Set on a mysterious tropical archipelago, the game follows Jack Carver, a former American special forces operative, as he searches for journalist Valerie Constantine, who accompanied him to the islands but went missing after their boat was destroyed by mercenaries.

As Jack explores the islands, he begins to discover the horrific genetic experiments being conducted on the local wildlife and must confront the mad scientist behind them.

The game was the first to use Crytek's CryEngine, and was designed as an open-ended first-person shooter, though it lacks most of the freedom its successors would offer to the player.

While players can freely explore the game's world like in later Far Cry titles, they are most often discouraged from doing so due to the linear structure of missions and the lack of side content.

Despite this, the gameplay formula established in Far Cry—placing the player in a foreign environment occupied by enemy forces where they must use various weapons and tools, as well as their surroundings to overcome any threat—would prove essential in defining the series' identity going forward.

Far Cry was released for Microsoft Windows in March 2004 to generally positive reviews, being praised for its visuals, gameplay mechanics, and the level of freedom given to players.

Outdoor map level designs are constructed in a way that allows the player to try different angles for assaults, or even completely circumvent enemies (given enough time to maneuver).

However, during the indoor sections of the game, level design tends to lose this attribute in favor of a more traditional, linear gameplay.

The game includes thematic elements relating to the dangers of weaponizing genetic engineering and the genocide of local islanders as can be seen by the deformed creatures created by a mad scientist named Krieger.

Many of the interiors range from simple beach huts and army camps to elaborate complexes, an underground temple, and ultra-modern research labs.

Jack Carver has left his mysterious and bitter past behind him and dropped out of society to run a boat-charter business in the South Pacific.

Information Crowe had with him indicates Krieger has a tactical nuke on the island, which he intends to use as a last resort in covering his tracks should his projects be investigated.

Before entering the factory, Doyle warns that the mutagen might infect them when the blast goes off, and advises them to take a mutagen-resistant serum before arming the nuke.

Doyle responds that the mutagen concentration on the air might be too strong for the antidote, but Krieger is working on a cure in a laboratory nearby.

Reportedly, the game was born out of a technology demo called X-Isle: Dinosaur Island made by Crytek to showcase the capabilities of the Nvidia GeForce 3.

Additionally, Instincts features a significantly altered storyline, and new multiplayer modes, weapons, dual wielding and "feral abilities".

The storyline focuses on Jack Carver's work for a woman named Kade, which leads him to be hunted by local governments due to a frame-up during a botched arms deal.

In this version, the Wii Remote is used for many of the tasks assigned to buttons in previous iterations of the game, including driving vehicles, shooting, and running.

As Crytek was locked into its contract with Electronic Arts, Ubisoft negotiated to hold the rights to Far Cry as well as a perpetual license for the CryEngine, which they continued to modify with their Dunia Engine.

On October 2, 2008, a live-action film based on the video game was released in Germany and later on December 17, 2008, in American theaters, receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews.