This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Brian Mohr.

Since the launch of the Xbox 360 last November, game releases have been few and far between, but one publisher has been getting their product out to the masses. Ubisoft has seen a lot of early success on the next-generation with the release of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and even moderately with their flying shooter Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII. The company has one more shooter on the market this spring in Far Cry Instincts Predator.

In the game, players take on the role of Jack Carver, an ex-Navy commando who charters a boat to a stranded island in the Pacific. Players get two separate campaigns to play. In the first campaign, gamers investigate the island and its inhabitants which include human-animal hybrids. Once you delve deeper into the mysteries, Jack eventually becomes a hybrid and gains fearsome animal powers.

The other campaign is a little shorter than the original, but of course keeps Jack on the island. This time he heads there with a woman named Kade who goes missing. He in turn battles through the jungle, fighting militia, hybrids, and more to find her.

The greatest thing about Far Cry Instincts Predator is the inclusion of both the Predator and Evolution storylines. This essentially is like two games in one and really provides gamers with two completely different, but coherent stories. Sadly the Evolution story isn’t available until you beat Predator. Thankfully though Ubisoft pleased fans by providing a cheat code, “GiveMeItAll”, allowing players to choose which story they’d like to follow first.

Though it almost goes without saying, the gameplay in Far Cry for the 360 is still very much intact. Players have the ability to kill their opponents in a variety of ways including the use of traps, knives and dual wielding weapons. The Evolution campaign does include a few new weapons like a blowgun and pipe bomb. Besides the weapons, players will eventually gain feral abilities that allow you to sprint and attack like a cheetah and even sniff out your opposition. Both Predator and Evolution feature a variety of vehicles throughout the game including boats, ATVs, gliders and more. Other gameplay improvements in the series include more save points, meaning there is less repetition if you die, and slightly larger maps.

The controls in Instincts are very easy for anyone to pick up and play. Moving is as easy as utilizing the analog sticks and the trigger buttons allow you to shoot your opponents. The D-pad is utilized to cycle through weaponry, up to three weapons at a time. You also have the ability to crawl and crouch for stealth.

The sound isn’t exceptional in Predator, but it is decent. The soundtrack is more exciting and engaging when you’re in action, but is hardly memorable. Meanwhile, the other sound effects including environmental noises, voice work, and weapon effects are all pretty good and sound realistic. The environmental sounds are particularly good when you hear insects buzzing by and waterfalls flowing.

One last thing that definitely keeps the game exciting for awhile is the multiplayer experience. Gamers can play with up to four people on split-screen or with 16-players through Xbox Live. The online database features five different game modes including chaos, team chaos, predator, steal the sample, and seek and secure. Chaos is simply Far Cry deathmatch while steal the sample is obviously capture the flag. Predator is a mode where one player is an animal-human hybrid and the others aren’t. Finally, seek and secure is essentially a territories mode. Overall the online experience is a lot of fun and includes 23 total maps that are quite varied and appealing.

If that isn’t enough, players are also able to create their own maps, meaning that there are almost an unlimited number of online gaming options available. Maps are much easier to create than on the original Xbox release and feature more options.

First and foremost, the game’s A.I. is moronic at best. Most of the enemies you’ll face don’t make a habit of heading for cover and instead stand still out in the open, guns blazing. Grenades continue the problems as often times the enemies will literally dive towards the bomb. Though the A.I. improves later in the game with some human-animal hybrids you’ll face, overall the competition is very poor in both campaign modes.

Secondly, the graphics in the game are decent, but hardly worthy of mention on a next-generation console. Though the game in general is pretty and stunning - mostly because of water in the tropical environment - the graphics didn’t see much of an upgrade on the 360. Things like trees, grass and even other characters don’t look well defined and are poorly textured. And sadly most of the enemies look pretty blocky and physically don’t move very well.

Just a couple other problems that presented themselves in the game are vehicle controls and repetitiveness. Overall the vehicle controls are pretty poor and you’ll find yourself hitting way too many bumps as you drive. This probably isn’t helped by the fact that you can’t change out of the first-person view while driving.

The other problem that drags Far Cry down is the fact that Far Cry Instincts Predator is just about the same game as Far Cry Instincts Evolution, which came out last year on the original Xbox. If you’ve played that version before, you are not missing anything now.

Far Cry Instincts Predator is a solid first-person shooter for the Xbox 360 that provides gamers with two games in one by including last year’s instincts mode as well as the evolution campaign. If that isn’t enough, there is a very impressive online option along with a map editor that keeps the action going for hours.

Despite all that, Far Cry falls a little short particularly in relation to the A.I. and graphics since both aren’t quite up to next-generation expectations. Even still, first-person shooter fans should definitely check out Far Cry Instincts Predator since it is one of the best shooters to date on the Xbox 360.

The A.I. isn’t tha great, but the controls and gameplay are still intact from the original.

Far Cry’s graphics are for the 360, but aren’t quite what we expect out of a next-gen title.

The sound effects and voice work is decent, but it is not too memorable.

Overall the game is still comfortable and fun to play both in campaign and multiplayer modes.

With a map editor, evolution campaign and multiplayer options, there’s plenty to keep you busy.