An xbox game on the xbox360 - More than meets the eye, fun and long but sadly underestimated. Don't expect Next Gen.
Farcry Instincts: Predator is a game based off the original Farcry and a compilation of the two previous Xbox games Farcry Instincts and Instincts Predator. In effect, Farcry Instincts Predator is the Xbox 360 version of the two Xbox titles revamped and slightly improved much like Burnout Revenge was released on both Xbox and Xbox 360 simultaneously. It's all a bit complicated really.
Farcry Instincts Predator is down to basics, a pretty good shooter and has a considerable amount of content. The single player campaign has the original Farcry Instincts and it's expansion "Evolution" which a both long and entertaining. That said, the campaigns do not contain the free roam element seen in it's PC sibling, the game is essentially a linear Xbox title with revamped graphics for the next gen. Its not a next gen game, it is however a good game. This is where the game did badly in that everyone was expecting an amazing new farcry and when Ubisoft simply re-released the original but redone, no-one was happy. All it seems, but me. The story has you taking control of Jack Carver, an ex-marine who retired from war on his small fishing boat somewhere in the tropics. He is then hired as a boat man to take a journalist (who is an undercover agent) to take photos of some wrecked ships off the coast of some of the nearby tropical islands. Only once in the vicinity of the islands, Carver is attacked my mercs who attempt to capture him. From then onwards you are on the run, sneaking through the jungle and tropical paradise laying traps and taking out your enemies as stealthily as possible. The opening part of the game has plenty of stealth elements as well and some run and gun and driving modes. You can hop into hum-vees, boats, jet skis and even hang gliders. About one third into the game Carver gets captured while seeking to find his client, the journalist. Here he is tampered with and experiments are done on him which basically give him animal senses. You wake up from surgery with the ability to run super fast, jump extra high, and a sense of smell that allows you to track your enemies through the forest. At this stage in the game Carver seeks revenge and the hunter becomes the hunted. You decide to get revenge on the people who did these experiments on you and subsequently tear up and down the tropical forest ripping your opponents to shreds in search of the culprits. The next few levels consist of a basically duck hunting. You stamp around the jungle reeking havoc until you start finding more victims of the crazy scientists experiments. So begins the final third of the game.
After finding more clues as to the whereabouts of your target, you begin working your way further inland, away from the tropical beaches and forests and into more dark and gritty parts of the forest. The final third of the game takes place in laboratories and industrial parks dotted around the jungle. You will be required to drive, fly, float or swim between them, battling zombie like freaks and soldiers who've also been tampered with and altered. This is probably where the game loses it's fun a little. The end of the game slips into the classic old routine of zombie pumping and other elements of the horror genre. By the end of Farcry Instincts, you'll be fighting large beasts, crazy zombie freaks with strength greater than yours, only armed with bazookas. You'll also have completely moved from the lush forests to a desolate and deserved volcano littered with baddies. It's not quite so much fun then.
After completing the first instalment, there is the expansion game, Farcry Instincts: Evolution which carries on from the end of the first story. This time, you are once again enlisted by a pretty woman to do their bidding. After hooking up with this woman at a bar, she asks you assistance in a deal that's going down on another island. Once again you agree, insisting that you don't want to get involved in anything more than a run. No shooting and no risks. Just as the first story, this goes to pot and you are forced on the run again, but this time with slightly more purpose. Having experience with mercs in the jungle before, the first half of the game is similar to the first game where you trek around blowing things up and beating up your enemies. You've still got your super powers which make the game a whole lot more interesting. You've also got a large number of new weapons and vehicles at your disposal, all of which are fun to use, easy to control (though it is in 1st person) and sound good. After not much digging around you discover that the people causing the issues on the island are in fact more men, like yourself, doctored and engineered to be super-animal-men. They go about baiting and challenging you and eventually force you to hunt them down and wipe them out. So the story takes another twist whereby you move deep into the jungle, hunting down more freaks, this time with a blow pipe, or pipe bombs, maybe a Molotov cocktail. Freak on Freak battles are quite intense as you're skills are matched in the physical terms which requires the player to use his own skill in out manoeuvring, out shooting, and out jumping his opponents. This second story will lead you through much more interesting environments for lush rivers to shanty towns and doesn't have quite so dark an ending as the first instalment. It is an expansion, so its short but sweet.
Thats all the campaign, which is actually quite a lot and is very enjoyable as long as you approach it as a very good Xbox game, not a really bad Xbox360 game (graphics, AI etc are not the most amazing). After your finished with the main story, there is still much to do with the multiplayer and the extensive map editor, the combination of which is incredible. The map editor is the best i've ever seen. Given a large square of water, you can then pretty much build whatever type of map you want from there. You can fill in the water to make land, then bumps as high as you want so as to make a hilly level. Of, make small bumps and beaches and you have a beach level. Do whatever you want. I made hundred of maps that varied from mountains, volcanoes, river valleys, oasis', industrial factories, shanty towns and tree-top towns. You can populate your map with a large number of different vegetation types so you can have a forest should you chose to make one. You also have a number of buildings, walkways, ladders, sniper towers and more you can throw down to play with. Once you've created your map of choice, lay down roads, paths, vehicles, weapons, health, spawn points, and bases. Then with the touch of a button, jump in and test it all out. Don't like something, jump out and change it. Once you're happy, change the time of day and ambient sound effects to go along with it. Overall, it truly is the best map editor I've ever seen and has yet to be matched by any other game. Only Farcry 2 will match this.
So once you've spent a day making and editing a map, you can save it and name it then take it online with your friends. The multiplayer has the basic layout from capture the flag to regular death match. All of these take place in preloaded maps on the game, or should you choose to do so, player made maps. Play on other peoples maps, or share your own. Its awesome fun. The map editor also allows you to create maps perfect for 4 player offline games, catering to whatever you want to play. Want a water level to play with your friends when they come over, build one and the next time their round, bash each other up on it. It's as simple as that and took me a good year at least to get bored of.
In conclusion then, Farcry Instincts: Predator has more than meets the eye, and deserves more credit than it got. Its big, its fun, and although its not the most complex and "next gen" game out there, its worth a play through.