Far Cry Instincts Predator (360) Review

Well this is kind of funny. I create this blog and a post saying I'll be doing a lot of reviews, and I end up not doing one until now. Well I just got myself a new laptop yesterday and I am loving the keyboard.So, I decided to grab a game from my 360 collection that I bought a few weeks back and guess I'll be reviewing it. Far Cry Instincts Predator is basically a slightly enhanced pot of Far Cry Instincts and Far Cry Instincts Evolution for the xbox. While Predator is a very good game with an amazing amount of content, its defiantly not worth purchasing if you own both the originals.

Presentation 

The game starts off with these slick menus (taken from Far Cry Instincts Evolution) which allows you to play two seperate stories, the instincts story and the evolution. Unless you have the latest 360 firmare, you CAN'T play the evolution story without beating the instincts story or getting a cheat code. While thats not a big deal, its still pretty annoying. Espically since most people who bought this game when i came out got it just for the evolution part (since this actually came out the same day as evolution did on the xbox).I'm not gonna go into the story to much since its pretty cool and I don't want to spoil it, but basically you play as a dude named Jack Carver who is basically gets captured and gets some stuff injected into him. The stuff gives him these weird super human abilities that make him more like an animal.

Ya, Taste the Draw Distance! 

Graphics

Instincts and Evolution look amazing on xbox. I don't think anyone thought a game could look THAT good on a last gen console. They had amazing lighting, great draw distance, and just amazing environments and water. On 360, the game still looks amazing, if you keep in mind its a port. There really weren't many upgrades made to the game. They did change the ratio to wide screen (though i think you could on the original to), some lighting effects have been beefed up. But, there are many things that are still bland. The characters still look like there made of clay, the trees still have a funny look to them, and zooming in with a sniper rifle in the grass is pretty funny looking. The game still looks good for a 360 game (which is a huge complement for the xbox) and it maintains a great framerate. The game has a great draw distance. so expect yourself to stop at certaain moments and just gasp at the beauty of the environment.

Sound

The sound of the game works great. Nice ambient jungle sounds when its quiet (birds chirping, you stepping on dead leaves, oh is so nice). The music pops in during moments, and when it does it does good (lol i worded that so bad). The guns have a good kick to them (epically the shotguns) however, when your holding two sub machine guns and firing them at the same time, you don't get that kick you would expect. The bad guys can be pretty annoying when they say the same crap over and over. But, the rest of the voice actors make up for that (with lots of juicy swearing, such as "S**T, TURN THAT F*****G THING OFF!").

Gameplay

Feral pwnage!

This game strikes really good (but not perfect) were it counts, the gameplay. First lets start with my LONG paragraph telling you the controls (this whole thing will be like this in case you want to skip it). A allows you to jump, get up while crouching, and roll on your back while crawling. B allows you to do a melee attack and push objects. X allows you to reload or do an action (usually open something enter a vehicle, or pick up a weapon). Y allows you to do you feral run or (if you press and hold) activate feral visions. RT allows you to shoot or instal a trap. LT allows you to throw a rock or grenade (or use the handbrake in a vehicle). LB toggle's rocks or grenades. RB toggle's weapons or traps. D pad up zooms in with a sniper rifle (or holding it allows you to use binoculars). D pad left selects your primary weapon, double tapping it allows you to  duel weild (if you have two, this only applies to some weapons). D pad right selects your secondary weapon, and double clicking it has the same effect as D pad left. D pad down selects your special weapon. Left thumbstick moves (clicking it allows you to crouch, holding it allows you to crawl). Right thumbstick looks (holding it zooms in). Finally, start pauses and back shows your current objectives.
     Well that was fun lol. well lets get into some cool aspects about the gameplay. Like I said before, you have these animal like abilities that make the game fun as hell! First you got claws, you can run up to people and claw the crap out of them, oh its so fun. Later you can get more, but I wont spoil it for ya. You have the ability to drive vehicles. While I feel they could have mabe the controls better while driving, it still pretty fun. One HUGE annoyance i have with the controlls are they are exactly the same as they were on xbox. Now the controls are fine on xbox, don't get me wrong, but the fact that the 360 controller has 4 shoulder buttions and they don't make proper use of them pisses me off. Also, the enemy AI is pretty stupid. You will see them either not noticing you or shooting there  brains out the second they see you. But its flaws arn't to bad when you consider how generally fun the rest of the game it. Theres also a multiplayer mode for xbox live. It supports the games map editor. I can't really go into  this to  much since I only played it once. However, beware that if you don't have extra maps downloaded, it will be hard to find matches.

Overall

The map editor will add some lasting appeal

This game has so much content. For the price of 1 game you get 2 great ones. Despite its flaws this is still one of the best shooters I've played. Then again, I had both instincts and evolution before i got this. I paid only $6 for this at a pawn shop, so you should be able to find this cheap these days. Like I said, its not a perfect game, however, for the prices and the amount of content, its really worth picking it up (if you don't already have instincts or evolution that is).