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I’m really digging the hell out of Far Cry Instincts for the Xbox. This first person shooter was out on the PC a year ago. I tried it and couldn’t get out of the water without getting shot. The Xbox version got a high metacritic score, so I took a chance and bought it.
Far Cry pushes the Xbox graphics hardware to places it’s never been before. Water has never looked better, whether it’s in the ocean, lakes, or rivers. In case you haven’t heard, FCI takes place on a tropical island near South America. You play Jack Carver, a tour boat operator who gets his one and only customer kidnapped by an unknown army that inhabits the island. Jack survives by diving underwater, and once he gathers his wits long enough to grab a few guns, you’re in a goddamn Bruckheimer movie (thankfully it’s not directed by Michael Bay). Carver’s voice is by actor Stephen Dorff; the script has him say fuck this and those fuckers and so on. The gaming press has criticized this, but I find it refreshing—it just makes me relate to Jack that much more!
The plot to FCI doesn’t seem like much at first, but it gets better as you go along. As you trek through the jungle, blowing away bad guys, certain plot elements will smack you upside the head. The game has a stealth feature, where you have incentive to sneak up on enemies before they sound an alarm. I fail at this most of them time, but I am completely suckered into the idea of being in danger on an island. It feels like the TV show LOST, rustling through the foliage, not knowing what’s up ahead. The weapons in the game are standard issue, but you can double-wield. The sniper weapon is pretty good. Much cooler are the vehicles. So far I’ve commandeered a dingy, an airboat, an ATV, and a jeep with a mini-gun. The promos show a hang-glider that I can’t wait to get to. Much, much cooler are the animal powers that Jack gets injected with—they give him this Wolverine-claw slash instant fatality move. It reminds you of the Halo sword, but I think Marvel should take note—there’s a great Wolvy game you can rip out of this.
I tried multiplayer for five minutes and kept getting killed the minute I appeared. To hell with that, right now I love the single player experience (although it does allow you to create your own maps). Far Cry Instincts is right up there with Halo and Doom 3. If you’re an Xbox shooter fan, you need to get it. For the week of 10/31/05, Best Buy has it on sale for $30. Nuff said.
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