The original Far Cry, when released almost three years ago, turned out to be little more than a plain Jane shooter dressed in a fancy frock. Cutting-edge visuals aside, it failed to bring anything new to the party, and as such the franchise never entered into gamers’ hearts in the way Doom, Halo or Half-Life did.

In the intervening time, the franchise had made its home on Microsoft’s Xbox, before coming to the Nintendo Wii in the shape of Far Cry: Vengeance. Unfortunately, this installment of the series has turned up the party wearing the exact same frock as three years ago, and those blocky shoulder-pads really do stand out against the competition’s more svelte little numbers.

A tropical, jungle environment is always going to be more taxing on hardware than the standard corridor shooter, and this is certainly the case here. Vegetation is big and blocky and rock-faces are ill-defined. And without visual appeal, Far Cry shows itself up to be a bit mundane.

The good points? The controls are the best attempt yet on the Wii. The awful dialogue and plot will raise a laugh or two. The application of feral abilities is by-in-large well done.

However, the game-play is mostly a case of follow-the-yellow-dust road, and straying from the beaten track never offers any reward. There are some drivable vehicles scattered about the archipelago which acts as the backdrop, but the controls are too loose and the vehicles physics too lightweight. And that just about sums up the game itself: too lightweight, too rigid in following the beaten track.