Far Cry Instincts (Xbox, 2005)

FarCry Instincts is the first FarCry game for the Xbox, with the original award-winning game being designed for the PC.

I was excited to get this title, as it featured not only single-player campaign modes but also a multiplayer online mode and, unlike any XBox game before it that I know of, the ability to create your own maps. These maps can then be shared with anyone on XBox Live and played online.

However, once I started playing this title, the shortcomings became obvious very quickly. I will focus on the multiplayer aspect of the game for now. First, the matchmaking system is nowhere near as good as Halo 2. For a game that came after Halo 2, you expect it to be at least as good, if not better.

You can also create your own matchmaking games and specify the terms of that match, such as match type, number of players, number of predators, weapon types, etc. But it seems as though the developer, a French company called Montreal Studios, left many things half-finished. For instance, you can place flags in your maps, but there is no capture the flag mode. In their booklet that describes the weapon types, it says the Sniper rifle has a 3x zoom mode and the Scout rifle has a 2x zoom mode, but in the game they both only zoom twice. The Sniper rifle does not zoom 3 times, although it is a bit more powerful than the Scout rifle.

There are many more examples of this type of stuff but I won't bore you with them here. The bottom line is this title could have used a lot more polish before being released for $50 a pop.

Single player mode is hardly worth mentioning. It's ok, but it's mostly the same stuff over and over. You constantly run into the types of bad guys, and you constantly use the same methods to kill them. In fact, at one point you meet a "boss" type character, a huge mutated man with what looks like three heads. However, you run into this character at least two more times in the game, and one one level they throw two of them into the mix, just for fun. Come on, can't you get more original than that? Don't just use the same old guys over and over. It's boring.

The single player campaign is short, moderately entertaining, and pretty easy to beat. In fact, the end is so anti-climatic it makes you really upset when you realize you just beat the game.

Buy this game for the ability to create your own maps and play with friends. Oh, on a side note you need to know that you do not have access to all the items in the regular game when you create maps, but a select few. It's still fun, but more brush sets would really make it worthwhile.

A decent game, but buy it on sale.