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Oh dear
By Atty
Every now and then, when the moon is high and the sea boils with an eldritch ferocity, a game comes along that is so foul, so bestial that even The Dark Lord Cthulhu reflexively sicks up into his own mouth and is forced to stir the sky into a frenzied vortex to claw every last copy from the shuddering earth and hurl them deep into the frozen abyss of space.
Well, I may be overstating things slightly, but Far Cry Instincts Evolution is an absolute and unforgivable turd of a game. It's clearly been rushed through development with little thought just so it's release coincides with that of the the Xbox360 version, thereby allowing it to leech off the gentle goodwill of the many Xbox owners who have yet to upgrade.
Want an example? The 'sexy' female lead, Beryl (or something) has a face like a burns victim, and it's not long before she gets her kit off and your eyes are cruelly assaulted by a skin texture that genuinely looks like it was done in Microsoft Paint. Horrendous lighting errors also make her shambolic body flicker with huge black bruises.
Out of the chip-pan and into the fire.
Yes, yes, I know graphics aren't everything, but it just gives you an idea of how little effort has gone into things. Admittedly the outdoor locales are fairly typical of Far Cry - large and not entirely awful, but thats the only positive thing I can say about them. Foliage is definitely the new fog.
While they may sound intriguing, the trap setting and feral powers are almost totally redundant, eclipsed by dull gunplay that feels flat and clumsy but is still the fastest way of killing the badly animated man-beasts. Sadly, the bad guys who patrol the island seem to be lost in a perpetual scripted stupor and, when roused, show a suicidal contempt for common sense. Isn't the original Farcry often held up as an example of excellent AI? Why, then, is this game populated by lifeless plastic corpses who lack any concept of stealth, self-preservation or teamwork?
Surrounded by thick, concealing vegetation, he unflinchly defended one square foot of exposed underbrush. Genius.
Ok, I accept we are in definite end-of-life territory with the Xbox, but surely that's when experienced developers are meant to deliver their best work? The only thing that FCIE resembles is brown, peppered with hay and can usually be found coming out of a horses bottom.
April 2006
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