The gorgeous first person shooter Far Cry blew a lot of people away when it arrived early last year on PC (including our own Dunk, >review here<), and now at long last us console gamers get to play our own version of this beautiful game of survival, set on a tropical paradise island full of men who want to kill you with their big guns, knives and worse.
From the demo we played you get a good idea of what to expect from the full game – beautiful settings, massive environments, freeform gameplay with as much stealth or running and gunning as you like – the way you approach the task ahead is up to you. Early on it makes you act stealthy as you have no firearms, but soon you get tooled up and even get to drive the gunboats and armed HumVees (there are many other useable vehicles in the finished game too). The hunters soon become the hunted, and you can even shoot the bad guy’s Black Hawk choppers down with the Humvee’s rear-mounted machine gun. There were a few graphical glitches present when you do, but I’m sure they’ll be fixed for the retail game.
You’ll need you wits about you to survive the wicked AI of the enemy (they hunt you down, and will call for help), and so FCI also lets you set wicked Rambo-style sprung-branch traps on almost any tree you come across; get close to a tree, tap the black button and hold the trigger to set the trap. Then retire to a safe distance and throw a stone to attract an unsuspecting guard to his death. When I first saw it I really wasn’t sure about this feature but it works so darned well that I’m converted!
The maps on this demo are just so big and sprawling that they put even Halo and Ubisoft stablemate Ghost Recon 2 to shame, and the stunning draw distance (that I was sure would have to be sacrificed on console) is still there, in the demo binoculars let you see a long way, and no doubt a sniper rifle on the finished game will really let you have some long-distance fun! The graphics are amongst the best we’ve seen on Xbox for a while, with textures and lighting effects to die for. The jungle and the sheer amount of undergrowth is a delight to behold.
FCI isn’t a straight port of the PC game and now you get to possess (or maybe be possessed by) feral powers: Your strength, speed, eyesight and sense of smell are all enhanced. We didn’t get to try these but, from the videos included with the demo, these powers look to add an extra bit of variety to an already diverse shooter.
Far Cry Instincts also features a map editor, and multiplayer modes for 2-8 players via system link or Xbox Live. It hits the shelves on September 30th, and we can’t wait to return to paradise.
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