Far Cry Instincts Predator Review - Xbox 360

The Far Cry series got its start as a meticulously crafted PC shooter that pushed graphical boundaries with gorgeously-rendered jungle environments. Playing Far Cry Vengeance is like seeing Marlo Brando in his sunset years when he became sluggish, ugly and bat crap crazy. It's hard not to feel a little sad seeing a series that held so much promise fall so low. Trying to shoehorn a graphically intensive game like Far Cry Vengeance onto the Wii was a bad idea from the get go. But the Wii's underpowered processing isn't to blame for this crash and burn. Far Cry Vengeance crumbles under its own flimsy storytelling, uninspired action and almost-but-not-quite-there implementation of motion-sensing shooter controls.

Girl Trouble

The game starts with lead Jack Carver bellied up to a beachside bar. In short order he meets a femme fatal named Kade, who leads the gun-toting anti-hero on a series of mis-adventures in the jungles of the Jacutan islands. The chemistry between these two crackles with all the electricity of a tub of margarine. They stumble from one action-packed sequence to another with little rhyme or reason. Often, Carver has to protect Kade from the swarms of enemies out to snuff the two. The whys and wherefores of the pursuit are shady. And the story isn't interesting enough to make you care. When Carver's rival, a super-powered jerk named Semeru, shows up the yarn finally starts to take shape. But the guy's Bela Lugosi-inspired plot to take over the world is so lame that it's hard to give two shakes about where the whole affair is headed.

Point and Die

The big surprise is that the remote and nunchuck controls work. Sorta. Aiming with the Wii remote isn't terribly precise, but sensitivity adjustment makes them workable. The larger problem is that Far Cry Vengeance doesn't really account for the fact that you're playing with gimped inputs. The chunky looking jungles are easy to get turned around in. And enemy snipers target and smoke you faster because they don't have to execute a clumsy forward push of the remote to zoom their sites in on you. For long stretches the controls will work like a charm, making the sticking points all the more frustrating. And just to keep things extra annoying, Carver has superpowers. Certain kills fill the guy up with Predatorine – a substance that, like Midichlorians, makes superpowers more embarrassing than awesome. Carver's supercharged jumps and attacks are even harder to manage with the Wii control scheme. Trading Predatorine for health with a waggle of the nunchuk winds up being the dude's best mutant talent.

Gun Shy

Far Cry Vengeance frustrates because all the game's potential is in full view. There are tons of cool vehicles parked on the beaches and mountain roads of Jacutan. But most of these rides handle like a one-legged Chocobo. Sometimes Carver has choices of several islands to explore, but all the enemies he finds look and sound the same – like Hank Hill's crazy Laotian neighbor. And then there's the issue of the game's looks. When a brand-new game gives you Turok flashbacks you know you're in trouble. Someday a game will get gun play right on the Wii. This isn't it. Far Cry Vengeance is the game that will make you think twice about coming within 100 yards of a first-person shooter on the Wii. 

Article by: Gus Mastrapa
Video produced by: Michael Leffler