A Journey Into The Heart Of Darkness
Far Cry 2 is one of the best games I've played this year. But ever time you think about giving it ultimate greatness the niggling doubts come and change your mind
In Far Cry 2 you play as one of 9 mercs sent to an Unnamed African country to kill an arms dealer called the jackal. U need to work for both the factions and your buddies in order to gain diamonds needed to buy weapons needed to continue fighting the war. So far so standard fps. However, when Far Cry 2 was made some one at Ubisoft hit it with the free roaming stick. So now you can drive around a 50km square world burning, shooting and knifing anything in your way.
First up a bit of clarification. Far Cry 2 has nothing to do with Far Cry, made by Crytek who now make Crysis, which makes the same mistakes as Far Cry 1. The only thing in common between the two Farcrys is the idea of a magic observation tool, which can tag and track any resupply points, defences or vehicles you find in the camps around the map, and a hanglider. So you have no obligation to play through Far Cry all the way through. Just up until before the bloody trigens appear.
First up the good points on Far Cry 2. The graphics are amazing. Not only do they look spectacular, and help to set the scene, but they actually work properly unlike Crysis's system killing looks. When your driving around, you'll often stop to look across a perfect sunrise, or stand looking up at a cloudless sky in the dessert.
The guns also look good reflecting the lights in the world as a real gun does. In fact the graphics help to bring across another one of FC2's good points, the weapons reliability. As you use a weapon its starts to age and rust, until it can't take it anymore and blows itself away to gun heaven. You start to pray that a gun doesn't jam just as you run into an enemy camp even though u know sods law says it will. The whole system knocks up the tensions a notch making every battle a fraught affair. Thankfully a quite well implemented buddy system means that if you go down, you'll be right as rain in 2 seconds flat. The buddies also add the games emotion. You start to become more attached to buddy that's saved you 5 times, and feel gutted when you have to mercy kill them cos you made a mistake
Immersion is another place where FC2 shines. The camera never, ever snaps to a view. When you climb in a car, you see yourself hauling your body over the back seats, or sliding under a roll cage. When you fix yourself up after taking a critical wound, you will actually see some of the best animations ever as you cauterise a wound with a cigarette, put a dislocated arm back into its socket with a sickening crunch or yank a rifle round out of your wrist with your teeth. These animations and other little touches like them, make this game like no other.
Unfortunately FC2 does shoot itself in the foot with a shotgun. The AI is sadly lacking, not as clever as it should be with the amount of smart technology used on the elements surrounding it. Enemies will run around in a panic even if you stand around sedately. Also the factions are always pissed off at you making checkpoints on the roads less about checking papers, more about checking you've wasted around 50% on a bunch of prats before u even reach your missions. The amount of traveling around is also annoying, especially when u have just started the amount game. The only fast travel is the buses which have 5 stops per map all of which are miles from anywhere useful. This forces you to travel down the pissed off men infested roads. The story and its associated voice acting is also appalling. The casual chatter is alright, but receiving a mission, especially from the UFLL, is down right painful due mainly to the worst South African accent have ever heard. The story only appears at the start, middle and end making it shallow and almost feel forced upon you. The whole flexible story thing sounds good, but is only used to its full potential at the very end. Also most of the time you are doing nothing to help in your hunt for the jackal. And the guy who decided it would be cool to give the player malaria at the start is an idiot. Instead it just forces you to waste time doing transfer quests between the cities and random shacks filled with refugees.
There are many missed opportunities with Far Cry 2, but it is impossible to come off a quick session not smiling, be it at the scenery, the funny moments or the crazy maps people have made online. Maybe a sequel might take the ideas further.
After venturing into the Heart of Darkness;I give Far Cry 2 on PC; 85%
In Far Cry 2 you play as one of 9 mercs sent to an Unnamed African country to kill an arms dealer called the jackal. U need to work for both the factions and your buddies in order to gain diamonds needed to buy weapons needed to continue fighting the war. So far so standard fps. However, when Far Cry 2 was made some one at Ubisoft hit it with the free roaming stick. So now you can drive around a 50km square world burning, shooting and knifing anything in your way.
First up a bit of clarification. Far Cry 2 has nothing to do with Far Cry, made by Crytek who now make Crysis, which makes the same mistakes as Far Cry 1. The only thing in common between the two Farcrys is the idea of a magic observation tool, which can tag and track any resupply points, defences or vehicles you find in the camps around the map, and a hanglider. So you have no obligation to play through Far Cry all the way through. Just up until before the bloody trigens appear.
First up the good points on Far Cry 2. The graphics are amazing. Not only do they look spectacular, and help to set the scene, but they actually work properly unlike Crysis's system killing looks. When your driving around, you'll often stop to look across a perfect sunrise, or stand looking up at a cloudless sky in the dessert.
The guns also look good reflecting the lights in the world as a real gun does. In fact the graphics help to bring across another one of FC2's good points, the weapons reliability. As you use a weapon its starts to age and rust, until it can't take it anymore and blows itself away to gun heaven. You start to pray that a gun doesn't jam just as you run into an enemy camp even though u know sods law says it will. The whole system knocks up the tensions a notch making every battle a fraught affair. Thankfully a quite well implemented buddy system means that if you go down, you'll be right as rain in 2 seconds flat. The buddies also add the games emotion. You start to become more attached to buddy that's saved you 5 times, and feel gutted when you have to mercy kill them cos you made a mistake
Immersion is another place where FC2 shines. The camera never, ever snaps to a view. When you climb in a car, you see yourself hauling your body over the back seats, or sliding under a roll cage. When you fix yourself up after taking a critical wound, you will actually see some of the best animations ever as you cauterise a wound with a cigarette, put a dislocated arm back into its socket with a sickening crunch or yank a rifle round out of your wrist with your teeth. These animations and other little touches like them, make this game like no other.
Unfortunately FC2 does shoot itself in the foot with a shotgun. The AI is sadly lacking, not as clever as it should be with the amount of smart technology used on the elements surrounding it. Enemies will run around in a panic even if you stand around sedately. Also the factions are always pissed off at you making checkpoints on the roads less about checking papers, more about checking you've wasted around 50% on a bunch of prats before u even reach your missions. The amount of traveling around is also annoying, especially when u have just started the amount game. The only fast travel is the buses which have 5 stops per map all of which are miles from anywhere useful. This forces you to travel down the pissed off men infested roads. The story and its associated voice acting is also appalling. The casual chatter is alright, but receiving a mission, especially from the UFLL, is down right painful due mainly to the worst South African accent have ever heard. The story only appears at the start, middle and end making it shallow and almost feel forced upon you. The whole flexible story thing sounds good, but is only used to its full potential at the very end. Also most of the time you are doing nothing to help in your hunt for the jackal. And the guy who decided it would be cool to give the player malaria at the start is an idiot. Instead it just forces you to waste time doing transfer quests between the cities and random shacks filled with refugees.
There are many missed opportunities with Far Cry 2, but it is impossible to come off a quick session not smiling, be it at the scenery, the funny moments or the crazy maps people have made online. Maybe a sequel might take the ideas further.
After venturing into the Heart of Darkness;I give Far Cry 2 on PC; 85%
