Far Cry Instincts – Review

Far Cry (or FarCry as it is also known) on the PC was the reason I decided to get a proper graphic card, rather than stick with the ’shared’ (means rubbish) graphic card in my original computer. At the time I did not know that the game was planned for the Xbox. Even if I had, I’d have probably still got it for the PC. The game wowed me then from the start, and it still does.

Anyhoo, this about the Xbox version, not the PC one. Does it wow me like it did? Does it work on a console?? Yes it does…..and yes it does. But let’s start at the beginning, because that is a very good place to start.

Jack Carver (voiced by Stephen Dorff), is a man with a past. A dishonorable discharge, and a price on his head. Many think these are the reasons why he chose the Jacutan Archipelago, which form part of the Caroline islands group in the Federated States of Micronesia, as his new home. It took a few years of boat trips for rich tourists, but Jack was just getting used to this easy, more laid back life, when Val Cortez turned up, with a backpack full of money, a camera, and story’s of bad things happening in the area!!! It didn’t take long to convince Jack that he wanted to take the job on though…. and the money helped!! The trip was going fine until Val decided to jump on a jet ski and get closer to a particular island. Jack tried to warn her off doing this, she didn’t want to listen…. so Jack decides to get some shut eye while she does whatever it is she wants to do round the island……

Next thing, Jack is awoken by helicopters over his boat…he tries to signal that he is friendly, but they open fire on him…and then…..BOOM…..his boat is gone.. Val is somewhere on the island… and Jack is on his own in the water!!!!
Welcome to FarCry Instincts.

No training level here, you are dumped in the water, with only a knife, and with a helicopter gunship above!! Best run (or swim) eh??!! Luckily, you do get pointers, where the game auto-pauses, and gives you info about what buttons do what, and what the icons and info on screen means to you (see that blue arrow on your radar…go that way now or die!!). Plus later on you get help and info from a friend on the radio mic you pick up. It’s very much a stealth approach at the start of the game (at least once you have lost that gunship!!), mainly because of the fact that you only have the knife. Although you can eventually get through a lot of the start using stealth. It’s actually a good idea to do it this way, because you’ll start to run low on ammo otherwise. Plus, it’s better to have the dumb guards blaming each other because they didn’t hear anything, rather than all steaming after you because you came in guns blazing!! And the stealth kills are so cool to.
Creep up to a tree, pick the branch whip trap, pull the right trigger to set, and retreat….. then throw a rock at the tree, or near to it… wait for the dopey henchman to get close… WHAMMO!! He’ll be taken the hell out by the spiked branch! Oh so satisfying indeed. Be careful though, the trap WILL get you if you get to close, which, if it happens, is beyond embarrassment. You can also set claymore mines, but these tend to alert other guards in the area when they go
BANG!!

Another stealthy type kill is to slowly creep up behind a guard, and when you are close enough press the button to perform a stab attack.. nice. But make sure the guard is not going to turn around before you get there though. Another take on this is crawling under the floor of huts. Seeing as a lot of the enemy huts are raised up off the ground, you can crawl under them, then roll over onto your back.. if the silly enemy man is in the hut, you can then line up a perfect head shot… goodbye. As the game progresses, you’ll come across many other weapons, which will make you question the ’stealth’ approach. These include, Glock, Beretta and Desert Eagle pistols. The shotgun (for those times when bullets aren’t enough, the shotgun’s 12-gauge shells never fail to make an impact * from the guide*) MP5 light machine gun, the P90 with it’s bulletproof vest penetrating ammo. The Recon & Sniper rifles, rocket launcher, and others. All good reason to go in guns blazing, hell for leather, and just because you can. And it is good to chuck a grenade under one of the baddie Humvee vehicles, and if anyone survives the explosion, wading in with a shotgun Actually, wading in can be a bit hit and miss, and not because of my questionable aim.., but because of the enemy A.I. One minute they are the stupid thicky crew, on silly pills (I creep up behind guy.. stab him, but he does not die… or turn around?? he waits for me to finish him off). Next minute, they see you coming from afar, and they fan out , duck behind cover and wait for you to make a move!!! But to be fair, the further you get, the better the A.I gets. It’s just that the guys at the start can be uber mentalists.

The game does draw you in though, even with the silly people at the start. One of the things that helps with this is the fact that once the level you are on has loaded.. that’s it until you finish the level. Big whoop, I hear you say, my commodore 64 loaded one level at a time, but wait until you play through one of these levels, they are huge. And there is no stuttering, no stopping at all (plus, unlike a C64, it does not take 10 minutes to load a level off a tape). Well done to the developers on that bit of coding, because it really helps to keep the game flowing. Another thing thing that helps to draw you into the game is the graphics.. they are really really really nice… lovley.. beautiful.. and according to the PC boys, cant be done on an Xbox (tell ‘em Homer.. “In your face PC boys”). The Xbox should not be powering games like Doom 3 and FarCry as well as it is… but it is. This is down to both the good people who code the games (super clever types), and the Xbox console itself (old chunky).

The island settings look stunning. Great water effects, lighting, shadows, all add to a feeling of a real place. And the interiors look just as good. It’s a really good looking game. It’s also a great playing game. With great controls, even when you’re in control of one of the many vehicles. Humvee’s, jet skis, hang gliders, there are a good selection of vehicles to get around on. And the control of the vehicles works well. Normal control is driving (duh), but at the press of a button, in a hummer at least, you are manning the turret, ready to blast the hell outta that damn chopper up ahead.

The ‘feral’ abilities that you gain later in the game are good… but not great. The feral attack is probably the best. It’s like the plasma sword attack on Halo 2, but times a ten… as you race forward and hit your foe, you will knock him flying a long long way in the air. The others are like other abilities in other games, such as night vision, or longer/higher jumping abilities. It’s a good idea, like picking up additions to weapons, but instead it’s upgrading you, because you are the weapon!!

So then, it looks good, and it plays good… but does that mean it’s a good game?? Yes, of course it does. It’s a game that any, and every, Xbox owner, who likes FPS’s must buy now!!!

I’ve only tried the Xbox live part a bit, so can’t give a true verdict on it. But the games I have played, have been good, lag free & a great laugh. Oh, and did I mention the map maker?? No!! Well then I will. Much like Pariah, you can make, and play over live & system link, your own maps. The map maker is very easy to use, and with a bit of time, can produce some stunning efforts, from what I’ve seen online at least. Another good thing about the online part was that there were no annoying young pratts shouting obscene language at everyone (Halo 2
I’m looking at you!!)

Female Aspect: Well you’re playing a rough tough guy, who is trying to save a helpless (or is she?) girl from the bad guys. So it’s a bit ‘oldschool’ in that respect. But don’t let that put you off, this is a great game that deserves to do well.

If you like FPS games, and you own an Xbox, get it. If you also have Live…… then you already have it..right???

Review by Roy

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment