Mosquito spray? Check. Snorkel? Check. Rough Guide to The Jacutan Archipelago? Check. Six-pack of Tesco Economy Grenades complete with timed detonators and military-grade five-second fuses capable of producing a causality radius of 15 metres and a fatality radius of five metres? Oh, very check. But, before you're allowed access to those particular pineapples, or indeed the Manimal-style superpowers that come later, you'll have to undergo a little hand-over-fist survival of the fittest. Far Cry Instincts begins like an episode of The A-Team, minus the cabbage guns.
As retired survivalist, gun-nut, and gruff cigar-chomper Jack Carver (voiced capably enough by Stephen Dorff), you agree to take a curious photojournalist to the island paradise of the Jacutan Archipelago on your small fishing boat. She believes, quite rightly, that some sinister goings-on are taking place on the island. But, before you can slap on the Factor 15 and do the odd bit of crab-lining to while away the time, your old wooden boat has been blasted to matchwood and you're washed up on the beach. Seems there really is something up after all...
So, plunging into the dense woodland, Jack begins his quest for survival, a desperate struggle to get off the island intact, and perhaps take out a few of the bazooka-toting loons who blew his beloved boat apart. One problem, though. No weapons. Still, at least the scenery is good. In fact, it's incredible. Before you get to the slaughter, just stop to gaze at those vistas and sunsets, eh?
The island model is second to none, looking better than all the Zanzibars you could eat. The water physics are, well, eye-watering, and the dappled shade through the palm trees makes us want to curl up under them and make boolooloop to a soft-skinned native. The crunch of the undergrowth, the lapping of the sea, and the glare of sunlight from distant guns - it's all real, tangible stuff. Ubisoft has paid such attention to the crucial feel of the island, getting it so real, so right, and so deceptively beautiful, never once do you doubt where you are. It's a paradise that's about to be blown apart, a dangerous playground where anything goes, and where you can turn the very environment to your advantage.
Far Cry Instincts isn't, initially at least, about all-out warfare, as you might expect. Learning to crawl through a mile of the foulest, stinking filth using just your elbows in the hope of planting a make-shift man-trap is what it's about. You have to throw stones in an enemy's direction to lure him to you. You have to rustle about in the bushes, or simply make some noise to get attention. Then, with a little patience, and a little luck, the trap is sprung. They're easy enough to assemble (just collect thorned branches and fix them to a tree in the correct position by clicking a single button), yet incredibly effective. Natty ragdoll physics will catapult the body through the woods, crunching it into a nearby tree, or better still, off the side of a cliff, leaving only the dropped weapon behind. Your first mistake will probably involve going on an immediate rampage with your new-found gun. This is a whole island of death you're dealing with here. A soggy sailor in ripped pants stands no chance of a full assault on a heavily-armed militia. Which means it's back to the undergrowth for our Jack.
The control system in Far Cry Instincts is such that it lets you do just about everything you need to in order to evade (and exterminate) an enemy without rousing suspicion. Most enemy encampments consist of stilted huts, ideal for crawling under and peering up through the slats. Go prone, roll over onto your back, and more often than not, there'll be a gap which offers a perfect head shot opportunity. Jack Carver: 1, Mad Militia: 0.
It takes a little time to progress though the game using these crawling, unseen tactics, but it's hugely rewarding. It's possible to eliminate an entire camp through stealth alone. But, just when panicked enemies are blaming a watchtower sniper's death on an accidental fall, not a headshot from afar, Far Cry shifts gears, not once, but twice...
When Jack is suitably in control of the situation and has collected a fair number of grenades and weapons from blood-spattered huts, it's safe enough to venture out into the open a little. And what a big wide world it is out there, too. Although the missions are predefined, the method of completing them isn't. Although Far Cry isn't as free-roaming as the likes of San Andreas, it's far from 'on-rails'. If anything, you're gently nudged in the right direction, but given just about any means to get there. And that includes using vehicles.
Some of the most explosive moments of Far Cry happen behind the wheel. You can hijack almost any vehicle and use it for pretty much whatever you want. Turn it into a makeshift battering ram, or run it into the ground for daring escapes - it's your call. It would have been cool to be allowed the old Halo third-person view for driving, but because Hummers, speedboats and quads are all driven from a first-person perspective, it's a little difficult to judge the exact size of a vehicle sometimes, meaning that daring escapes through narrow gorges are hit and miss affairs. Not to worry though - a flaming, damaged car causes more destruction then several grenades when it goes up. Get it in the right spot and that damage can be multiplied tenfold. Certain parts of the island can go up in a chain reaction, too. Hit a barrel next to a radio mast, for example, and the mast will crash down, ripping through buildings, and hurling bad guys through the air like sticks. Rambo time!
So, there you are, switching between stealth killer and crack commando at will, teasing the enemy one minute, sending the fear of a silent God up them the next, and blowing the whole lot to kingdom come another, when Far Cry's biggest diversion kicks in. Up until now, sweaty jungle hell, some stonking enemy AI, droolsome visuals and that desperate need for survival were the fuel of this cracking game, but the second gearshift is a little too hard to swallow. As the old saying goes, 'If you can't find it, grind it.' To cut a long story short, Jack Carver turns into some kind of beast. Er, cool?
Two thirds of the way through Far Cry, by way of a previously unintroduced mad professor running the show on Jacutan, Jack gets infected with some weird biochemical that slowly alters his DNA, changing him from a very human, very skilled survivalist into the Wolf Man. Now he has special animal sight, animal senses, and animal speed abilities, which, although cool in one respect, feel so completely out of place within this game, you may just as well make the main antagonist King Koopa. It's a needless advantage that destroys the prior beauty of Far Cry: that of Jack having to fight tooth and nail for every inch of the island.
Having said that, Jack's feral abilities have been implemented well, despite feeling as though they've been tacked on for us 'dumb console types' who wouldn't have appreciated a simple PC follow-up. The animal strength allows you to punch straight through wooden huts, taking out enemies close to the interior wall. Or maybe you need to suddenly rip great quantities of scenery from the ground, sending them flying through the air like frisbees. You can do that too. Again, much like an animal, Jack can now smell out enemies by sniffing the air for their vapour trails before hunting them down and taking them out. Sure, it's fun, but to go from being the hunted to the hunter without any real effort on your part makes the victory that much shallower. How cool would it have been to just 'learn' how to become a more effective survivalist and turn the tide that way?
Regardless, Far Cry is constructed with such care, and introduces such a vast playground of destruction, it's hard not to like. The island is truly beautiful, and the great, walloping set-pieces that spoil the peace even more so. Look out for the compound where Carver is holed up in a besieged warehouse with nothing to help him but a handful of well-placed oil drums far below.
The game also borders on the dumb at times, never quite achieving everything it so valiantly sets out to, but more often than not it hits pretty close to the mark. And, despite beginning as an intense, psychological battle for survival before descending to overblown slice of dumb-assedness, that dumb-assedness is bloody good fun too. It ends up stupid, but sometimes stupid is good. If Ubisoft treated console gamers as little more than a collection of trigger-happy dopes, this could have been beautiful, but the dumbed-down Far Cry Instincts still treads a happy medium. Big, brash, unashamedly daft in parts, this is Stephen Dorff's best role in ages, but he's still upstaged by the beautiful scenery and teeth-grinding action of this masterful shooter.
Official Xbox Magazine staff
// Overview
Verdict
At times stupid, at times wildly brilliant, Far Cry is for anyone who's dreamed of shooting guns on an island paradise.
We all know far cry instincts and far cry instincts evolution are great but I think their the best i've seen lately. My gametag name for xbox live is jdabomb so if you wanna be my friend then play far cry instincts evolution to be my buddy got it.
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