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| Game: |
Far Cry Instincts |
| Genre: |
Shooters |
| Developer: |
Ubisoft |
| Publisher: |
Ubisoft |
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| Related Links: |
Coming Soon. |
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Far Cry Instincts Preview: |
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Ubisoft have a great range of titles under their belts which have done wonders for on and offline gamers the World over. With excellent titles such as Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six 3, Ghost Recon to name but a few, how can Ubisoft continue to churn out such high profile games that really put the French publisher/developer firmly on the gaming map for this and next generation gaming? Well who knows, but either way as a gamer it is always a joy to play one of these games, well for me anyways and I’m sure I am not alone here. Far Cry was a massive hit on the PC and whilst the game is fairly old news for the PC community at least; console gamers can, for the first time experience the trials and tribulations of man on a mission Jack Carver (voiced by Stephen Dorff) in this Jungle first person shoot em up extravaganza. Far Cry Instincts on console has been rebuilt from the ground up so don’t go expecting the exact same game as the PC version. Having played a little of the game at the Leipzig Games Convention last week I was finally able to get to grips with the game in the comfort of my own home with the demo of the game (which some of you should also be playing right about now).
First Impressions?
My first impression of playing the game is how well the developers have managed to retain the look from the PC version. Everything looks absolutely stunning and alive. The vegetation is dense, varied and really does provide a gaming experience that puts you deep inside the jungle. The water effects are eerily realistic and what is more there is a great blurring effect when Jack surfaces from under the water to recreate his eyes adjusting. For graphics junkies looking for a graphically pleasing game to tie them over until the Xbox 360 then look no further, and whilst the graphics might not be as detailed as Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory they are damn pretty indeed!
The first Part of the demo is basically a mini tutorial to familiarise players with the controls such as moving silently, crawling, pushing objects and climbing ladders, the basics! The next part of the tutorial starts to get to the more advanced moves such as performing stealth kills; which requires Jack to sneak up behind an opponent without being seen and then plunging his knife into his victims back. The tutorial also shows how Jack can use his branch trap and lures. It’s a very simple yet effective method of disposing foes without getting your hands dirty too much. Simply select the trap from your inventory and then place it on the tree of your choice (preferably near guards) and then once set retreat back into the dense undergrowth. From here Jack is able to throw stones to attract the attention of the guards. Once the guard is near the trap, well, I don’t really need to describe because the result is what you would expect; one dead guard!
What is also very neat is being able to crawl underneath one of the many wooden huts that are on the island; these huts have gaping holes in the floor which give Jack a great view of whose inside. Once underneath Jack can turn his body around and get a great angle to shoot whoever is inside.
Once the mini tutorial is over then the game begins proper and this is where things start to get more personal. When I say personal I don’t mean hitting on the guards for a date, I mean the player has plenty of choice in how they tackle each situation. For example you might want to avoid contact with the enemy and sneak through the foliage to carry out your objectives. Now this is pretty tough at times but very rewarding- even in this demo version of the game. With the silent traps and lures means you can have real fun simple hiding and sneaking without making any noise at all. A little bit of exploration might also reveal an alternate pathway that leads to your objective; although I must say in the demo at least your options aren’t as varied in terms of routes compared to the PC version. However the nature of the landscape does mean that more often than not you aren’t restricted to tight pathways.
Well, not everyone likes stealth or stealth games for that matter and whilst the jungle setting is ideal for stealth attacks, the option to get the guns out is certainly there especially if you aim to use hit and run tactics. From the offset a path is pretty clearly marked and players can simply ignore the exploration and go for the jugular with some pretty intense gun battles. Fine, the guards at the beginning of the demo aren’t particularly challenging especially as they are alone and will not call for backup should they spot you; but further into the demo you will find things getting a little tougher once you start going gung ho on a base. I am also confident that a harder difficulty setting will make things a lot tougher as well (the demo has one difficulty).
What was that noise?
Looking again at the AI and we have been promised some pretty advanced AI routines here these guys do not joke (or at least they wont in the full version of the game). Guard’s have 4 phases which range from Green to Red (red being full on you are busted). Guards in yellow stage are alerted to a noise or something and will investigate cautiously. Guards in the orange stage are alerted and combat ready but have not necessarily seen you. Once in this stage guards will naturally stay alerted and continue to look around cautiously until you sneak up and put a well placed bullet through the skull or better yet sneak behind and get a stealth kill. Players must also be aware that guards will become alerted if they see dead bodies lying around; so using the lure techniques is a must if you don’t want all hell to break loose. If things don’t go to plan and you simply say “to hell with it” you can expect guards all over searching for you, shooting at you and calling in reinforcements if you are really naughty. The guards in the demo aren’t quite so intelligent and if you are sneaky enough you can simply hide behind a tree and pop silenced bullets into their heads one by one as they come into your view. Hopefully this will be more difficult to pull of in the full game as I’m sure the guards will be adept at using grenades and flanking tactics to flush you out.
Far Cry Instincts also allows player the chance to take to the skies (hang Glider) and commandeer small boats and vehicles. What is more, whilst piloting or driving one of these craft the control method allows you to fire your weapon at the same time. So to clarify, the RIGHT STICK controls the vehicles movement and the LEFT STICK your view. This works really well as long as players get to grips with keeping the view looking forwards when driving otherwise you will be hitting a lot of trees or grounding your boats. What I like about the game and is evident in the demo as well is the fact that although using a vehicle is far more speedy it does little for those looking to be a little more subtle. While at times you might have to give in and let rip, especially when being chased by enemy air and ground vehicles, there are other moments where the use of a vehicle is perhaps optional.
The Beast Within.
The demo gives the player a full round up of the basics within the game and provides stealth, exploration, beautiful scenery advanced AI, engaging combat and a taster of the story. The full version promises to be a lot more and when you start getting involved in the deeper elements of the game play things simply get better and better as Jack turns from being the hunted to the hunter as his feral abilities evolve. The full game will feature; feral attack which allows jack to simply punch his foes to kingdom come, sending them flying through the air. This increased power is also very useful for knocking down doors and such. Feral smell means that jack can track his prey with a visual representation of his target’s smell in the form of a trail. Feral Speed allows jack the ability to out run and out manoeuvre the quickest of human foes granting him awesome speed to traverse the irregular terrain. Feral vision is Jacks natural ability to see where normal humans simply cannot; this gives him an advantage in darkened and foggy areas. Feral regeneration allows jack to heal himself after sustaining damage; simply retreat into the undergrowth, recharge and then strike again (remember Jack is severely outnumbered by heavily armed and intelligent adversaries).
Multiplayer.
Far Cry Instincts not only features a comprehensive single player campaign but also caters for those looking for some head to head action via split screen, system link and Xbox Live play. Multi-player has several modes to mess around with which includes vehicles (not sure on bots) and also has the much touted map maker which means you can create your own multiplayer environments and share them with others for the ultimate personal touch. The multiplayer modes are all based on popular themes that gamers will be used to such as Team Chaos- which is a team death match game type where 16 players can make up to 4 teams to go head to head with each other. Chaos is your standard death match mode and with the unique maps which offer a lot of diversity and scope will prove to make some interesting matches indeed. Steal the Sample- is a capture the flag game type with the option of being able to pass the sample to team mates. This approach should lead to some cool tactics being employed should you work properly as a team here.
What is probably the most intriguing of the multi player modes is the awesome sounding Predator mode which I’m sure many of you are aware of the film and character it is based on. A group of soldiers have to make it from one point on the map to another but for them to get to where they are going means having to pass through the predator’s territory. The predator is fully maxed out with abilities and if player are good they can wipe out the entire squad with ease. What is called for here is complete trust with your fellow team mates and some tactical team elements if you are to survive.
Worth Getting then?
Far Cry Instincts is going to be a massive beast of a game when it is released on the 30th September this year. Gamers who are looking for something different compared to the tactical warfare shooters will do well to have this game in their collection as a perfect contrast to that style of play. After playing the demo and seeing how well the game has made the transition to Xbox, I am very impressed indeed and I think you will be as well. Far Cry Instincts offers something different to what is already out there and whilst games like Rainbow Six 3 Lockdown continue where previous games left off; Far Cry Instincts promises an entirely new gaming experience which I must say, shouldn’t be missed. There is something here for everyone and I think this game is going to be a massive success. 30th of September is the day.
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