GingerNinja UK's - The Usual Suspex - Clan member

"You're Jack Carter, a man in the wrong place at the wrong time. You're trapped on a remote island being hunted down by ruthless mercenaries. But now the tables are turning........ you're adapting."

When starting out on FarCry:Instincts you are on your boat sight seeing with Val Cortez, a customer wanting to see more of Jacutan Island. However you don’t have enough time to slap on your factor 30 before you are swimming for you life from a helicopter gunship, leaving your boat, now a smouldering pile of toothpicks, well behind you.

Initially FarCry:Instincts is a solid FPS, with sneak attacks, duel wielding and the excellent skill of being able to set traps on nearby trees, it is extremely satisfying to see one of the mercenaries walk over to investigate the noise that you just made, only to end up flat on his back with a face full of branch.

As the story unfolds, for reasons I shall not spoil, you obtain feral abilities giving you exciting new attack options. You are now stronger and faster than the mercs, you are able to recover you life points automatically and coolest of all, you can smell where your enemy has been by following there vapour trail around the map. The hunted has become the hunter !!!!! With your new found strength it is very satisfying to run up to a merc and hit him with a feral attack, literally sending him flying across the screen squealing like a girl, oh yes, its also an instant kill……

Graphics are impressive, individual blades of grass and beautiful water effect make this an ideal holiday destination, if it wasn't for those dam mercs. The darker levels are very atmospheric and make good use of your feral enhancements.

The background sounds of the waves washing on the shore and birds in the trees are great, the music adds a cinematic feel to your gaming experience and weapons and vehicles sound very realistic, I was impressed by the way different materials being shot produce different sounds. My only gripe about the sound is the lack of variety in the AI characters, you can only here them saying 'I need some help here' or 'man down, man down' so many times before it starts going beyond irritating.

Also included in the game is a map making facility which is easy and intuitive to use, it is an addictive addition to the game, eating away a LOT of your playing time !!!! The impressive thing about the map maker is that you can take your home made maps onto Live. It give you quite a buzz having a frag fest on a map you have lovingly detailed.

There are three different game modes online, the first two, Chaos/Team Choas, which is  a Halo 2 style run’n’ gun deathmatch and Capture the Canister better known as CTF, are pretty much standard online fodder, however it’s the third mode, Predator, that really stands out. In Predator you choose a set number of players to be predators (1-4) . The Predators (with all the feral skills from the offline game) then have to protect a broken generator. The mercs on the other hand have to try and activate the generator by standing next to it for a set amount of seconds. If the mercs succeed the an alarm is set off incapacitating the Predator.

If a Predator is killed then he respawns immediately, however (and here’s the killer) if a merc is killed then he can only come back if a Predator is killed, on a one for one basis, i.e. 3 mercs down = 3 Predator kills to get them all back. Needless to say, once all the mercs are dead it’s game over.

In a world overflowing with FPS'ers the varied and interesting level design and the use of vehicles (everything from boats to ATV’s to hand gliders) make this a must have game, someone pass me my sea sickness pills please.

Gameplay Offline : 8

Gameplay Online : 9

Graphics : 9

Sound : 7

Lasting Appeal : 9 (with Live)