away and enjoy the scenery if you want to. Add the following to your DevMode.lua file (in your Far Cry directory).

function Holster()

if (not r_NoDrawNear) then
r_NoDrawNear=1;
else
r_NoDrawNear=1-r_NoDrawNear;
end
end
Input:BindCommandToKey("#Holster()","y",1);

Change the key from "y" to the key of your choice.


Next, let's turn off the hud and improve immersion some more. Create the following function in your DevMode.lua file. Make sure to set hudmode=0; at the top of the file (just like in programming class, you have to assign an initial value to it).

So, at the top of the file somewhere you should put:

hudmode=0;


Farther down create the function:


function ToggleHud()

if (hudmode~=0) then
hudmode=0;
hud_disableradar = "1"
hud_fadeamount = "0"


else
hudmode=1;
hud_disableradar = "0"
hud_fadeamount = "1"

end

end
Input:BindCommandToKey("#ToggleHud()","h",1);


Again, replace "h" with the key of your choice.

If you'd rather disable ALL of the hud (text popups, rifle scopes, crosshairs, etc), create the following function in your DevMode.lua file:


function ToggleAllHud()
if (not cl_display_hud) then
cl_display_hud=1;
else
cl_display_hud=1-cl_display_hud;
end

end
Input:BindCommandToKey("#ToggleAllHud()","n",1);

And, replace "n" with the key of your choice.

There you go. I play this way and find that the game is faster, more fun, and more immersive. The Ironsights mod lets you enable / disable the cross hair if you want.

Note: When you assign a key to disable the hud, you may need to wait a few seconds after a load before pressing it will toggle the hud. If you press it and nothing happens, wait a few seconds and press the key again.


Lastly, to play with all these changes, you will want to enable the IronSights mod in the game menus and then start a new game. With Devmode enabled, you can just chose which level you want to play, so you can pick up where you left off.
I posted my instructions on how I modified the game to make it more run and gun (and fun). I could upload my modified IronSights mod files to make it easier for you though. Let me know if you'd like me to do that.

I could add a point here about how you absolutely do not have to kill every single enemy; it is alright to just run past some. Like in the last part, the volcano, I once got through to the end by just shooting the jumpers and that very last guy in a lab coat (no more spoilers than this).

Every enemy is basically as strong as you are
They don't make games like that very often

I'm on my first playthrough on Realistic difficulty (no cheats, patches, or mods), already beat the game on Challenging. I plan to go through the game several more times on Statistics mode to see how I fare. I love hard games, and a lot of FPS don't get difficult enough for me (due to funky strategies and ammo-hoarding and other stuff you can pull off), but this one definitely does! You are really forced to used every resource and tactic available to you sometimes. It's definitely not impossible, and in small indoor spaces, sometimes it's a bit of strategy and/or trial-and-error to figure out how you're actually going to get past some parts. I've lately taken to running to a safer location after alerting enemies and then ambushing them when they come along (works especially well with the Trigens). I haven't yet gotten to the volcano on my Realistic run, though...sounds like it will be the iron gauntlet! Looking forward to it!

I was trying a play-through on challenging, the middle of 5 difficulty levels. It was pretty hard in many sections, but I kept finding ways through. Fortunately using FCAM so I had a quick save and reload slot, or I couldn't have gotten as far as I did.

I got to the Volcano section (apparently that's the last one, I don't remember). The out-doors part was terrible, but somehow I eventually killed some trigents and snuck past enough others to get to the inside part.

Couldn't do anything there. You enter this hall through a door that locks behind you. You take a few steps and a dozen or more human soldiers spawn, some with bullet-proof riot shields. There are lots of bright lights at the end of the hall, making it impossible to see the humans swarming you. You have nowhere to move sideways or back, you're pinned at the end of the hall. One of the solders is blasting away with a rocket launcher, of course with infinite ammo.

After about 50 reloads I gave up. I tried god mode, got through that hall, the next hall where you kill krieger, using god mode, then the final aireodrom battle with more trigents. There's an elevator up at the end of that which wouldn't function for me. F to call it, but nothing happens.

I am assuming that if you've used god mode it locks you out at that point so you can't win. Anyway, I give up.

I like FC2 better. I've played it through on the highest difficulty rating, and done many more play-throughs than FC1. I think I probably only ever finished FC1 on easy once, and never finished it again. I do remember getting to that glitched elevator once before.

I didn't have to do anything special for godmode other than to start with -devmode, that's one of the buttons in FCAM. The rest is already set up. Then backspace key enables god mode. But 'o' or 'O' or '0' doesn't give you 999 ammo as it's supposed to, so even in god mode I was running out of ammo.

Well, I'm done, I'll move on to something else now.

Hell Hall... thankfully there is an abundance of different weapons just before it so you can try different outloads. What works for me is advancing fairly fast but still very hard on the highest difficulties, well, when it works, which seems to take more and more tries the older I get.

Krieger... the big problem here are the grenades they are throwing at you. Either do not allow them to throw or do not be where it explodes when it explodes. You only need to kill Krieger to advance.

You will have to unlock the lift in the volcano. It is done somewhere in the crater. It is not a bug. I can send you a precise howto via a private message if you would like me to but you will have to allow messages from anyone or I cannot do it.

It is actually possible to climb up there without using the lift if you so wish to do.

Yes, the hardest moment in the entire campaign and just about the only one where I always get killed at least a few times, no matter what I do. The rest of the game is pretty easy, I've done several no-death runs on Realistic through all the levels EXCEPT Volcano. In the starting hall, the best I can do to reduce the amount of my deaths is be really fast with OICW headshots mixed with underbarrel grenades, hide behind the columns by the entrance and, of course, using the CryVision goggles to see through the holograms.

It also helps to take out that pesky rocket launcher guy right after he spawns, but for that you will need a rocket launcher of your own, and you'll have to know precisely where to shoot and when. I saw this trick in a YouTube walkthrough.

This is exactly the method that works best for me but a friend swears by the use of the rocket launcher.

Apparently, so does the author of this old 3-minute long video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acFo2EmQM6c

I actually have some interesting things to say about the difficulty of Far Cry that I don't believe has been mentioned here yet. It has to do with the differences in difficulty between the 32 bit version (which is not available digitally BTW) and the 64 bit version of Far Cry.

In a nutshell: the 64 bit version of the game is FAR more difficult than the 32 bit version. I went back and played the original 32 bit version and I was astonished to discover how tame the difficulty was compared to the 64 bit version, even on the highest difficulty setting. By enhancing the AI and increasing the enemy count, Crytek really amped up the difficulty to absurd levels in the 64 bit version. Let me explain in more detail:

In the 32 bit version of Far Cry, as I already implied, the AI and enemy count were MUCH more manageable. There are typically only about half as many enemies per level as in the 64 bit version, and their AI scripts are much tamer: human soldiers react to your presence slightly slower, and in particular the simian trigen (i.e. the gorilla and the chimp mutants) have a walking script that is totally absent in the 64 bit version. In that version all they are allowed to do is run (VERY quickly) in any situation, but in the 32 bit version they will slowly shuffle towards the player upon initially detecting them, giving the player (Jack) ample amounts of time to evade them or plan an escape, or just shoot them outright. So, when you combine the much faster monkey trigen with the much higher number of enemies, it makes sense why the back half of the 64 bit version is so infamously regarded for its difficulty. It's just that a lot of players don't realize that the first version of Far Cry, the 32 bit version, wasn't nearly this intense. Far Cry was originally not this hard!

Despite this, I would still argue that the 32 bit version might actually be harder at times and possibly even as hard over all due to the lower number of checkpoints per level that the game gives you. This alone makes some of the levels in the 32 bit version infuriatingly difficult. There's one level in particular towards the end of the game that I almost gave up on when playing the 32 bit version on the highest difficulty simply because I didn't think I was going to be able to beat it. It's that level where you have to navigate different islands while blowing up radio towers and then fight Crowe's chopper on the tanker. In the 64 bit version they give you at least 5 or 6 checkpoints for this level, but in the 32 bit version you literally only get about 3 I think, which is just crazy considering it's one of the longest and largest levels in the game.

Even though the 64 bit version of Far Cry is technically superior in ever way, I still think it's unfortunate that the 32 bit version of Far Cry has been lost to time. Literally the only way to play it is on the physical release either via a crack or through an older version of Windows that supports Safedisc DRM. I wish GOG offered the 32 bit version of Far Cry in addition to the 64 bit version. I personally think it should be bundled together with the 64 bit version of Far Cry, included for free. I do think an easier, gentler, less hectic version of Far Cry (i.e. the 32 bit version) would appeal to some gamers out there. If nothing else, the 32 bit version does offer some historic value for hardcore Far Cry fans for being the original version of the game. I greatly enjoyed playing through it and seeing all the little enhancements Crytek made with the 64 bit version. It was a treat for me.

Crytek also took the same approach with Crysis, which also featured both a 32 bit version and a 64 bit version. But the difference with Crysis is that, from what I remember, the changes between the 32 bit version and the 64 bit version aren't nearly as noticeable or as numerous as they are in Far Cry, and don't change the gameplay experience as drastically or as noticeably. For example, there's no noticeable change in difficulty going between the two versions of Crysis, which is a far cry (no pun intended) from the situation with Far Cry. On top of that, the physical release of Crysis includes both the 32 bit version and the 64 bit version on the same disc, whereas the physical release of Far Cry is just the 32 bit version which is literally lost media by this point since it's not available digitally and is locked behind Safedisc DRM.

GOG, I have a suggestion: make the 32 bit version of Far Cry available for people who have already bought the game on your site. Please do this for us! It's important to preserve video game history!

Aaaah! This explains a lot. I was kind of wondering how so many complained about insane difficulty that I did not see having played my disc version only.
I remember once playing at least some with the downloadable 64bit patch but not sure I actually played through the whole game or if I only had a quick look at it. Now this gave me a reason to play the game yet once again. :-)

Hey, me in the red shirt!

You('d better) get annoyingly good at shooting at helicopters in this game.

It's interesting to talk to someone who played the 32-bit version first. So it's not just me: the original version really is easier. With all the changes Crytek made to the 64 bit version I figured it wouldn't be easier for any gamer. The 32-bit Far Cry is practically extinct nowadays, so most people don't know this. The only reason I was even able to play my physical copy of Far Cry is through a retro 32-bit rig I bought which runs an older version of Windows (Windows 7). Otherwise nowadays you'd have to install a crack to bypass safedisc, and most gamers who own the physical version wouldn't want to go through the hassle, hence why not many people know about the differences in challenge level between the two versions.

I don't believe the 32 bit version of Far Cry has ever been offered through digital stores, although I could be wrong. Am I wrong? Maybe the Steam version is 32-bit. I know some Steam versions of games are only 32-bit. Most games don't even have multiple versions, but Far Cry and Crysis are among the few that do. They just happened to come out during that narrow window during the mid-2000s when all motherboards were migrating to 64 bit, and PC exclusive software had to adapt with this shift towards new architecture somehow, so some devs just decided to make two versions of the same game to appeal to both sides, in this case Crytek.

GOG's FarCry is 32 bit. Or used to be, anyway.

Interesting. I only ever played the 32 bit version and the difficulty of that on Insane was pretty much perfect (bar the idiotic checkpoints of course).

Might have to give the 64 bit version a go (if the GOG version indeed is 64 bit).

I also heard that in some versions, the enemies ignore line of sight blocking from vegetation. How is it in the GOG version?