Far Cry Instincts Predator (360) re-review

The original "HD Collection"

     Now anyone who has been on here before can clearly see that I've reviewed this exact game before (exactly 2 years ago this day to be precise). Well after all that time, I look back at that review and noticed how poorly written it was. This was both do to my refusal to review what the hell I just wrote, and the fact that at the time, I barely scratched the surface of the game while pretending I was an expert at it. Well as of now I have beaten both of the campaigns, used the map editor, and played multiplayer. I have seen everything this game has to offer me, and I have also played more games released around the same time. In other words, I can now give this game a fair review. Without further delay, here is my review of Far Cry Instincts Predator for the Xbox 360.
     Far Cry Instincts Predator (or FCIP as I'll be calling it throughout this review) is a 2006 FPS released for the Xbox 360 fairly early in its lifespan. The game in itself is a collection of two original Xbox games; Far Cry Instincts (Released in late 2005) and Far Cry Instincts Evolution (Released in 2006, on the same day as FCIP). Pretty much all the Ubisoft did was shove the two single player games, Evolution's multiplayer, and a few improvements into one disc. The factors basically equate to a game that has to be looked at as both what it is (pretty much an HD collection before those were even a thing) as compared to some of its competition at the time. Was this glorified last-gen game worth your time? I should gamers have just got Perfect Dark Zero or Ghost Recon: Advance Warfighter? Lets find out...

Presentation

     Well as far as presentation goes, the whole thing is pretty much identical to Evolution (which is to be expected as both of them were developed at the same time). The game doesn't even try to streamline the two campaigns despite taking place one after the other. I guess this was to allow fans who already beat the original one to go straight for the evolution one. This came to a problem when the game was first released however, as players couldn't go directly to the second campaign without either first beating the original, or using a cheat code. This has been corrected with a patch however, so as long as you have internet, you're fine.
     The plot is honestly surprisingly well thought out for an FPS. While its nothing really spacial, you can still tell the developers put some effort in making sure gamers want to know what goes on, and it makes sense. Basically you play as a sarcastic, lazy guy named Jack Carver. While driving a paying customer out to an island, his boat gets destroyed by mercenaries and he is forced to swim away dodging them. You eventually find an ear piece in which you talk to someone named Doyle who leads you through most of the game. You eventually get captured and injected with a substance that gives you animal like abilities. The entire first campaign is you slowly gaining your powers, while the evolution one, despite its name, doesn't exactly give you many new ones. Like I said, while its no award winning plot, it still outclasses far too many shooters of its time (and even today).

Graphics 

Multiplayer in action

 In terms of graphics, we have to look at the game in three separate parts; campaign 1 (Instincts), campaign 2 (Evolution) and multiplayer. Reason being each one honestly has noticeable differences. Lets start from the lowest, multiplayer.The multiplayer graphics really pull back the draw distance (thus making some custom maps a bit difficult to pull off). The background are far lower rez than in single player. Finally the lighting has less of a pop than the single player game. All these changes were made to promise a steady framerate, and thats exactly where this area succeeds. Throughout online, I have never had an issue with lag of any kind, and in multiplayer, that is what really counts. Bravo Ubisoft!

Instincts in action

     Next in line is the original campaign, Instincts. Since this game was originally developed for the original Xbox, Crytek had the powerful but dated hardware to work with. In other words, outside of beefing up the draw distance and resolution, it looks exactly the same as it did.This means you're gonna see some funny looking trees, plastic people, and some occasionally low resolution textures. While it doesn't really look extremely bad, people weren't gonna wow their friends who owned last gen consoles at the time with this part.

Evolution in action

     Finally we have the cream of the crop, Evolution Campaign. This one was made with the next gen hardware in mind, thus making it a much better looking game. the lighting is far more pronounced, the textures (excluding the end of the game) are higher resolution, and the weapons have a real shine to them.While the graphics here would honestly have a hard time stacking up to the likes of Kameo, Project Gotham Racing 3, or even Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath on the original xbox, they still hold their own better than the first campaign or multiplayer.

Xbox

360

     And if you really wanted to know the difference between evolution on the 360 and on the original xbox, heres a comparison.

Sound
  
     The audio experience in FCIP is surprisingly well done. There are three things I want to sounds good in an FPS; guns, atmosphere, and music. FCIP almost completely succeeds on all fronts (with some minor hiccups). With the exception of the base pistol, weapons sound beefy and powerful (even when they're not, though we'll get to that later). You really get that feeling of firing a projectile perfectly here. Since the game takes place in a tropical environment, the expected chirps of birds, rustle of the waves, and movement of the wild grass is all there. When there isn't any music or gun fights, you can really close your eyes and visualize being there....though you may get killed if you do that too long so be careful. Finally the music has the perfect "summer blockbuster" type sound to it with typical action rock rhythms. Its a good break from the overly orchestrated soundtracks we hear today. Voice acting is surprisingly well done too, though you will find yourself laughing at the screams of the enemies when you feral attack them (that may sound disturbing, but trust me you will laugh). My only gripe about the sound is the cry jack makes when he gets hit doesn't really change much based on how hurt you are. It can be frustrating when you get 90% of your health taken away and he makes the same sound he would've made if you only lost 5%.

Gameplay

     Now lets get to the reason you would buy this game, the gameplay. Again we need to split this up into the same three sections we did with the graphics , but first lets just give a general lowdown of what every mode has to offer. I think the closest game I can think of in terms of general control would be Halo (seeing as it was developed for the Xbox, thats not much of a surprise).  The jump, crouch, shoot, grenade, melee, reload/pick-up, and grenade selection buttons are all the same as Halo. Weapon selection is done on the D-Pad (with a three weapon system being used) and most feral related abilities are activated with the Y button. Many gamers today may not like the "loose" feeling the game has, by that I mean Jack doesn't really feel like he has a whole lot of weight to either himself or his weapons. Most weapons allow duel wielding too. 
     First lets start with some specific aspects of the Instincts campaign. First time players may not notice this, but the beginning is REALLY difficult compared to the end. This is mostly because abilities such as a one hit one kill melee attack, regenerating health, and thermal vision are not available to you yet. This means you have to play the into using a lot of stealth and sniping. This is fine for the first half since its pretty much a training part, but damn does it get frustratingly difficult after a while (epically since you're required to use the weak pistol for a while). The level design is fairly linear in this campaign. While you will find sections that have a couple of different paths, there really isn't any way to explore (unlike the 2004 original). Enemies are often called extremely stupid by reviewers, and they're 100% right. However, they never point out that this game is often very difficult because of them. I don't know why, but I died a lot throughout this game, and the enemies were usually the reason. They always seemed to snap right to my head anytime they say me. Finally there is a big issue with the auto aim in this one. it snaps to the outer most part of the enemy, thus making head shots really difficult. It also makes turning a pain when there are multiple enemies around. 
     Thankfully, the evolution campaign fixes many of the issues, while creating a few more. The auto aim is thankfully far less broken, making turning feel much MUCH better. The level design is also far more open, and back tracking is actually needed later on in the game. But with all the good comes some bad. This campaign seems to love trapping you in a small area and then forcing you to do a semi horde mode at the most annoying points. I for one love horde modes, but this game throws them in completely randomly, and its gets frustrating being forced to fight through them when you just want to continue.
     Both campaigns have a fairly annoying checkpoint system that seems to always pack one annoying section way at the end, thus forcing you to mow through 100 enemies just to get snipped 2 seconds before the checkpoint.  They also both have vehicles, but I any recommend using them when they're required. Reason? The control pretty bad. Why they didn't map accelerate to the right trigger I will never know.
     Multiplayer is apparently the reason a lot of people go this game to begin with. While I can't recommend it just for it, the feature does kick a lot of ass. While I hate the player and ranked match bullshit a crap tone of games seem to use, match making is easy to find even to this day (though only both going to player matches since no one does ranked matched anymore). Its a pretty standard fair, but predator powerup and a strong map community makes this pretty sweet. The standard game modes are all there as well. This is all boosted by a strong map maker included with the game. The only limites here are really space and what the game provides you, as I've seen some pretty unique maps I didn't even know could be made on here. Probably the best thing about the editor is the fact that you can simple press back to go into a gameplay mode to test your map in first person. There is no load time at all, so it takes away the fiddling many map editors have. Finally the multiplayer has no unlockables, so there is nothing to work up to, but its also fine that everything can be used right off the back. 

Overall

     With Far Cry 2 and 3 already out in stores, is it a good idea to pick up an overly glorified HD collection? I would honestly say yes. Its often on sale on Xbox Live and I picked up my physical copy for a small $6 at a pawn shop. While the game does have a pretty hefty amount of problems (both ones it had on day one, and some that got worse do to aging) its still a fun romp of FPS fun that can excite a far cry fan. I honestly recommend using cheats though, as it gives it a sweet, almost quake like feel. Achievements are a pain in the ass though since no one does Ranked matches for some stupid reason. Overall, pick this up if it sounds like your thing.