Instincts is a "Far Cry" from you typical first-person shooter.
In Far Cry Instincts you assume the role of Jack Carver; an ex-commando and captain of a fisherman’s boat. You arrive at an unknown tropical island with Val Cortez-a mysterious woman that seems to be a researcher. While Cortez goes off with your jet-ski you’re boat is attacked by choppers and you’re left to venture off into the island and fight for your survival. Roughly one-third the way through the game’s campaign you’ll get injected with an infection that causes you to turn into a mutant hybrid. As you progress through the game you’ll unlock newfound abilities such as being able to see in the dark, run at superhuman speeds, jump great heights and my favorite-running up to your opponent, slashing them and watching them go flying in a perfect arc. When you start Far Cry Instincts you’ll be forced to use stealth tactics in order to survive, otherwise your life will be ending sooner than you think. As you approach enemies in the game they’ll appear on your HUD and will show up anywhere from unaware to your position to alert mode. You’ll be able to tell if nearby enemies are aware to your position depending on their color on-screen; which goes from green to red-green being unaware and red being alert. Although you’ll almost always be outnumbered, you have a few tricks up your sleeve to help you teach your enemies not to mess with you again. Among these tactics include being able to set up traps on trees, luring your enemies to that tree and once they get close enough, they get smashed right in the gut by your spiked branch; quite enjoyable really. Another is if you get close enough to an enemy that has his back turned you can backstab him and drop them right where they stand; much like Splinter Cell only it’s in first-person.
The stealth mechanics in Instincts work very well and effectively since you really feel like you’re lost and alone in a jungle littered with mercenaries. You’ll be using stealth mechanics for the first three to four hours in the game but once you’re injected with the infection the game will encourage you to be more vicious and up-close and personal since you’ll be using more powerful and noisier weapons and you’ll take less damage and slowly regain health, but you can still use stealth mechanics from time-to-time and get away with it in one piece. When you do get into the game’s firefights; and you will, the action really picks up and it’s these moments that the game really starts to show the intensity it can offer. There are also many moments in the game that you’ll be using vehicles including humvees, jet-skis, hover-boats, moter-boats and ATVs. The vehicles are a nice addition, but they control very superfluously-almost like you driving on ice with oil spilt all over it. Fortunately, you usually don’t need to use vehicles to get around the game and they’re normally just a means to get through the game faster. Speaking of getting through the game, Instincts campaign will last you a good few hours unlike most shooters nowadays that are only worth a rental. The game’s enemy AI isn’t particularly bright-they normally just shoot at you whenever they get the chance but they come in pretty large groups and if you don’t be careful you could wind up being the find of the day. There are about ten levels in the game and between the length of most of the levels and challenges you’ll face; it should take you roughly fifteen hours to complete the game’s campaign.
After completing the game’s campaign the next place you’ll want to visit is the game’s multiplayer, which is every bit as good as its single-player. The action in multiplayer does get pretty fast-paced, especially if you’re taking part in larger deathmatches. Also, there’s a Predator mode in the game’s multiplayer where you have up to sixteen people play and one-fourth of those gamers have the predator abilities you use in the game’s campaign. This mode works very nicely as it nicely compliments the game’s hunt-or-be-hunted theme. But what really gives Instincts its extra legs is its Map Editor. As you’d expect, Map Editor lets you create endless possible maps for you to play on with your friends and enemies. Options you can do include being able to make large hills, set up vehicles; place countless numbers of trees, bushes, huts, bases and much, much more. At first, Map Editor may feel disorienting but as you create more and more maps you’ll start to get used to it and thanks to being able to quickly walk around your map to see how it’s coming along, you’re almost always guaranteed a map that will fit your gaming style.
Throughout Far Cry Instincts, you’ll be sneaking and running around several locations including the jungle, on the tropical hills, underground mines and eventually a structure on the volcanic part of the island. Instincts does a great job of rendering these environments efficiently and most of the time the game looks fantastic, particularly how great the water looks. The various locations that you’ll be traversing in the game have been given a great amount of detail and there’s barely anything rough with the game’s graphics. The character models also look great and are detailed nicely and proficiently. Lighting and particle effects are used quite effectively too; especially in the outdoor levels during the daytime and when your in the game’s larger firefights. The presentation of bullets whizzing by you, grenades exploding before your eyes and barrels exploding and sending your enemies flying are without doubt some of the most impressive moments in the game not just action-wise but graphic-wise. The game also manages to keep a pretty smooth and steady framerate throughout the course of campaign; about the only time you’ll encounter any hiccups are when you’re running around in enclosed environments. That said, Instincts doesn’t have the much draw-distance from your position and as a result, the game has lots of pop-up problems that might distract you while in the middle of viewing some of the game’s more impressive moments and might cause brief framerate problems. Other than that, Instincts look great and definitely makes good use of what the Xbox has been able to deliver graphically.
Sound-wise, Instincts is just as impressive as its visuals. The voice-actors all sound believable and give their character their own distinct personality that will make you either love them or just make you want to tear them to shreds. One thing that might give you a good chuckle here and there is Jack’s odd tendency towards swearing a lot in the game when something big is going on-my favorite being if you fall down a long drop he’ll say a perfectly toned: “Aw s**t!” line. The sound effects in Instincts are also excellent, especially the weapons. Most of the weapons sound perfectly toned, not too loud and not too muffled. The machineguns have light clinging sound; the shotgun has a brief but ripe bang noise and the second sniper rifle you’ll find has a big, loud boom noise that’s a joy to hear. The vehicles in the game don’t sound quite as good but most of them sound close to believable. But the best part about Instincts sound is the music. The music seems to almost always come up at the right time and when it does, it’s usually got a great heart-pumping, suspense-filling beat that will immerse you into the game’s more action-packed moments much easier. Other times the music has a fast-paced but toned-down beat that usually comes up during the outdoor levels and those work just as well as the rest of the music; which if you haven’t guessed is nicely done. About the only real problem with the sound in this game is that your enemies don’t really sound like actual mercenaries when you’re battling them, but if you eavesdrop on a conversation they sound much more realistic-and those conversations can actually be quite amusing. Also, when you attack your opponents with a Feral Slash-where you run up to them and send them flying, they usually make a whining noise that although humorous, gets rather annoying at times. That problem aside, Instincts sounds great and the music and sound effects alone work together quite nicely to make the game even more immersive.
All in all, Far Cry Instincts is an excellent and well-done achievement that definitely is worthy of the praise of its PC counterpart. While there are some flaws in the game most of them don’t affect the game that much. Instincts has a great campaign, fast-paced multiplayer, and a huge map editor that will keep you coming back for countless hours. If you’re an Xbox owner that’s been looking for a shooter that comes anywhere near as close to great as Halo then you owe it to yourself to check out Far Cry Instincts, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.