X-Isle was an early Crytek video game, which eventually developed into the original Far Cry.
Description[]
The vast majority of information about X-Isle was dug up by the Project Beta developers and community, and thanks to it, we know a large amount of information about this era.
The X-Isle name itself originates from the X-Isle Dinosaur Island tech demo Crytek created in 2001, which showcased a dinosaur island.
The X-Isle plot was based on the idea of fighting an ancient alien life-form closely related to the dinosaurs. The aliens would have re-created a colony of dinosaurs in an attempt to take back control of the globe, and the player would have to overcome the advanced alien technology in addition to the brute strength and power of the dinosaurs in order to succeed.
The aliens consisted of two races - the more cyborg-like Warm Aliens and the more organic Cold Aliens.
Plot[]
The plot centered around elite soldiers who have been sent by the United Nations to inspect a scientific anomaly which has occurred deep out in sea. The anomaly consisted of three islands appearing out of thin air, or so it appeared, as in fact they have been there all along but thanks to alien technology they have been capable of bending light around them, making them virtually invisible.
A Warm Alien
The first team of soldiers, which is sent to the island mysteriously disappears and all contact is lost. The player is a part of the second team of elites which has been sent in to investigate the disappearance of the first set of their compatriots. The player's mission is to contact them, and bring them home alive. But there is a problem - it turns out that the reason they disappeared is the fact that descendants of dinosaurs are inhabitants the newfound island.
Gameplay[]
A Jackhammer visible in a X-Isle era screenshot
The game was at first described as a "squad based first person shooter". Crytek apparently wanted to focus on multiplayer rather then, the more traditional, single player missions. Crytek said, "You will be able to play a short Single-Player Episode to get introduced in the wonderful detailed world, before you experience the fast paced team-based Multi-Player Modes."
As the player would travel through the islands, every so often he would stumble across one of his missing companions, and upon each encounter they would give him tasks to complete - usually 3-6 per soldier, such as reconnaissance and find and kill missions.
The game was planned as non-linear, as there would be no "one way" to complete the game, which meant the player could go to any island at any time and complete tasks in any order that he pleased.
Retooling[]
As time went on, the game - still with Alien plot and concepts inside - was renamed Far Cry around May 2002. The reason for the title change was the fact that Microsoft started developing the fist Xbox console around that time.
Sometime later, the plot was completely reworked into a plot about a mad scientist creating mutants, thus marking the end of the original X-Isle era of development.
Connections to the first Far Cry[]
- The overall gameplay idea of a non-linear world eventually evolved into Far Cry
- Countless models from the X-Isle era migrated into Far Cry, and there are many more leftover unused ones in the code, accessable via the Sandbox Editor; as an example - many of Far Cry's weapons remain relatively unchanged from the X-Isle era
- X-Isle's vehicles - the "Jeep" and "Humvee" - heavily inspired the retail game's Buggy and 4WD Vehicle.
- The Trigens are believed to be - in some shape or form - descendants of the Alien idea. Some of the Cold Alien models resemble final game's Trigens too much to be a coincedence - there's a Cold Alien reminiscent of the Chimp, a Cold Alien with a nearly identical build to the Mutant Cover which evolved into the Fat Boy, and a Cold Alien that seems to be just a regular "grunt"-type, not unlike the Mutant Fast. However, this is just speculation.
Gallery[]
