Silicon Fusion >> Reviews >> Far Cry Instincts

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Review:

24th October 2005:
Far Cry Instincts
You're Jack Carver, a man in the wrong place at the wrong time - trapped on a tropical paradise being hunted down by ruthless mercenaries.
Posted by John Grothier - Xbox - UK and Europe

In 2004 Far Cry, an intense first person shooter set in a tropical paradise seething with hidden evil, was released by Ubisoft for the PC. Now Far Cry Instincts has made the leap to the Xbox, which is based on the PC tropical shooter, but completely redesigned from the ground up for Microsoft's console.

Players take on the role of Jack Carver, a man in the wrong place at the wrong time. Outmanned and outgunned by an elite mercenary army, as Jack, you will adapt and evolve, or else succumb to the most harrowing situation of your life. Every deadly weapon, vehicle, and predator skill you possess must be unleashed in order to survive.

The game starts off with an explosive cinematic in which Jack must escape from his small boat as it comes under attack from some mysterious mercenaries. The first thing you must do is to escape this carnage and hide in a wreck and make your way to a safe point where you can size up your worrying situation. On the way you learn how to use the environment to make traps and lure enemies into them, so in this first person shooter, you can easily get rid of a small army without the need for a huge arsenal of weapons. As the game progresses though you will more and more weapons will become available to you, and also strangely, Jack becomes something more - he's adapting.

One of the first things you will notice is the huge levels with many different paths to take, some much safer than others. The Xbox version is not as open-ended as its PC counterpart but there is plenty of exploring and strategy to be employed if you are to survive. You will soon figure out that stealth is your best option here as the enemy A.I. is very unforgiving. If you get seen it won't be long before a small army descends upon you, so it best to use your surrounding as cover and make a few stealthy strikes on your foes. As the game progresses our hero is injected with a mysterious serum that makes you behave more like an animal indigenous to the jungle - rather than a man.

So what has this first person shooter got that makes it stand out from the crowd? Well, the graphics are verging on the truly spectacular and although the levels are not quite as open-ended as we hoped, the feeling of being trapped on a strange island - really hits home. Using vehicles in this title is key to winning many battles and Jack will stumble on many types of land and sea craft, and later in the game a glider comes in very useful. Controlling these vehicles will take a bit of getting used to as they seem overly sensitive at first, but continuing with a first person perspective, you will soon be driving a gunning down the enemy with relative ease.

The enemy A.I. is usually very good, but there are times when they do something quite unexpected or see you from afar, while hidden, but their colleague only a few foot away does not. The only other main problem with the game is that although the mercenaries become tougher and tougher to eradicate, you yourself become very strong - verging on becoming a super-hero, and as such the game become a little less challenging than perhaps it should be towards the end of the main game.

Far Cry Instincts also feature a very solid multiplayer mode that comes with a user-friendly map editor that allows you to create some great looking maps and then upload them using Xbox Live. The multiplayer feature four game modes with two deathmatch game types; Chaos and Team Chaos and a CTF called Steal the Sample and Predator, where here one player is given all the feral powers seen in the main campaign, while the other players must try and hunt him down.

As we've mentioned the graphics are never short of stunning with some wonderful environments packed with detail. The engine handles all the action extremely well and lighting and other graphical effects, like swimming underwater, make this game really stand out from other first person shooters. The sound in the game is also well above average with some great weapon effects measured against some very witty enemy conversations that can be overheard. Jack himself is voiced by Stephen Dorff from the Blade movies, and he really adds another level to a really polished title.

Overall Far Cry Instincts shows just what can be accomplished from a really good PC to Xbox port. The game has truly been crafted to work magnificently on Microsoft's console and even goes on to improve upon the PC original in many, many ways.

John Grothier

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Review Summary:

Do whatever it takes to exterminate the mercenaries in any situation. Take cover in the undergrowth, set traps, kill by stealth, battle from extreme long range and gun-mounted vehicles and fight in close quarters or through the wilds of the island. Plunder an arsenal of responsive, realistic weapons and vehicles including ATVs, gunboats, hang gliders and much more. Turn the mercenaries' stockpile into the instruments of their own destruction.

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Far Cry Instincts
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