Product Description

Far Cry Instincts Xbox

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3664 in Video Games
• Brand: UBI Soft
• Model: 8888511618
• Released on: 2006-06-15
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: Xbox
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .50" h x 5.50" w x 7.50" l, .30 pounds

Features

• Take cover in the undergrowth, set traps, kill by stealth, battle from extreme long range and gun-mounted vehicles and fight in close quarters
• Plunder an arsenal of responsive, realistic weapons and vehicles including ATVs, gunboats, hang gliders and much more
• Unleash your predatory skills - Survive the furious and inhospitable wilderness by unveiling your true nature - develop your vision, track the enemy's scent and become faster and stronger
• F.A.R. AI - Outsmart the mercenaries' complex Full Action Response AI. Snipers, stalkers, scouts, and grenadiers react to your tactics with coordinated strikes
• Create your own shooter's paradise - The battle continues with deep multiplayer and level editor features. Build custom maps in real time, upload them via Live Console Systems and stage ultimate deathmatches against your friends

From the Manufacturer
You're Jack Carver, stranded on a remote tropical island. A legion of elite mercenaries equipped with a military stockpile is rapidly closing in. Outmanned and outgunned, your survival won't come easy. Only with skill, instincts, and ingenuity can you conquer the enemy and make it out alive.

In the open-ended tropical environment, discover many ways to kill. Set up and unleash brutal jungle traps. Commit stealth kills amidst the foliage. Snipe from extreme distances. Steal the enemy's weapons and launch brutal counter-assaults over land, sea, and air-ranging from hand-to-hand strikes to rocket salvos. To conquer the mercenaries' Full Action Response A.I., you must develop skills you never thought you had.

Features:

• Open season in a 100-percent open environment: Do whatever it takes to exterminate the mercenaries, in any situation. Take cover in the undergrowth, set traps, kill by stealth; battle from extreme long range, from gun-mounted vehicles, fight in close quarters, or through the wilds of the island.
• Equipment that looks and feels real: Plunder an arsenal of responsive, realistic weapons and vehicles including P90s, MP5s, Vulcan Miniguns, Mortars, ATVs, gunboats, hang-gliders, and much more. Turn the mercenaries' stockpile into the instruments of their own destruction.
• Create your own shooter's paradise: The battle continues with deep multiplayer and level editor features. Build custom maps in real time, upload them via Xbox Live, and stage ultimate deathmatches against your friends.
• Unleash your predator skills: survive the furious and inhospitable wilderness by unveiling your true nature; develop your vision abilities, track the enemies' scent, and become faster and stronger.
• F.A.R. A.I.: Outsmart the mercenaries' complex Full Action Response A.I. Snipers, stalkers, scouts, and grenadiers react to your tactics with coordinated strikes from all angles, distances, and terrains.

Customer Reviews

One of the best all-around X-Box FPS experiences
Far Cry hit the PC Market last year with a bang. Combining revolutionary graphics with cunning stealth/guerilla tactical fighting, Far Cry was easily one of the most enjoyable and memorable PC gaming experiences ever. So how did it translate on the XBox?

As Jack Carver, you take an undercover reporter to secluded Jacutan Island, where a number of mysterious incidents have occurred for the past 2 or 3 decades. When your boat is blown apart by a helicopter attack, you find yourself stranded on this tropical island, fending for your life and trying to find out just what exactly is happening here on Jacutan. Along the way you'll encounter a literal army's worth of enemies and a few horrifying surprises.

The premise is simple enough and the story, though a bit weak, keeps you moving through the lushly detailed tropical island. Undoubtedly one of the best looking games on the X-Box, Far Cry features beautiful water effects, swaying trees and lush tropical growth. Gorgeous waterfalls and rivers dot the landscape, as well as enormous mountain ranges and dense jungle trails. When you're not caught up looking at the landscape however, you'll be up to your eyeballs in bullets.

The gameplay is somewhat different than most FPS games, in that it is no where near as claustrophobic. The areas are wide open and allow for precise sneak attacks and guerilla hit and run tactics. Enemy AI is impressive, though can also be quite dumb at times. The dense tropical growth allows for many hiding spots, as well as deadly traps to set up against your enemies, such as branch whips and claymore mines. When the game calls for all-out action, there is a big enough arsenal for you to just let loose on your foes with reckless abandon. However, most 'stand and fight' gun battles are usually a fatal encounter for the player.

There are only a handful of enemy types in the game, ranging from your standard mercenary fare to well-equipped tactical ops, as well as gun-toting, suicide bombing zombies and tremendous monsters that look to be a cross between the Incredible Hulk and John Carpenter's 'The Thing'. While the Mercenaries are easy enough, the zombies tend to take alot of damage and the special ops are extremely deadly. There is a huge arsenal of weapons to choose from, and an equally large selection of vehicles.

Vehicle control is a bit simplistic, and at times can lead to confusing tumbles around the map. While some felt the vehicle controls in Halo were too much, I find the vehicle control in Far Cry to be a bit more difficult to get the hang of, if only because i've mastered Halo driving and found the simplistic controls of Far Cry to be less fluid. Nevertheless, there are plenty of vehicles to experience.

The game's best all around feature is undoubtedly its Map Editor mode. Something that is not often included in console games, the map editor is VERY simple to use, and should take even the average editor a mere hour or two to completely get the hang of. Unfortunately, the map editor is VERY limited, and much of the game's content, such as mounted gun emplacements, lava hazards, certain buildings and environmental decorations, are noticeably missing. I almost felt cheated that so much was lacking, but at the same time the map editor has so much going for it that I found myself fiddling around with the editor almost more than I was playing the actual game.
The editor alone is worth the price of admission, and is something I would like to see alot more of in console games of any type.

All is not perfect in this game however. First off, the game is ridiculously easy for the first 3/4 of gameplay. Once you get your mutation powers, the game becomes even easier. However, once you hit the final 1/4 of the game, it takes a sharp turn from being ridiculously easy to unbeleivably difficult. Perhaps the game's worst aspect is lack of in-game save, as you must rely on check points. Furthermore, the gameplay itself is laughably unrealistic...enemies seem to just shrug off half a clip of machine gun fire pumped into their chest, but a punch to the face sends them flying 2 miles in the opposite direction. Weapon power is grossly misinterpreted...you can take a gunshot to the face at point blank range and suffer about 20 points of damage, and yet a melee attack from any enemy takes off a minimum of about 70-90 points! Ridiculously unbalanced damage, but that changes once you hit the endgame scenario, where enemies seem to always get one shot, instant kills on you no matter how much health or body armor you are wearing, making the endgame portion one of the most frustrating FPS experiences in a long time. The load times between new levels are also dreadfully long.

There is one more, outstanding and trying thing that brings this game down an entire star: The fact that there is a 4 minute, annoying 'Coming Soon' type trailer for Far Cry that CANNOT be skipped. You have to see it every time you load the game up, every time you go back to the main menu, everytime you quit the game...it absolutely cannot be skipped, and more than once I have been in the mood to fire up a quick game of Far Cry, but got so frustrated that I couldn't skip that trailer that I just turned it off before it even finished.

To wrap this review up, let me recap by providing list a series of Pro's and Con's with a short explanation:

PROs:

Best feature - Map Editor: Easily one of the most captivating parts of the game, the Map Editor allows you to express your creative side. Though lacking some of the game's most interesting items and objects, it is an excellent tool nonetheless.

-Outstanding Graphics - though nowhere near as nice as its PC counterpart, a beautiful game nonetheless.

-'Feral Senses' provide a unique and exciting aspect to gameplay

-A truly cinematic feel to the game

-Lushly detailed and gorgeous landscapes

-Huge arsenal and vehicle list

-exciting guerilla tactics and combat

-creative use of superhuman abilities in game progression

CONs:

Worst Feature: Lack of in-game save makes for one of the most incredibly frustrating trial-and-error gameplay segments ever, and checkpoints become fewer as you progress

-Unskippable 4+ minute trailer for the game everytime you go back to the main menu really makes you NOT want to play

-DREADFUL load times

-Laughably unrealistic weapon damage on enemies (emptying an entire handgun clip into their chest at point blank range is...minorly annoying?)

-Severe misrepresentation of player damage (getting shot doesn't hurt that much, but getting punched is fatal?)

-Enemies become far too powerful as you progress, often getting one-shot kills

-Enemies can see you no matter how well covered you are

-Enemies can see at great distances, where the clipping completely prevents player from seeing them (I guess shotguns are equipped with sniper scopes nowadays?)

-Grenades utterly useless...enemies know your location immediately when you prepare grenade for throwing and scatter before it even leaves your hand

Overall, its a great game that has a few flaws. The overall experience, however, is well worth the price. Between the beautiful landscapes and geniusly implemented map editor as well as the rich gameplay experience, Far Cry is definitely worth adding to your collection.

The best tropical vacation you'll ever have
Remember the classic Schwarzenegger flick "Total Recall"?

Arnie goes to a memory implant outfit selling "the perfect vacation", including an alter ego trip that (debatably) gives him the memory of a Mars vacation as a secret agent. The travel agent tells Arnie "Besides, real vacations are a drag. You've got lost luggage, crooked taxi drivers...."

He's right. Far Cry Instincts takes you to a stunning island paradise - armed to the teeth with guns and, er, other weapons - without you ever having to leaving your couch. Sounds good, doesn't it? No passport problems, no long boring flight, no airline food. Just you, the refreshing island air, and a submachine gun in each fist.

If you ever wanted to visit a gorgeous tropical paradise unlike any other....that is, one filled with beautiful waterfalls, gun-toting mercenaries all out to kill you, thick green forests, mutant-populated caves, clear waters and deep blue skies, and exploding vehicles, this is the place.

You are Jack Carver, a gun-runner who took the wrong job. You're hired by the beautiful Val Cortez to take her by some island. Next thing you know, your boat's blown to bits, Val has vanished, and you're running for your life through the jungle pursued an army of heavily armed mercs bent on taking you out.

What's going on here? Outnumbered and outgunned, use your wits to discover answers. You're not going down without a fight, right? Low on ammo? Rig traps to lure unsuspecting mercs to their demise. Roadblock in your way? Sneak through the grass, between the trees, stab a guy in the back and take out the rest with their own machinegun turret. Odds against you, or you want to get somewhere quickly? Use a hummer. Or a jetski. Or a hovercraft. Or how about a hang glider? Use those warm tropical drafts to your advantage and rain death from above - nothing quite like it. Hey, you can even swim your way to safety if it comes down to it. The choice is yours.

Not to spoil anything, but check this out. You'll get captured. Oh, don't worry, it's temporary...and in fact, necessary. Once you escape, you'll notice things are different. The sun sets over the island, night arrives, and you notice you're changing. You can now see in the dark. Trail your enemies by scent. You can leap huge distances and run at superhuman speed. You can break through barriers with your bare hands, not to mention the damage you can now do unarmed. What's happening? It feels good...great, in fact...but who did this to you, and why? Somewhere on the island, the answers are hidden.

When small German developer Crytek released Far Cry on the PC last year, it was instantly hailed for its gorgeous graphics and freedom of gameplay. Ubi Soft has tweaked the game for the Xbox, removing some of the freedom but adding the incredibly cool feral powers. It also included a robust multiplayer map editor, which is arguably the best of its kind on console. The result is an experience that's different from the PC version, but arguably better.

The short version: if you have an Xbox and have even a remote interest in first-person shooters, you must try Far Cry: Instincts. It's that simple. The single-player game is a combination of Splinter Cell, Mercenaries, and Halo. Multiplayer is among the best available, thanks to imaginative modes and the remarkable map editor.

As the Xbox itself starts to fade into the sunset, it's clear to see that it's still more than capable of providing highly intense, technically brilliant, hugely fun gaming experiences. Don't let the lack of licensing stop you from giving this a shot.

Oh yeah - enjoy your vacation!

This game turned out to be more than I expected!
I purchased this game just to be something to keep me busy until Half-Life 2 came out for the xbox, but I fell in love with this game as soon as I started playing it. The single player campaign is very exciting and I love how you stay in the first person perspective throuought the whole game, even during the cut scenes.

The graphics are spectacular and very detailed. Both the bright and dark parts of the game look great. Gameplay is very smooth and easy to pick up. I like how you can choose your weapon just by hitting the d-pad. It makes it much easier to choose the correct weapon during a firefight. The vehicles also control surprisingly well. The sound has to be the greatest of all. The firefights sound just like war videos I have seen and all the vehicles actually sound the way they are suposed to.

Multiplayer is what adds the replay value to the game. Other than Halo 2 and Ghost Recon 2, this is the best online multiplayer currently on the xbox. After playing games like halo 2 and ghost recon 2 most games seem to have VERY boring multiplayer, but far cry's multiplayer is very exciteing. There are four multiplayer types: Choas (Slayer), Team Chaos (Team Slayer), Steal The Sample (Capture The Flag) and Predator which is the most exciting.

The map editor is also a great addition to the game. It is very easy to use and it is great to add your very own maps to xbox live and have your friends play them.

Overall, this game is great and well worth the money. If you are a first person shooter fan then you will love this game!