In-stinks

Oops, as an old completist, I actually missed a game in the Far Cry-series when I jumped from the first to the second game. It's Far Cry Instincts, the Xbox version of the first island-Far Cry. The reason is that it was too hardware-hungry to run on consoles with its open maps. Accordingly, the original game was remodeled by Ubisoft Montreal and made more linear, a little like every gamemaster does at some point with his pen & paper adventures, so that the players can finally make progress. The planned PS2 and GameCube versions, on the other hand, were canceled.

The protagonist Jack Carver was not only given customized levels, but also a few superhuman abilities such as an enhanced jump or melee skills - why not? It was probably a good fit for the game, whose story I have no idea about. Knowing the developer Crytek, I'm guessing that there was something about genetic mutation and the like in the PC-Far Cry . The fact that you play with super soldiers instead of 'real' people was something of a trademark of the Germans (just look at Crysis).

Games from the Far Cry-series

Far Cry (2004)

Far Cry Instincts (2005)

Far Cry 2 (2008)

Much talking, very little said: so far we're on course. Let's continue with the soundtrack. The music comes from Austrian composer Paul Haslinger, who is primarily active in the film industry. In the video game sector, however, he primarily composes for military shooters and most people will be familiar with his work for Rainbow Six Siege (2015). However, I first came to appreciate him in 2008 with his extremely listenable score for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2.

For Far Cry Instinct and its sequel Evolution (Xbox), released in 2006, as well as its simultaneously released Xbox 360 version (Predator), Haslinger takes the generic route. Anyone who has ever played a modern military shooter will recognize familiar sounds here: fast tabla drumming, shrill electric guitars - dramatic adrenaline rushes. This makes the adaptation very different from Tom Bärtschi's music for the PC original, which was a wild mix of genres and didn't really fit the setting for me.

With Instinct , on the other hand, the trope pointer swings more in the direction of Call of Duty instead of Battlefield, simply because the island setting demands more jungle instead of grandeur. In order to do justice to the man-fighting-alone-in-the-jungle demands of the game, there are occasional vocals (Far Cry Instincts [Gamerip] 01, Far Cry Instincts [Gamerip] 03), which give the score a slight Native American flavor. However, as this is not so clearly distinguishable from the Middle East with many composers, the 4th track, for example, with its dramatic build-up and electric guitar, seems like action-packed excerpts from the first Assassin’s Creed. Nice!

Because the 30 tracks are a gamerip, the album naturally represents the completely raw experience of the game's music. By that I mean that we don't get a tailored mix, but exactly what we hear in the game. Many of the tracks are at a consistent level for the sake of loopability, which can be fun, but also leads to uniformity. In addition, some of the samples are very repetitive, which can be annoying. As a result, none of the songs stand out for me, even though I was impressed by the general quality. In the end, however, this album remains something for adrenaline junkies who don't set great store by memorable melodies.