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 Genuinely
excited about playing this game, I rushed home from
the store, and rammed it into my Xbox. All excited
at Ubisoft's latest, hopefully, masterpiece. I love
Splinter Cell, and Ghost Recon, and I thought this
would be a happy medium of the two. It's not even
thirty seconds in and it's annoying me.
The
thing is, when I buy a game, I like a big, exciting
opening. All I got with Farcry is an advertisement
for the game. I've bought the game; give me something
that's going to get me buzzing, please? The graphical
quality isn't as good as I've seen Ubisoft produce
before. I could swear the environment rendering is
taken from the Ghost Recon engine, it's so similar.
It's not just that, the brightness, although it does
make a nice change from the usual brown and khaki
setup that most FPS use these days which can be extremely
annoying. In some places the light mapping is so bad
you end up staring at something that is probably capable
of burning out your retinas if you look long enough.
The video sequences are all shot in first person.
This aides the game in some aspects, (complete the
training level, and the game really comes to life!)
In other places, it looks poor, and unprofessional.
But this is my first impression, and I'm about to
get a royal kick in the pants…
The
game play is magnificent. Its fun, it's refreshing,
it's a bloody good laugh in multiplayer. Forget your
usually, 'super serious hero,' Jack Carver is out
to pound, shoot, swipe, and run over what ever and
who ever, he can. The bright and colourful graphics
really come into their own here, making the game more
fun to play than any FPS I've played in a long time.
The enemy A.I. is good. It could be better, and the
descriptions on the box and in the manual promise
you some sort of uber-intelligent A.I. it's not quite
that, but it's not your average no-brainer either.
 The
weapons set up is original, and easy to use, with
the ability to duel wield some weapons. Armour and
health are almost always readily available, and the
incorporation of these into the multiplayer modes
makes for much more exciting and sustained game play.
My only gripe is the grenades. They're useless, and
I find myself having to rely on lucky shots, rather
than tactical usage.
The
level maps are huge, although in some areas extremely
linear. This is the games weakest point. It feels
as though Ubisoft couldn't be bothered. They have
designed and made these huge, beautiful, and intensely
playable maps, and made them so linear, they needn't
have bothered. This and the appalling vehicle control
system, are slowly going to grate on me for a little
while, I can feel it.
That
is until I'm racing through the jungle in a hum-vee,
trying to escape the helicopter that's launching missiles
at me like there's no tomorrow! I was howling with
pleasure as I leapt over the gap in the bridge, engine
roaring. I was screaming in pain when I hit a tree.
I loved the game. Ubisoft have saved themselves once
again by injecting high octane adrenaline rushes at
unexpected moments.
Now
on to the serious stuff, the upper body movement looks
poor in multiplayer mode, the 'predator' mode is a
little too much in some multiplayer games. One of
the things that struck me is the similarity to the
'insane' mode in 'The Suffering.' The predator is
too similar for this to be coincidence, and that bugs
me. Games producers should be coming up with original
ideas, not regurgitating the same old stuff. That's
not to say multiplayer isn't a laugh. It had me in
stitches all night long, and saved me from taking
this game back to the store. The one thing that really
kills it is Ubisoft's track record for lag. This hasn't
been broken, seemingly adhering to the same problems
with Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell. Over eight people
in a room and you can expect some, sometimes, game
devastating problems. That doesn't make it all bad
though. If you enjoy FPS online games, you're sure
to love this. Just make sure your connection speeds
jacked right up! Another winning point of the multiplayer
mode is the map editing. The possibilities here are
endless, and with enough patience some real killer
maps can be produced and shared with your mates.
 With
it's cheesy American one liners (think, 'yippee ki-ya'
from Diehard and you're on the right tracks!) it's
intriguing storyline, it's amazingly beautiful graphics,
and it's fun, 'blast away' game play, I think Farcry:
Instincts is worth buying, but if I where you, I'd
wait for it to drop down in price a little first.
It's good, but it's not worth £34.99. Over all,
I enjoyed this game immensely, and it's only the little
things that get annoying. If you can over look those,
and the fact they could have been fixed during the
port process, this game will give any honest FPS fan
hours of pleasure. It's built in map editor is sure
to make its multiplayer mode hours of endless fun
for anyone.
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