Welcome to the FarCry Jungle.

FarCry, released in early 2004 for the PC, was renowned for its amazing graphics, lush tropical atmosphere and its eminently enjoyable single player campaign. As Jack Carver, stranded on a series of remote islands you fought your way through numerous enemy mercenaries to untangle a mysterious plot to genetically engineer human weapons, and escape the island with your life.

After the success of the PC version, it was followed up just over a year later with FarCry Instincts a slightly-tweaked version for the XBOX. Instincts reworked the storyline a little and had Jack infused with various beast-like supernatural powers. Instincts was neither really a sequel nor a port. With enough new content to entice fans to the new platform, while offering essentially the same game, it laid in a gray area of video-gaming value.

The new FarCry Instincts Predator falls into the same grey area as Instincts. Containing the original Instincts campaign as seen on the XBOX, this version for the 360 also includes a new Evolution campaign. If you’ve played Instincts already on the XBOX, the only new content for you will be the Evolution campaign and frustratingly, it’s only available after completing Instincts first.

If considered independently of each other, both the Instincts and Evolution campaigns are of outstanding quality and feature a high degree of action and fun. However, between the two it would be hard not to say the Instincts is the better campaign. Evolution is both shorter length and more straightforward in terms of level and plot design, and the experience feels slightly lacking because of the comparison.

Graphically, FarCry Instincts Predator has almost no rival. Next generation graphics bring the tropical environments to life like never seen before. While not quite up to the standards set by games like Ghost Recon or Kameo, FarCry does feature a wide variety of next-gen upgrades such as the HD resolution and its beautiful water effects which really help draw you into the game.

FarCry Instincts Predator is a great game. Whether it’s a great value for you depends on what else you’ve played in the FarCry series. If you already have Instincts for the XBOX, it’s hard to say if the new Evolution campaign and graphical upgrade are worth the full price. Anyone else shouldn’t think twice about picking up the newest FarCry for the 360, with its excellent storyline, fantastic game play and next generation graphics, its well worth the price of admission.