Far Cry 2

I know this review of the game is a little late as it came out exactly one year ago. But I have to admit, I’m a little hazy on the game. It’s strange, from what I remember of the game, it takes place in a place called- hold on, bad writing, let me try that again, it takes place in a city called , that didn’t come out too well either, oh well. So to refresh my memory of the game, I looked at some screen caps, that’s when I realized that I got the game confused with an incredibly identical game, Grand Theft Auto 4. Maybe you heard of it. Maybe you haven’t. I don’t know what you do with your life so I’m not going to judge. But what I am here to do is tell you about this awesome Far Cry 4 is.

The fourth installment of the Far Cry series is kind of like the step from Super Mario World to Super Mario 64. No this game doesn’t add the fourth dimension. It’s actually more like the sixth dimension. Seriously, this game does some amazing stuff.

You know how most games try to “emerge” the player to the experience of the game? You know how most of these games fall on their face? This game doesn’t fail to exceed what those games couldn’t even dream of doing. I have to give props to Ubisoft, I find it almost impossible to feel like I’m experiencing the experiences of the experiencer in a game that voices the experiencer. That leaves me feeling like a friend who was invited to a party, but is the only one still conscience by the end because I don’t drink. Thankfully I don’t experience a predefined experience. Instead I experience what only I would experience if I was placed in that predicament. I’m not going to give out any spoilers, but at one point I was in a big “OH S***! I am so mad at this dude,” moment. Did my character say anything? Nope. And that’s perfect. I don’t need emotions conveyed on screen when I’ve already got some right in my head.

Continuing with the emersion aspect, using emotions to convey me being the character was done very nicely, but the thing that still amazes me to this day is the injury be gone mechanic. Whenever you get pumped with enough bullets, your body will develop an injury that anybody who was in African firefights would receive. This means lion bites, sun burns and malaria. I watched in awe when my character put sun tan lotion onto his beautifully crafted 2 degree sun burn marks. I closed my eyes, injected morphine into my body and clenched my teeth onto a wooden plank every time my character sewed up his lion wounds. And I felt the pills run down my dry throat as my malaria was instantly cured. What other game can do that to you? None, I tell you. I must warn you that these injury be gone mechanics may make the queasy puke. (Yeah, it’s that awesome.)

And probably the best way to emerge the player into this poaching simulator (Hell yeah, you can run over big ass animals from with your car and not receive any dents. So realistic!) is the overall storyline. Most games just throw you into the game world and tell you to shoot, but we never know who exactly is telling us to shoot. In Far Cry, we get to actually interact with these people giving me my missions to kill. The way Ubisoft deals out missions though is also unique. At any time during the game, you may go to either side of the conflict. That means you can screw which ever side of the tear jerking conflict you desire by siding up with the morally correct faction that hires random people to brutally kill their enemy, you know, because they are too kind hearted to do it themselves. I also like how when I join one of the factions, their men still shoot at me. It makes me feel like a real spy on a real espionage mission, except I have big guns that make big booms so I’m not really stealthy.

Going along with the whole “choose your morals” decisions that are present so well and make total sense to whatever play style you prefer, is a storyline that kept my knuckles white. This game features so many twist that kept me hooked (Unlike Persona that featured stupid twists that made me think to understand what was going on) This game does an outstanding job of revealing it’s deep undertones of a very serious time in a very non-fictional setting. It’s kind of like Blood Diamond, except, like, 20 times better because it doesn’t have Leonardo DiCaprio.

So if you love almost-virtual reality games that feature lions, tigers, and angry black mean shooting at you then you must sell your soul to play this game. This game felt so realistic that like in real war, you get shot at, constantly, because you are a mercenary. And when you get shot at, your car breaks down, constantly, like in real war, with real mercenaries. And when your car breaks down, you just have to open up that hood and crank the hell out of that magic bolt, just like real life...

(This review does not reflect my actual feelings for the game Far Cry 2. I actually thought it was pretty good at parts, but bad at others. I had to force myself to finish the entire game. And the multiplayer was so bland I didn't even bother to mention it in the review. Pretty good game, but could have been so much better if some things didn't annoy me.)