A goodly long time ago, I played the PC version of Farcry, which pits our hero against an island paradise full of mercs and mutants. I liked it well enough that I was excited to hear news of a sequel being released, but at the same time appalled that it was for the XBox only. These kinds of games really do work a ton better on a PC, the success of Halo notwithstanding. Still, I eventually saw that it was to be bundled with yet another sequel on the 360, so I grabbed the pair and have eventually played Farcry: Instincts, the first of the two sequels.

Here’s the thing, though. It’s not a sequel after all. It’s a remake. And I’ve already played the original, and on a PC, no less. So, y’know: better. Even worse, the second sequel (although, actually, the only sequel, I suppose) cannot be touched until you’ve played through this remake. So, I buckled down and went for it. Thus, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that it was not a straight port of the game. There are definitely some new ways to play the game (the setting of traps and the more detailed biological changes from the mad scientist’s injection leap immediately to mind), and they help to disguise the fact that the story isn’t quite as compelling this time.

Because, let’s face it, you can’t very well write up a video game that draws this heavily from the Island of Dr. Moreau and only pay lip service to the inevitable rebellion of the creatures. The original game did a great job here, drawing the collapse of Krieger’s ordered society out over multiple chapters. So I guess I’m saying I’m torn. It was nice to play a different game instead of being made to play the same one twice in two years, but it was disappointing to play such a generic game after the relative (and possibly intrinsic) brilliance of the original.