Welcome to the jungle...
A good game that sadly doesn't live up to all it could have been!
Story: Far Cry 2 puts you in the role of a mercenary in an unnamed African nation in a post civil war state..
Your overall goal is to kill an arms dealer named the Jackal, however to find him you need to work with the various factions, the underground and the mates you meet around the nation
While it's name indicate a sequal it has nothing to do with the first Far Cry at all, not even the gameplay is simular
Gameplay: Far Cry 2 is a 1st person shooter with a good selection of weapons, from hand guns, rifles and rocket launchers to flametrowers, IEDs and mortars, you also have various cars and boats available and even a hangglider ( probable the only thing in common with the first Far Cry game )
The world is fairly large and you are free to go where you want in it, however they layout and tons of armed checkpoints limits your movement greatly, something I will get back to later..
You get get your jobs by visiting militia HQ's or other people around the world and you then go and do it - it's pretty simple stuff, usually kill a person ( who's protected by a ton of men ) or deliver something to someone
You then get in a car ( can be found everywhere ) and you go do it - on the way you'll likely run into several armed checkpoints and patroling vehicles you need to deal with ( the world is overcrowded with bad guys ) and you go do it - in many cases your buddy will call you and offer an alternative way to handle things, these will benefit you both, but will also take longer time and a lot more fighting - it's usually worth it though as it improves the items available in your safehouses
The safehouses you find all the game world where you can stuck up on ammo and save your game and you can also find armsdealers around where you can upgrade or buy new weapons..
When the job is done you pick a new mission by going to see whomever and it's on again..
Unlike most other games Far Cry allows you to destroy the nature by burning or shooting it - especially the burning can be a great help both to kill enemies but also to create barriers so they can't flank you and it really adds to the game when you after a gunfight can see just how much destruction you cause with burning cars and tress, charred ground and bodies everywhere
Pros: Far Cry looks really good the interactive nature is awesome, especially the ability to start fires that can spread widely in a few seconds is great and very useful
The mood around the gameworld is great too, from the river canyons to the dense jungle to the open plains and desert and it get's even better with the day night cycle with some of the best lighting conditions ever seen especially around dusk and dawn
The guns wear down and starts jamming ( especially those you pick up from the enemy ) and that's a nice touch that adds to the realism and fun, unless it happens while surrounded and under rocket fire
The gunplay can be fun and satisfying with some of the weapons, especially when you manage to wound someone and see his mates trying to carry them to safety
The driving is fun, especially off road - it's a little arcady, but overall good just as the boat handling is and when some wilderbeast pulls up beside you on the plains while the sun is setting it's hard not to smile about how awesome it is and how far gaming has come
Cons: once again I'm gonna sound very negative here, that has two reasons, the first is that expected a very different game and second because Far Cry doesn't live up to it's potential..
I won't go at it for too long, but people should know these things before going into the game..
The assault rifles are way to underpowered and the foes are way too tough, you can find your self wasting 2 mags on a guy only to see him get up again and start blastingat you with his sidearm, jeez just die already!
As you get better weapons ( especially the sniper rifles are good ) this get's better, but for a game that tries to be realisting people surviving 20 rounds to the guts is a failure!
The world while really beautiful is also very limited, you'll basily find yourself driving in small narrow canyons with no other option than attacting checkpoint head on every 2 minutes to get anywhere - not even on the rivers are you safe as there are patroling boats and small camps everywhere.. and for some reason they all atatck you despite there being a ceasefire - this very quickly get's very annoying as an openworld game is supposed to be OPEN and when you can't even strafe 20m from the road that is not an open world!
You do get open areas and it does open up around the corners of the map, but for a game spending most it advertizing budget on mentioning the 50km2 world I expecting something very differently
Also civilians are a no show - apperently this nation is all soldiers duking it out for whatever reason
The missions are pretty much all the same and the numerous checkpoints makes going everywhere a hassle something it quite frankly shouldn't have to be..
Once you get used to it it's not that bad, but having expected something different I wasn't too pleased about it
Overall: Far Cry 2 IS a good game, it's fun and looks superp - I came into it expecting something different and that dissapointed me, but once I accepted it I started having fun and have had a very hard time putting down the controller since
It's not perfect far from it and it's not on the level of Crysis or even the original Far Cry, but it is good fun and one of the best looking games ever
It gets repetitive early on and the way to overcrowded world swimming is bad guys is too much at times, when you have to kill 20 people just to get to the peopel you are supposed to kill
It's clear that the concept ideas of Far Cry 2 were great and the realisation of them failed, they still made a really good game out of it, but it also saddens me that they ( and us gamers ) missed out of such a great opotunity
It's a good game, but could have been so much better! 8,5/10
