I didn't know much about this game when I popped the demo into my Xbox - other than the fact that it was the console sibling of the critically acclaimed FPS on the computer - but now I know a lot more about this title thanks to my trip to the island. I learned that the graphics are great, the setting is cool, storytelling is pretty neat, and that it has a lot to fix (mainly enemy AI) before it becomes a great game.

Far Cry Instincts tells the story (at least what I know of the story so far) of Jack Carver, a tour-boat operator, who gets his boat destroyed by mercenaries and finds himself looking for his lost passenger and fighting for survival against the same mercenaries that tried to kill him in the first place. What exactly are these mercenaries doing on this island? By the loading screen it appears to do something with mutating people with plants and what not. I'm not sure of this exactly though.

The demo starts off with a tutorial level where you must make it to a crashed tanker truck and learn the controls that you will be using for the duration of the game. A helicopter is flying over, checking for survivors, so you have to make a break for it. Run, jump in, and watch as you swim through some of the prettiest water effects you've ever seen in a video game. Once you get in the tanker things get a little worse. It is dark in that tanker and that means you can't see the things you really need to see to advance. The game tells you to climb up a ladder, but it is hard to pinpoint the ladder since it is black on black. You'll eventually get lucky and work your way up it. Make for the exit, learning to crouch (click the left thumbstick) and go prone (holding the thumbstick in longer) in the process, and soon you are climbing vines and being taught how to hunt your prey.

If you are crouched and prone you will be seen less and make less noise. The game tells you to sneak up to a mercenary, click the B-button, and perform a stealth kill. You flick open your switchblade and stab them for an instant kill. The game also tells you how to set environmental traps - using a selectable branch to pull back and to throw a rock in its place to spring it on a bad guy - but the truth is I never found a branch I could select or even had a need for the feature for that matter. The enemy AI is just way too dumb to need to do something so tricky and sneaky. You'll eventually make it through the tutorial level and then the real game starts to take over.

Let's get some generic stuff out of the way before we move on. You always know where to go thanks to your radar and a little blue dot that shows you where your next important stop is. Thankfully this blue dot feature is implemented or else you would easily get lost in these vast open island areas. A neat twist with the radar is that your enemies don't show up unless you know they are there. If you spot an enemy walking about and you can actually see them, then they will appear on your radar as a green dot. Green dot means you are safe, yellow dots means they are alert, and a red dot means they are coming for you. The binoculars you get during the second part of the demo help track the enemies that much more effectively.

The graphics are very nice to look at. The water looks beautiful, the vegetation is diverse (if still all green), the lighting effects bloom and shine like the real life counterpoints, and the sounds of the wildlife, the wind, yourself running and the enemies are all also top notch. Besides the fact that the island is teeming with mercenaries wanting to kill you, the island setting definitely looks like a place you would want to spend a vacation at.

Controls are typical of a FPS: left thumbstick moves you and clicking it in makes crouching decisions, the right thumbstick moves your gun and sight, A button jumps, right trigger shoots, etc. If you've played a FPS on the Xbox there is a good chance you will know how to control this game from the get go.

Okay, so the second part of the demo starts and you get to play it like you would play a normal level. Sneak along a beach, stabbing or popping mercenaries in the head with a single bullet from your silenced gun, or hide in the brush for those nice stealth kills. It is here where the game starts to become not so pretty. There is one point where two guards are likely to be found close to each other: steady your aim, shoot one in the head, and they go down like the snap of a finger. The other nearby guard will shout in alarm, say their buddy is dead, but there is a good chance they will just stand there or either slowly walk towards your direction. What the hell do you think killed your buddy you idiot? The invisible monster from 'Lost'? So yeah, the enemy AI is extremely simple and stupid. I'll pop you in the head, line myself up again, and pop you too for just standing there like an idiot. You can also be spotted (either you didn't care if someone saw you or your cover got blown) but sometimes the enemy won't even come to investigate you. I killed one guy outside a house - I was crouched underneath the floorboards - and the bad guy that came to check it out said it must be nothing. Yeah, a dead body on a dirt road is nothing. Walk a little closer and I'll show you what it means to be nothing.

You do get to interact with the environments quite a bit though. You can take an enemy gunboat, cruise up the shoreline or take it up a canal, and shoot any enemies that you see standing around. The only problem with the vehicle controls is that you can't drive and shoot the weapon at the same time. You'll have to drive forward, switch to gun, and hope that your boat doesn't float into a wall you can't get off of. Another bit of interaction comes at a compound where you can explode a barrel near something that looks highly destructive and a resulting explosion will cause this massive crane thing to fall on the housing and cause all the guards inside to be crushed and killed. I discovered this by accident by shooting the barrel while inside said housing. I learned my lesson needless to say.

The coolest part of the preview was the vehicle chase through the jungle. At one point you have to hijack a jeep and crash it through the gates of a compound. Enemies will shoot at you, other jeeps will chase you, and a helicopter will take shots at you from above while shooting missiles at trees and boulders to block your advance. It is really thrilling to wonder as you are driving whether you will make it under that falling tree or jump far enough across that bridge to land safely on the other side. The demo ends with said chase through the jungle as you attempt to cross a bridge after it was exploded.

The preview movies show that the game will feature supernatural elements and even supernatural powers, but none of this was implemented in the preview I got to play.

I'll say this about the game