Far Cry Instincts Predator

"Even with two subtitles it's fun!"

Far Cry Instincts Predator is one of many first person shooters to hit the Xbox 360 gaming console. This game is an enhanced port of the xbox title Far Cry Instincts, released back in 2005. The update gives a new “Chapter 2” to the story, and gives the game a bit of a 360 makeover. Otherwise, you've still got the single player, multiplayer, and map editor that were present in the Xbox version. Does this enhanced version hold up? Is it worth taking a look at even if you've already had your fun with Instincts? Yes, and no is the simple answers, respectively.

Graphics:
While the game has it's moments, it is clearly a port of an older title. Efforts were obviously made to try and bring the game up to Xbox 360 standards, but they did not quite get them there. The character models were given higher resolution textures(that's good!) they were given this kind of.... shine to them... that's really the best way to describe it. The character models are are really... really shiny. They remind me a bit of a Barbie doll in the sun to give you an idea. Whatever effect the developers were going for here, it didn't work out very well. The polygon count on most of these things hasn't been improved much either. Pipes do not appear completely circular, trees look fairly blocky, and vehicles have kind of blocky tires.(Things you wouldn't mind on Xbox, but this is “Next-Gen” you have to raise your standards).

The main star of the show as far as graphics are concerned though is the jungle itself. More often than not, you'll find yourself stalking the enemy hiding yourself in the jungle around you. The game is absolutely filled with trees, bushes, tall grass, all kinds of ways to try and hide yourself. It's just too bad it doesn't look very good. Yes, the textures on the trees and the grass on the ground and much sharper and better looking than the Xbox version of the game, but man, the leaves look absolutely awful. You'll often find yourself slowly walking through the woods, trying to not be found, constantly walking through these ugly, ugly leaves. The game does redeem itself to an extent in the graphics department by having absolutely outstanding looking water, and putting in HDR to the game. While the game doesn't look very next-gen, the graphics are still ok.

Audio:
It really hits the mark for the most part, creating a very nice atmosphere that does actually bring in Audio as a gameplay element(something many games these days completely ignore). First off, the sound effects. Amazing. When you crawl around in the brush, you make noise, just like you would if you were actually crawling around down there. Walk through a bush? You'll hear the sounds of of leaves and twigs moving. Crawl through? You'll make almost no noise. Just a slight rustle of leaves you tap with the top of your body. Run through? Well, you're making a ton of noise and any enemy around is going to hear you and come looking. The weapons echo according to the environment you're in. If you're inside, there will be a much louder echo than if you're in the jungle, but if you're in the jungle, you'll also get a bit of a longer, duller echo. It works quite nicely, and to an extent, keeps you from trying to fire your loud weapons unless you're already in a firefight. Other than that the guns sound fine, as do the multitude of cars and boats scattered around the game for your driving pleasure.

The voice acting does a passable job. The main character, Jack Carver, seems a little quiet compared to all the other characters, like he's mumbling or something, but his voice actor does a good job. The same goes for just about every other voice in the game, random guards included. Often when you enter their camps you'll hear them talking amongst themselves about some personal matter or sometimes their commanding officer, and it sounds great. Not the usual “MaYbEeee!” kind of stuff you hear from guards in a lot of games these days. The guards will also shout info back and forth between each other to try and keep everyone informed and how I'm doing and what exactly I'm killing at the time. While this doesn't sound quite as good, it does get the job done just fine.

Controls:
Standard FPS console controls with a few changes made to accommodate the game. The left thumbstick controls movement, while clicking it determines your current stance(standing, crouch, prone). The right thumbstick controls where you're aiming, although it does feel a little sluggish, you'll adjust pretty quickly. Clicking the right stick brings up the zoomed/scoped view depending on the weapon. The A buttons makes you jump, the X button reloads your current weapon, the B button is your melee attack The R trigger fires your gun, and the L trigger throws your current projectile weapon. Here's where the controls change a little to accommodate the game. The Y button controls your “special abilities”(I'm not going into the details), the right bumper controls if you have your gun or your Trap out(Traps are spiked logs that can be set on trees that will snap into someone if they walk by, resulting in massive damage). The left bumper controls what throwing weapon you have, be it grenades, pipe bombs, or rocks. Finally, the D-pad controls what weapons you have out.

Gameplay:
Far Cry's singe player puts you in the role of Jack Carver. A man who shortly after the game begins, has his way of life destroyed and now he's in a battle for survival. The game plays different than most FPS games in that you are often playing the stealth game, as you are not a walking tank. While yes, you can take more bullets than an enemy, you can't run into every situation guns blazing and expect to walk out alive. You'll more often find yourself hiding trying to kill as many enemies as you can before being noticed so you can finish cleanup taking minimal damage. Simply because you are not a walking tank makes the game significantly harder than most first person shooters. Each time you see yourself hitting a checkpoint is a sigh of relief. The games levels are massive and those checkpoints are quite welcome instead of having to restart the level every time. It's just too bad there's no quick save feature as sometimes the checkpoints positions are a little too far away for comfort.

One of the things the game seems to boast is it's INCREDIBLE AI! Lies. Sometimes the AI will have these moments of brilliance, where the enemies will work together to try and kill you, but that's only AFTER they've seen you, they take cover, fire smartly, and will use tactics to try and draw you out into the open for a better shot. The main problem with this is that the AI is absolutely terrible when they cannot see you, which is what you need to do most of the time, remain unseen. Shooter a guy in the back of the head with a silenced pistol from 40 feet away? Any nearby guard will run over, stare at the body for a few seconds, then run back to their patrol. If I need to lure an enemy to a spot I often find it easier to just kill a guard than try and lure them over with loud noises. At times I've even seen the AI just plain not react to me. They see me, turn around, and start running into a wall. It's terrible to watch.

The game also has quite a few sequences that involve vehicles. Ranging from boats, to ATVs to gliders, the game has many sequences like this, and even though most are absolutely loaded with scripted events, they're still a blast to play through and are some of the most thrilling moments of the single player. The single player has two “Chapters” to it, the port of the Instincts campaign from the Xbox, and the new campaign, which is a bit disappointing compared to the first, but still fun to play through anyway.

The multiplayer is what really drew me into the game. The game features a large selection of maps from the start,, with your standard death match, CTF, as well as a few others thrown in for good measure. The amount of content there will keep you satisfied for some time. But wait! There's more. The game features an outstanding map editor, that allows you to create new multiplayer maps that can be shared and played online. Playing other peoples maps is often a fun experience, as long as some effort was put into it(I've seen my share of two giant towers in the sky and sniper rifles for all). Once you start finding good maps, it's quite fun to play them, and there's always more being added. When you get 16 players in a game, the game can get pretty hectic, however, this is where a few bad things kick in. Whoever did the net code on this game didn't do a very good job. I have yet to be in a large game where there isn't very noticeable lag or at least somebody seeming to jump 10 meters at a time. At the time of this writing, Ubisoft has announced a patch they will release soon that should fix the lag issues online, which should create a much more entertaining multiplayer experience. When you have a nice group of six people going from custom map to custom map, it's a really enjoyable experience that will just continue to have replay value due to the always growing amount of content in the game thanks to the map editor.

Overall, this is a pretty good game that you should at least rent sometime, I've really enjoyed my time with it, but the spotty graphics and lackluster AI can ruin the single player from time to time. The multiplayer is fantastic as long as the lag isn't kicking in, but hopefully that will be fixed soon. This game is a diamond in the rough, it's an intense, fun game that has a few large problems that need to be worked out for this to be a truly great gaming experience.

7.8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/22/06