Fire! Pretty!
Far Cy 2 is a beautiful game. It captures the image of the savanna perfectly. It creates a world that should be worth exploring. Unfortunately, exploring it just isn't any fun. For an open world game, Far Cry 2 just doesn't seem to have that much to offer.
For the first few hours, you may be tricked into having fun. The map is so well built, the gameplay mechanics seem to be solid. You get into your first few gunfights, maybe you get the satisfaction of shooting open a few heads. Then the tutorial ends, and the grind begins.
There are missions you can take, but they all seem to equate to about the same thing. Go to x and kill y. There aren't even that many different values for y. The developers wanted to capture the idea of "sandbox" gameplay, but they've failed at execution. You could, theoretically, drive around the savanna, exploring the terrain for anything of interest. Unfortunately, there is nothing of interest.
At almost every intersection there is a camp with armed guards. These guards want to kill you, no reason is given for why, not even an arbitrary one. The AI is ok, but no match for your average player. They go down quickly, but there are always more just around the corner. Most of the game is like this, fighting one battle after another, and very quickly you notice that they are all the same. You can drive around on your own, you can do story missions, you can do side missions. It all equates to more of the same, almost devoid of variation. The characters are lifeless, the world is lifeless, the entire game is lifeless. Despite what the first bit of the game may try and tell you, the Africa portrayed in Far Cry 2 is already dead, and there is no saving it. Don't bother picking this game up.
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