Ubisoft's new open-world mercenary shooter has some...quirks. Here's a few tips on getting around them.
Far Cry 2 came out this week, and I've been playing it for the last couple of days as I work on the review. The game has...well, it's rubbed me the wrong way a few times. Not long after starting out, I began getting frustrated by a number of things.
My guns kept jamming.
Dudes were attacking me nonstop.
I kept dying a lot.
I really dig the game's general concept--you're a mercenary in an arid open-world setting, free to take on side jobs, form alliances, and increase your notoriety--but those aspects of the gameplay were just getting me down. After playing a few more hours, it's starting to grow on me. Here's a few basic tips you might not be aware of when first starting out that might make your time in Africa a little easier.
Unlock New Weapons, Pronto
An untimely weapon jam can be disastrous.Dead guerillas drop plenty of tasty weapons--AK-47s, MAC-10s, RPGs, the works. But the game's weapon durability system makes them useless for more than a few minutes. The dirtier a weapon looks, the less time it has left before it jams. And you really don't want a weapon jamming in the middle of a firefight, because enemies tend to gang up on you in fours and fives.
To get good, reliable weapons, you need to unlock and then buy them at a weapon vendor. The game will lead you to one vendor during the tutorial, but you need to go back later on and pick up specific missions from him and other salesmen to unlock any guns worth buying. The catch is, the vendor only appears when you don't have any active missions pending.
So head to the little gun icons on your map ASAP; those represent the vendor locations. The gun merchant missions are pretty fun--they usually revolve around you blowing up convoys of weapon shipments. After polishing off two missions, I'd unlocked an MP-5, RPG-7, and silenced Makarov, which were all way better than the stuff I started out with. The game gets a lot more fun with better weapons.
Lastly, every vendor has an armory next to it that will always contain fresh versions of all the weapons you own. Those will last you for three or four missions before they start getting messed up, and you can always swing by an armory and get new ones anytime.
Roll With an Armed Vehicle
The buggy won't cut it. Go for the turret.There aren't a lot of vehicles in the game that I've seen so far, but by far the most valuable is a ubiquitous open-air jeep that has a mounted machine gun turret on the back. Stick with this thing as often as you can because it will save you in a lot of firefights.
Firefights happen more often than you might like. There's a lot of driving required to get to most mission objectives, and you'll get attacked every time you hit the road, either by passing guard stations or just people rolling up on you and not leaving well enough alone. No matter where you're going, you're going to get harassed, at least as early on in the game as I am.
The best thing about the armed jeep is that you can hit the jump button to immediately jump from the driver's seat up into the turret and mow enemies down with abandon. I was getting worked over on foot when I'd get ambushed. But in the turret, I could kill all my attackers really fast, even though I was taking a few hits due to being a sitting duck up there.
Pursue the Buddy Objectives
Buddy objectives can make the missions a lot more interesting.You've got a primary and a secondary buddy at any given time (as long as they haven't died, which they don't respawn from; you'll have to find another one in that case). After you pick up story missions, your main bro will call you with a plan to increase the rewards from your current task, or at least make it simpler in some way. It also increases your history and level with your buddy, though I'm not sure how that changes things just yet.
In one scenario, I had to destroy some greenhouses belonging to the enemy faction. Before heading down there, my buddy had me head to a chemical facility, steal some industrial defoliant, and deliver it to him. When I hit the plantation where the greenhouses were located, my buddy buzzed the field and dropped the chemicals, removing all the foliage and thus all the cover the enemies had to hide behind.
Another mission had me attempting to ambush an enemy convoy and destroy their supply trucks. The buddy option tipped me off to the location of the convoy's informant, who I intimidated into giving the group false coordinates. This led them into a village, instead of the original open area, where they were sitting ducks.
The alternative buddy mission usually involves more fighting and carries the risk of your buddy dying. But sometimes you get a reward; I got a pretty nice SUV out of one of them. And you gain more reputation, allowing you to increase your rep level faster. I haven't figured out what reputation level affects yet, but I can only assume boosting it is a good thing.
Get Your Other Buddy to Save Your Ass
When you bite it, this guy is your best friend. There's no auto-save in the game, s o it's no fun to put a lot of time in on a mission and then get smoked by an ambush. Luckily, your secondary buddy's sole function so far seems to be to save you when you go down.
Instead of getting a "Load Game?" prompt, your vision will start to fade back in as your comrade hoists you up and drags you along while smoking fools that get in his way. After a minute of this, you'll be back in the fight with some weapons and a modicum of health. Much nicer than a game over when you're almost done with a mission.
The only catch is that it seems like you have to prime your buddy for rescue after he's done it once. Seek him out at a safe house and talk to him to ready him for a rescue, and then you should have that ace up your sleeve if you happen to take a quick dirt nap.
Far Cry 2 isn't a perfect game, but I've been compelled to keep playing it despite its occasional headaches. I'll be back with a review next week; hopefully these tips will help you a little in the meantime.
Far Cry 2 came out this week, and I've been playing it for the last couple of days as I work on the review. The game has...well, it's rubbed me the wrong way a few times. Not long after starting out, I began getting frustrated by a number of things.
My guns kept jamming.
Dudes were attacking me nonstop.
I kept dying a lot.
I really dig the game's general concept--you're a mercenary in an arid open-world setting, free to take on side jobs, form alliances, and increase your notoriety--but those aspects of the gameplay were just getting me down. After playing a few more hours, it's starting to grow on me. Here's a few basic tips you might not be aware of when first starting out that might make your time in Africa a little easier.
Unlock New Weapons, Pronto
An untimely weapon jam can be disastrous.Dead guerillas drop plenty of tasty weapons--AK-47s, MAC-10s, RPGs, the works. But the game's weapon durability system makes them useless for more than a few minutes. The dirtier a weapon looks, the less time it has left before it jams. And you really don't want a weapon jamming in the middle of a firefight, because enemies tend to gang up on you in fours and fives.
To get good, reliable weapons, you need to unlock and then buy them at a weapon vendor. The game will lead you to one vendor during the tutorial, but you need to go back later on and pick up specific missions from him and other salesmen to unlock any guns worth buying. The catch is, the vendor only appears when you don't have any active missions pending.
So head to the little gun icons on your map ASAP; those represent the vendor locations. The gun merchant missions are pretty fun--they usually revolve around you blowing up convoys of weapon shipments. After polishing off two missions, I'd unlocked an MP-5, RPG-7, and silenced Makarov, which were all way better than the stuff I started out with. The game gets a lot more fun with better weapons.
Lastly, every vendor has an armory next to it that will always contain fresh versions of all the weapons you own. Those will last you for three or four missions before they start getting messed up, and you can always swing by an armory and get new ones anytime.
Roll With an Armed Vehicle
The buggy won't cut it. Go for the turret.There aren't a lot of vehicles in the game that I've seen so far, but by far the most valuable is a ubiquitous open-air jeep that has a mounted machine gun turret on the back. Stick with this thing as often as you can because it will save you in a lot of firefights.
Firefights happen more often than you might like. There's a lot of driving required to get to most mission objectives, and you'll get attacked every time you hit the road, either by passing guard stations or just people rolling up on you and not leaving well enough alone. No matter where you're going, you're going to get harassed, at least as early on in the game as I am.
The best thing about the armed jeep is that you can hit the jump button to immediately jump from the driver's seat up into the turret and mow enemies down with abandon. I was getting worked over on foot when I'd get ambushed. But in the turret, I could kill all my attackers really fast, even though I was taking a few hits due to being a sitting duck up there.
Pursue the Buddy Objectives
Buddy objectives can make the missions a lot more interesting.You've got a primary and a secondary buddy at any given time (as long as they haven't died, which they don't respawn from; you'll have to find another one in that case). After you pick up story missions, your main bro will call you with a plan to increase the rewards from your current task, or at least make it simpler in some way. It also increases your history and level with your buddy, though I'm not sure how that changes things just yet.
In one scenario, I had to destroy some greenhouses belonging to the enemy faction. Before heading down there, my buddy had me head to a chemical facility, steal some industrial defoliant, and deliver it to him. When I hit the plantation where the greenhouses were located, my buddy buzzed the field and dropped the chemicals, removing all the foliage and thus all the cover the enemies had to hide behind.
Another mission had me attempting to ambush an enemy convoy and destroy their supply trucks. The buddy option tipped me off to the location of the convoy's informant, who I intimidated into giving the group false coordinates. This led them into a village, instead of the original open area, where they were sitting ducks.
The alternative buddy mission usually involves more fighting and carries the risk of your buddy dying. But sometimes you get a reward; I got a pretty nice SUV out of one of them. And you gain more reputation, allowing you to increase your rep level faster. I haven't figured out what reputation level affects yet, but I can only assume boosting it is a good thing.
Get Your Other Buddy to Save Your Ass
When you bite it, this guy is your best friend. There's no auto-save in the game, s o it's no fun to put a lot of time in on a mission and then get smoked by an ambush. Luckily, your secondary buddy's sole function so far seems to be to save you when you go down.
Instead of getting a "Load Game?" prompt, your vision will start to fade back in as your comrade hoists you up and drags you along while smoking fools that get in his way. After a minute of this, you'll be back in the fight with some weapons and a modicum of health. Much nicer than a game over when you're almost done with a mission.
The only catch is that it seems like you have to prime your buddy for rescue after he's done it once. Seek him out at a safe house and talk to him to ready him for a rescue, and then you should have that ace up your sleeve if you happen to take a quick dirt nap.
Far Cry 2 isn't a perfect game, but I've been compelled to keep playing it despite its occasional headaches. I'll be back with a review next week; hopefully these tips will help you a little in the meantime.
Haven't played this game yet, still going through dead space and bioshock (gotta get those trophies!), but this is the next game on my list. That is, until Fallout 3 comes out. Then i'll have no life.
Cool tips .. but I was kinda doing that from the start :P ( does that makes me a genius) nah...           but the driving is still getting on my nerves !!
I'm kind of disappointed with this.  Its a tough game, but i really hope the review will not suffer for it being "hard". The guns jam because they are like 3rd hand, and the game is really keen on getting that point across, i think it fits with the atmosphere really well, after all these guys are ragtag militia and freelance Mercs. If it were like Black water dudes, it'd be different . They straight up say "Buy new stuff, the stuff you find is junk". I like that the guns and stuff jam, it makes situations much more harrowing. Being truly overwhelmed and the shit actually hitting the fan is not something that really happens in games. Also, understand the games a shooter, so when i play, i want to be shooting. The more dudes I lay down, the better. I don't mind when dudes run up on me, especially when I am not expecting it. It makes the long drives feel way shorter, because I'm actually doing something. The weapon thing shouldn't be something that wears you down, because they also basically give you a free weapon at the beginning. I hope the above posters don't see this as negative and decide not to get the game, because these points aren't really a big deal, for me at least. The game, in its first half hour, which is basically tutorial, makes a point of addressing all of these issues. Of course its not a perfect game, no game is, but this one is really awesome. The buddy system largely negates any death woes and you find health and ammo nearly everywhere. I usually agree with Brad on stuff like this but not this time.Â
All i can say is "You need to do a better job" lol.Â
Iv been playing non-stop for the last couple of days on hardcore and I can honestly say Far Cry 2 is the most fun I have had with a shooter in a while. I am totaly immersed with the games open world, from the graphics to the missions this game is a grade. Also just because some strategy is involved before running into a outpost dose not make the game fustrating on the contrary the game has more depth then any shooters I have seen in a long time. The online for the PC has some bugs but for the most part its like COD4 in africa without radar and more recoil. By the way FC2's graphics are sexy and breaking one's arm back in place never looked so good.
Injure someone to find out where his friends are hiding
thanks brad but I guess I knew them all already since the game has a big tutorial . :P Brad said : It also increases your history and level with your buddy, though I'm not sure how that changes things just yet.  I should say that it affects Ending of the game , a great history with a friend is not necessarily good all the time since it may lead to their death .
Honestly, I haven't had many issues with the game. I'm a stalker in open world games, so it's not hard to kick my enemies ass in most of these games. At least they're smarter than Crysis. Christ sake they're stupid in Crysis "OH THERE HE IS" *invisibility* "WHERE'D HE GO?! LET'S STOP SHOOTING AND GO TO WHERE HE DISAPPEARED, AND WHILE WE'RE AT IT LET'S SPREAD UP." Good job, fellas. You're doing North Korea proud.
My main issue with this game, is the lack of soul. It feels dull playing it most of the time, much like Crysis. There's just not an atmosphere to it, as much as I thought there would be, at least.
But....the multiplayer has been nothing but trouble. I just managed two deathmatch games in two hours. I'd get through some, then loose connection. Or, in one case, I was winning and the thing just said ban. In a ranked match? Really?!
Definitely a game that demands time to really get going. But once it does, and you get enveloped by the immersive quality while learning the rules of the road... fantastic shooter with only minor flaws. 5/5 oh and.. good protips :)
For me, it unfortunately ends at the atrocious camera control and sprinting(can't turn for shit when your sprinting)... I'm returning FC2 and getting L4D instead. I still dig the rest of the game and recommend trying it out as long as you can put up with less than ideal controls. I'm not getting Fallout 3 either as I've heard the controls in that are broken too. If you think I'm crazy, it's ok, I think I'm crazy too. But remember, we're talking about video games here and if it's not fun to control than whats the point. I expect alot more out of the 360 controler, It works wonders for CoD2 and 4 as well as GoW, H3 and the OB(ok, maybe halo 3 could use a little smothing but it's mostly a non issue). From now on I'm not spending more than a couple of hours with broken controls no matter how much I'm digging the rest of the game... enjoy Far Cry 2.
B+
Edit: Someone give me a heads up if Ubi ever decides to patch the controls, sigh.
Why is everyone talking about the difficulty? You can stand in fire for a pretty long time without dying and you can walk right up to an enemy and he'll pointblank shoot you for awhile before death also. I've cranked it up to hardcore and its still pretty easy.
The gameplay is great, but I feel the story is very loosely tied together to be honest. It spends so much time on immersion but the fact that you're not really sure why you're doing anything or why you should help anyone kind of kills it.
Guys, this game is almost too easy. :P The gun jamming and other things are great additions. They make what would otherwise be mind-numbingly simple battles hectic and dangerous.
I got this and Fable 2 and since I'm so drawn into Fable I haven't played this that much. What I did play though was really awesome. Very unique FPS. Africa is fuckin huge and I can't wait to get more into it.
I kinda wish there was a lean left/right function like in STALKER, Crysis, and various other shooters. The game gets tough on Infamous difficulty but is a little easy on Normal. The game performs very well for how good it looks. People expecting Crysis graphics and gameplay will be both disappointed and satisfied (respectively). I'll be playing this game for a long time.
Also, this game has the same shitty DRM that SPORE has, limiting it to 5 activations. I have money ready to purchase as soon as the limit is removed, Ubisoft.
I have three weapon combo's right now consisting of:
MP-5, silenced Makarov
AS50, UZI
FN FAL Paratrooper, UZI (I am considering a Desert Eagle)
My favourite has to be the sniper combo, since there isn't a lot of things more rewarding than blowing people to shreds with a semi-auto 50. cal sniper, although it does jam quite often...
I wish there where some more ingame help, otherwise the game is fantastic, really grows on you the more you play it. But the buddy system is wierd, ive got 5 buddies, all crossed out. So I assume they are all dead :/
I played a few hours yesterday and I was very into it. I never died a lot, I took my time and done plenty of recon before diving in, and I was loving it yesterday. I will play some more of it later on and hopefully I can be just as into it again.
Something else to do is to use the rivers for a lot of your transportation. You move surprisingly fast on them and you have fewer checkpoints to contend with.
Nice write up. I personally really like the gun jam mechanic, because it's adds a "oh fuck!" dynamic to the fights. I deffo agree with the random encounters on the road, at the start it's fine but now it just irritates me, i just want to get to my damn objective!
I'm quite far in and i've only died once so far on hard, but i'm playing on the PC so aiming is obviously alot easier.
i don't like it. the whole do anything any way you want does not really work well. as soon as i snipe someone, everybody starts to gang up on me, and it becomes a shoot-out. every time. and the fact that the ammo situation is not modeled for shoot-out after shoot-out is just a pain in the asshole.
I played the game for about 10 minutes at a friend's house and was instantly frustrated. You can't go anywhere without a bunch of dudes shooting you. And the objectives are so far away that if you don't have a vehicle there is no way in hell you're going to get to your objective without being killed by the insane amount of enemies that litter the entire map.
Does anyone have any tips about navigating the damn jungle? It's a damn pain just to get from one mission to the next checkpoint. Those bus-stops certainly don't help when you're trying to get to the bar or the weapons shop.
Interesting... I haven't experienced any of those problems. I've died only a couple of times, I never really need to use dirty weapons, and I've had not difficulty with the number of enemies. So far I've found FC2 to be the best shooter of the year
I can see how people may have a hard time with Far Cry 2, but so far I've had a great time with it. Once you get going, the game really draws you in. also, I don't feel that the game is THAT hard. I've played it for about 4 or 5 hours and I've only died once, and it was by getting run over by a car...
I have been loving the game and haven't had any problems with difficulty yet. Â I am playing on normal and maybe everyone else is doing hard or something but I love it.
Reading over a lot of these comments, many people are having trouble with things that come down to control method. Due to the twitch aiming nature of this game, using an analog stick and not a mouse will definitely decrease playability. Please don't take me for one of those fascist PC gaming fundamentalists out there, but this game is clearly made to be enjoyed best with a mouse (especially at higher difficulties). I hope some of you that have given up on this game out of frustration try it again on PC before making a final judgment.
EDIT: Also the PC version has quick save/load of course which definitely cuts down on some frustration. F5 immediately saves the game in a new slot, and F9 loads the last save made.
Also, I happen to think the AI is pretty good. Better than STALKER's.
As far as sniping goes, if you find a good spot, the guys wont know where you are and instead rush to cover. After a few shots, of course they will draw a bead on you, that's why you carry a sniper and another fully auto gun. The game is not even hard.
Did anybody else notice that something about the from-the-hip firing in this game is wrong? Whenever I try to fire without aiming (I'm on PC if that makes a difference) I miss every single shot. In CoD4 it's easy to know at least where the invisible reticule for aiming from the hip is when you want to shoot a guy from close up. Here it's like you HAVE to aim or you're not going to hit anything, no matter how close you are.
The whole gurrila combat style of this game is great but I just wish that the first thing that happens isn't catching malaria. I have a bad habit of hitting my last health block, need to take a pill, fix a jam and dodge fire (both from enemy guns and the flamethrower I use to cover my retreat) at the same time.
Anyway it's a fun game but the AI has some retarded crap happening like driving into a red barrel and blowing up or running over your gunner who bailed.
Unfortunately i would also appear to be too good at this game, the only time i've died is in the tutorial where you're supposed to die, the only times my weapons jam is when i purposely pick up enemy weapons to make them jam n get the cool animation, the only time i've seen a first aid animation is once in the tutorial which kinda sucks, i was hoping i'd get to do it more.
But then, maybe thats because i'm stealthy, guard posts i either drive around or take everyone out with the dart rifle before they know whats going on, i love driving ordinary vehicles (if you can call the buggy normal), if i'm being chased i just pop out n destroy anything following.
My poor rescue buddy hasn't seen action once and i'm 11-12 hours in.
I was really not enjoying Farcry 2 until I discovered the key. Buy a sniper rifle. I'm not even kidding, this is one of those games in which the inclusion of a shotgun is totally pointless, you cannot play this game any other way than with a sniper rifle, it is impossible. And anyone who says "Oh but I did" is lying. Whether they are lying or not.
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