Far Cry 2

abandons absolutely everything about far cry 1 which is a shame, in favor for open world african driving simulator. the combat is quite satisfying, just the lack of quest variation and the utter amount of game time panning through driving to the next objective then driving back for a mission (or driving to a bus station) really makes the game a chore to play. thats all i can say, the combat is rewarding, but it usually only lasts for 20-30 seconds (once you arrive at the objective) so its a huge let down, then everything else is chore busywork and its awful.


you always have someone racing up to you from check points while you're just desperately trying to get to the next story mission, slowing you down even more, making you get out of your car to kill them, then spend 10+ seconds repairing your car. every 5 mins minimum. for a 2008 game the graphics and immersion are pretty top notch for me, yeah brown & bloom but it makes sense geographically. the technology side of things is even unmatched by some recent titles, such as the fire physics and wind effects on the trees,

it's a very immersive experience. the weapon jamming is a neat addition, how you can't pickup enemy weapons and expect them to work at 100% capacity, forcing you to get upgrades is kinda cool. theres a lot of little small things that are really nice, they add up, but they cant make up for the overwhelming negatives... you can spend the entire game grinding side quests for loot and different weapons, but it really doesn't matter at all. the ending is a total let down, and just kicks you back to the main menu. it's shitty. theres so much that went right in the game, but ultimately way more went wrong...

6/10

Not quite as good as 5 but is definitely better than 6. This was where the Far Cry formula still hasn't been exhausted and predictable.

Don't believe the hype, this is not one of those misunderstood intense harrowing games that makes a virtue out of a hostile world. I appreciate that's what they were going for here, but the execution falls flat on its face. Far Cry 2 is an ugly, wildly repetitive, thoroughly unpleasant trek through unremittingly brown-hued corridors, disguised as jungles, that are pinched off by endlessly respawning enemy checkpoints. Its attempts at immersiveness are ruthlessly kneecapped by the gamey artifice of its gameplay design and environments. Its storytelling is as drab and desiccated as its visuals. It is lifeless, soulless, joyless, humorless, and an absolute drag to play.

I'm going to begin this review with a confession: Far Cry 2 is my favorite game in the Far Cry series.

Since that one was so well received, let me try an admission, instead: Far Cry 2 is probably the least popular game in the Far Cry series.

It is my favorite game in the series because of the overall "attitude" of the game. It is everything Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is not. It is the very antithesis of Blood Dragon: Where Blood Dragon revels in being irreverent, ridiculous, and detached from reality, Far Cry 2 is gritty, realistic, and dark. It is a modern retelling of The Heart of Darkness, in which you play a mercenary hunting an arms dealer in a fictional African country, all the while battling malaria.

It is not the most open world. You are not a bullet sponge. Health does not regenerate, and in fact guns will jam on you based on how dirty they are. There isn't even a skill tree or a quick melee button (you have to manually switch to your machete). However, it is probably the single most immersive gave I've played in a long time if not ever, and a fantastic story takes you through a unique setting not often seen (or done well) in games.

Gameplay: Far Cry 2 is dated. It's not unplayable, but if you've recently played some of the other Far Cry games then the absence of some features is certainly conspicuous. However, the guns have punch, the player is fragile, fire is dangerous (it's a dry African setting), and the game reeks of realism. Yes, reeks. The main reasons people hated this game were because your character has malaria and because guns jam. Guns jamming is avoidable but you do have to address the malaria from time to time. It plays like a survival game, because you have to struggle to win (without it being too punishing). There's no skill tree and you have to really work for your equipment upgrades. While this isn't for everyone, if you go in expecting this kind of gameplay, you're going to enjoy the game more than someone going in blind. 8/10

Graphics/Visual Experience: While the game is old, the graphics aren't too bad. I go back and play this every once in a while and I'm blown away by some of the nature scenes. The game is truly impressive when compared to other games released at the time and that gives it some true staying power. The environment is immersive (the first game I ever actually got lost in: The first day I played it, I played it for 12 hours straight) and while it's not in the same way characters in Skyrim have complete lives, it's still capable of sucking you in if you let it. The score that follows accounts for both the game being dated but still capable of impressing me: 7.75/10

Sound: The song from the title screen is still on my phone somewhere. Guns don't always have a bassy sound but always feel like they have some punch. Ambient/background noise is done well, gives the environment some life without having wild animals like 3 and 4 do. 7.5/10

Replayability: Not as much as the later games in the series. The main draw of 2 is the immersion and story. While the environment can suck you in, it's not particularly fun to explore because you don't get the feeling of missing out on interesting things as you drive from place to place. If you're like me you'll want to play and play until you finish the story, but there is a hard ending and that also kills post-story replayability. 5.5/10

How it Runs: It's still a demanding game. I've played games released in late 2015 that made my computer run hot less often than this game. However, there are very rarely spikes in the resources the game needs to play smoothly. Physics aren't too intense, the worst the lag will probably get is when there's a bunch of fire on the screen. This is the first game in the series with fire propagation, which they certainly wanted to show off. They actually had to set a limit because during testing, there were times when the entire in-game world was set on fire without the limit in place.

Far cry 2 is a game of flaws, and truth be told i wouldnt have enjoyed it nearly as much if i had played it now. It was one of the first Ubisoft games to adopt the world colectathon aproach, by placing obscene amount of map icons, comprising of side quests and colectibles. But i did actually went ahead and complete the great majority of the game at the time. Mostly because the core gameplay is so good that it made the recycled content that much more enjoyable.

First off, plotwise the game is very cliche. You play as a man who became strayed on Africa, and you must complete quests for the two opposing factions in order to decide who is the new ruler of this nation. Meanwhile you are looking for the man who betrayed you in the beginning of the game that lead you to this situation. Its a very dull plot, and there really isnt any interesting character in the whole. The setting also feels unexplore, except that you had to take malaria pills every so often.

Essencially its a game whose strengh lies in its open world approach to missions. By letting the player choose the weapons he is carrying, the time of day, and angle of approach the act of approaching an enemy campment rarely gets old. The aggressive AI, degrading weapons and fire propagation mechanics make this a challenging game, that fits extremely well with the overal theme of the game. Its almost a survival game at times, as you need to do certain missions to get more malaria pills on a regular schedule. This can get a bit repetitive, as these quests are usually very straight forward. But i dont deny that it adds to the feeling of despair of the setting. The shooting mechanics are more than competent, and so is the driving. The map UI is glorios.

Overal its a really pretty solid game, that should please anyone that can tolerate the repetitiveness of the game in favour of a more hostile and unstable open world game.