Bullet Point Review: Far Cry 2 (XB360)
What I liked:
Controls - Finally a Far Cry game with lefty controls, though for what ever reason they assigned the left trigger button as your trigger finger. Pssst. Game makers. For the love of God just copy what Halo offers in their controller dept and everything will be fine.
Graphics - This is the best looking game I've played so far. Period. Yes even better than those found in Gears of War 2.
Size - My word this game is big. I was blown away when I first fired this up and stepped out into the world map...little did I know there were 2 maps of equal size. There is nothing better in this game than climbing some huge hill and looking out over the rolling country side. I can't count how many times I called my wife over to check something out.
Physics - The game moves beautifully, and I don't mean the characters. I'm talking about how the wind blows the tall grass, how a tree reacts to the violent shock wave from a tossed grenade, or how the leaves on some exotic plant move out of the way for you as you pass by. The games just looks, alive.
The end - The final push of the game, where you enter "The Heart of Darkness", was probably the best part. I just wish the actual ending had a little more substance to it.
What I didn't like:
Lock ups - I had 35hrs under my belt. 120 conflict diamond cases found, all the radio tower missions done, most of the side missions done, and 62% of the game complete when suddenly the game locked up on me while loading...and in the process, corrupted all my save data. All that time lost. Moral of the story: use multiple save files, and game makers, test your game better.
Vehicles - You drive around in 3 types of vehicles. You have your wheeled kind, your boat kind, and the useless hang glider. Seeing as how big and open the game is, I would have loved to have seen some sort of helicopter or crop duster plane in there. It would have been perfect.
Sound - Don't get me wrong, the in game environmental sounds are amazing. I'm talking about how annoying the music is, I turned it off after about an hour or so, and the characters speak way too fast and low.
Animals - Sure there are water buffalo, zebras, gazelles and some insects and birds in the game. But I would have loved to have seen some alligators hindering my swimming, elephants and giraffes I'd have to steer around and lions and panters in the hills and jungles to try and avoid. Oh well, hopefully FC3 will have those.
Variety - Or should I say the lack there of. The game gets a little old after a while in the types of missions it hands out. And there is nothing more annoying then when you're en route to somewhere and you pass another vehicle. You just know that their gonna catch back up to you cause, for whatever reason, their truck is alot faster than yours. Then their gonna shoot up your engine, causing you to get out, kill them, fix your engine and be on your way. I cannot count how many times that happened to me. It kinda reminds me of the all the door loading in (my beloved) Resident Evil. Sure it's really not that big a deal, but it just happens so many times it becomes annoying after a while.
Bullet Sponges - The enemies in FC2 can soak up bullets like Sponge Bob soaks up water. Even headshots don't always end in the desired manner.
Summary:
Far Cry 2 is a big, beautiful game, chucked full of missions that'll have you killing anyone and everyone. It does get a little old after a while, but the end push of the game is totally amazing and, I'll be honest, kinda caught me off guard in what it has you doing. Far Cry 2 won't totally blow away sandbox/FPS fans, but I think they'll at least walk away pleased.
Overall I give Far Cry 2 (XB360) a 4 out of 5.
