Beautiful Desolation
Far Cry 2 begins as open ended as the Sahara Desert: It's wide open, with no rules, little direction and plenty of anarchy. It's gorgeous visuals dominate the game from beginning to end, and the vast open world immediately gives the player the sense that Ubisoft wants to "push the limits" with Far Cry 2.
When the game begins, you're given the option to choose from one of 8 characters. This doesn't make a huge difference in gameplay - but it's a nice touch. As a mercenary dropped into Africa with malaria, you're immediately put face to face with the man you are meant to kill: The Jackal. An arms dealer who is propagating the war between two factions, the Jackal is behind the scenes throughout the game.
Let's review some of the positives:
Visuals and Sound - Far Cry 2 is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played, hands down. The backdrop of a war-torn scenic African country makes for a great sandbox style game. The game succeeds when dealing with lush jungles, dry deserts, canyons, lakes...it really looks good. The sound is very good as well. Deep jungles and sandy dry grasslands sound really good.
Plenty of Game - The game is huge. It will take most players a while to get through it...I played for around 30 hours and while I didn't complete all the side missions, I did complete most of the game.
Weapons - The weapons are great fun, and it's encouraged that players immediately try to arm up on new and better weapons. These can be attained by performing missions for the local arms dealers. The grenade launchers and rocket launchers are especially fun - incorporating fire.
Fire - The fire in Far Cry 2 is amazing... practically revolutionary. Especially in grassland areas, the fire can be used as a weapon to burn down outposts, flank out enemies, or just burn people alive.
Negatives:
Story - I was hoping for a little more from the story, but Ubi's focus was on gameplay - not a cinematic storyline.
AI - The enemies' AI is lacking. At times they spot you from 200 yards hiding behind a rock, and other times you can walk right up to them and knife them in the side... Another issues that I had is that everyone you see out in the open world is an enemy...meaning there are no bystanders, which had they been included, would've added an element of deeper realism.
Repetition - The repetitive nature of sandbox games did start to creep into FC2. Weapons dealer missions are always the same, as well as assassination missions...It wasn't overwhelming, but it did get slightly annoying toward the end of the game.
Driving - This was my main gripe with the game. It takes quite a while to get across the countryside in Far Cry 2, mostly because there are so many outposts and random people who are driving around looking for trouble. The bus system does help, but having to drive clear across the map for a side mission was quite annoying.
All in all, Far Cry 2 is worth playing. While it was vastly overlooked during a busy holiday release schedule, but shouldn't be ignored. Ubisoft pushes the boundaries of the genre, and does it in a stunningly beautiful way.
