Xbox Hardware & Games

Video: 5
Sound: 5
Gameplay: 4

You are Jack Carver. You're enjoying a nice sunny day on your boat off the coast of a tropical island having just let your charter go off on the jet ski. You're woken up from your nap, however, by a helicopter full of mercenaries shooting at you. You escape to the island and try to figure out what's going on and whom these people are. If that means killing them all, so be it.

This is FarCry: Instincts, a first-person shooter from Ubisoft. It is a slightly modified version of the PC original.

As Jack Carver, you have to roam the island, achieving a number of simple goals, such as reaching a certain tent in the middle of the jungle. Along the way, you must evade countless bad guys who all want to kill you. There is a large assortment of weapons, including pistols, machine guns, rocket launchers, Humvees, and high caliber machine guns mounted on boats—and rocks, believe it or not. My favorite weapon of all was the branch whip, which consists of a spiked branch wrapped around a tree trunk. You throw a rock towards a mercenary, to draw him in. Once he gets close, the whip goes off, hurling him through the air. Be careful, though, the trap can backfire and send you flying, as well.

As you roam the island, there are different options available to you. You can choose to be sneaky and silent and stay off the beaten path, hidden in the trees and brush while silently stalking your prey. Or you can go berserk and kill anything that moves. Some levels offer multiple ways of reaching where you need to go, some ways being much better choices than others, allowing for a lot of replay.

Game play is relatively solid. As I mentioned, the different options in missions make it more challenging, as you want to learn which path will reap more benefits. The AI is good; you can lure villains into your traps, and they can be smart enough to run for cover when you're shooting at them. The controls are fairly straightforward, even for me.

The graphics are beautiful. The surroundings are very lush on this tropical island, and the lighting and shadows are outstanding. Really, the better the TV, the better this game will look. Unfortunately, considering how wonderful the backgrounds appear, the same can't be said of the characters. They're a little flat looking—nowhere near as detailed as the environments.

The sound is also quite good. FarCry supports Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and, although most of the game sound comes from the front, the rear surround system plays jungle sounds and ocean noises, immersing you in the tropical paradise of the game. Whenever a grenade explodes too close to you (but still leaving you lucky enough to be alive) the sound simulates the sensation of ringing ears and a muffled outside world. It works quite well. The weapon fire is loud and crackly. All in all it's a great sounding game.

FarCry has its plusses and minuses, but, overall, it proves to be a fun game. There is also multiplayer capability and a level editor. It's a step above your average FPS, and the gorgeous graphics and sounds add to the experience greatly.