Far Cry pushes Xbox to the limit

By Alfred Hermida
Technology editor, BBC News website

Instincts is set in a fictional tropical paradise called Jacutan

The PC game, Far Cry, was one of the hidden gems of 2004. It was an impressive first-person shooter, with gorgeous graphics, fluid action and an engaging story.

It set an almost impossibly high standard for the Xbox edition of the game to live up to.

Fortunately Far Cry: Instincts does a very creditable job of bringing the tropical world of the game to the Microsoft console.

It succeeds in bringing to life the luscious jungle and alluring beaches of the original, as well as a compelling storyline and ingenious gameplay.

Mercenaries and mutants

The fate of the re-make was in the hands of the Montreal studio of French games publisher Ubisoft.

The team in Canada have done what many thought would be impossible - created a game which is both new and at the same time instantly recognisable to anyone who played the PC original.

The AI of the virtual mercenaries is flawed

The console adaptation retains the expansive canvas of dense jungle and sun-drenched beaches. The original version needed a powerful beast of a PC to bring this world to life on screen.

Despite the processing limitations of the Xbox, Instincts is one good-looking game and shows there is still life in the box.

Like in the original, Instincts is set in a tropical island populated by mercenaries and mutants, and the plot roughly follows a similar story of genetic experiments gone mad.

But it is more than a carbon copy of the PC version. The game has been re-imagined for the Xbox.

Instincts feels more like a sequel than a repeat of the original, partly due to new elements like super-human strength and scent vision.

Paradise lost

First-person shooters tend to suffer when they make the jump from PC to consoles. Gamers usually prefer to play on a PC, where movements can be carefully controlled using a mouse and keyboard.

The Montreal team behind Instincts has obviously spent some time playing the sci-fi Xbox shooter Halo and learning how to make a good control system.

FAR CRY: INSTINCTS Format: Xbox Graphics: 9 Sound: 7 Gameplay: 9 Enduring appeal: 8 Overall: 9

Instincts shares some of the same fighting elements, like the ability to wield two weapons at once, or knock down enemies with a melee attack.

But this is not a game that rewards mindless shooting, especially as in the early stages of the game you are outnumbered and outgunned, and have a limited supply of ammunition

Instead, it rewards guerrilla tactics and stealth. Often the best approach is to crawl through the foliage, sneak under an enemy wooden hut, rolling on the back and picking off a sentry with a silencer.

In another appealing aspect of the gameplay, trees can be booby-trapped and unsuspecting guards lured by throwing a rock.

Unfortunately, at times it is too easy to ensnare the virtual mercenaries. The AI of the enemies was one of the shortcomings of the PC game. This time round, the AI is better but remains one of the weak points of the game.

It is all too easy to lure the mercenaries as they walk into the line of fire, by simply hiding in one of the rickety huts.

These are minor niggles. Overall the smooth controls and seamless gameplay make Instincts a game to rival Halo's claim as the best first-person shooter for the Xbox.