1 -- Quick summary of the game 2 -- Details of the ratings I gave
A -- Graphics B -- Sound C -- Gameplay D -- Replay value E -- Learning Curve
4 -- What didn't fit in the other categories 3 -- Final word
1 -- Quick summary
Far Cry 2 is an open-world/free-roaming game set somewhere in Africa. You choose one of several characters to play. Your quest, if you will, is to find the Jackal -- a shady and highly dangerous weapons dealer, but you run into a problem when you arrive. You find you've jumped right into a civil war, making your search for the Jackal all the more difficult. Oh, and by the way, you have malaria.
The rest of the game is spent shooting, driving, gliding, boating, assassinating, and exploding your way to the Jackal.
2 -- Rating Details A -- Graphics
Not much to say here except that the graphics are excellent. They're on the list for tops of the year it was released, in my book. The foliage all breathes "jungle", the rocky terrain feels treacherous, and the deserts feel desolate. Every area of the world is heavily detailed, giving you plenty of options on how to go about your task. You'll never feel as though you've stepped over the edge of the world into a barren place with no character.
A graphics review wouldn't be complete without a mention of the lighting. All of the shadows are dynamic and, surprisingly, crisp and clear. It really cranks up the immersiveness of the game when you see the light and shadows run over you as you crawl through the jungle slowly, preparing to strike.
The only real problem I found with the graphics was the amount of color. The original Far Cry for the PC was extremely vibrant with a large variety of colors. In Far Cry 2, however, the color pallet is reduced to browns, dark or faded greens, that sort of thing. The colors all look realistic and capture the hostile nature of the area you're in, but they just aren't that fun to look at. However, I found that I didn't even notice after a short while, and it never detracted from the fun.
B -- Sound
The world sounds are very well done. Fire sounds threatening, jungles are loud, deserts are quiet, and tires splash in the mud and "shhh" in the sand. The only real issues I had with the sound were the weapons and explosions. They all sound great don't get me wrong, but they sound a bit "tinny", like hitting a metal folding chair. However, they are by no means bad or unpleasant and still keep the game immersive.
C -- Gameplay
Ah yes, gameplay. The thing everyone questions. Well put your mind at ease. You won't be disappointed! As said before, Far Cry 2 is completely free-roaming. They do limit you at first for the tutorial, and start you off with one square of the map (there are 4 total. Think of Crackdown, only with squares from a map rather than islands. As the game progresses, the new sections open and the old stay open.), but each square is seemingly massive and gives you plenty of elbow room.
This game, unlike many others, actually encourages you to attack everything in your own way. There are very few (if any) linear points after the tutorial. Enemies see you realistically for the most part, so you can easily hang back outside of an outpost and plan your attack before jumping into the action. This comes in handy for the assassination missions or missions where you need to get deep into enemy bases.
That said, the missions hold a good variety, ranging from assassination missions (that also hold a variety, such as taking out someone who is in a convoy or a fortified base and so on) to basic "destroy this" or liberating a few people and whatnot. A few times mission goals seem to repeat, but the experience is still kept interesting because of the different environments. You definitely won't find the experience "ho-hum" after just the first few missions. Each mission is different enough to hold your interest.
The way you obtain weapons is fairly interesting as well. Instead of just finding them or buying them, you earn them and then buy a steady supply of them. The local arms dealer will give you missions to do now and then that will unlock new weapons for you to buy. The missions are mostly (or all, I can't remember) the same: Destroy the convoy/truck in a certain area. Personally, I liked these, but they don't change apart from where the convoy or truck is. Once you unlock a weapon, you can purchase it. But instead of purchasing a new one every time you lose or break the one you have, you simply go to your weapons hut located next to any arms dealer and pick up a new one for free. You basically buy the rights to use that weapon, which in my opinion is a good system if you switch out weapons often like I do.
The story of Far Cry 2 is, well, fairly non-existent. So as not to give away any spoilers, I won't delve too deeply here except to say that the storyline doesn't either (delve too deeply, that is). There's just not much here for all the Final Fantasy/KOTOR-style story fans. Also, the fact that you have malaria takes a heavy back seat after the tutorial. It basically adds another way of introducing side missions: Working for the underground to get "anti-malaria pills". Other than that, it seems to have no effect apart from suddenly having a malaria attack while driving or fighting and having to take a pill to stop it.
There's one bit of controversy hovering around Far Cry 2: Driving. The driving system is not the issue, as I found the vehicles to all be very usable and realistic, much more so than some games I’ve seen recently. However, there is a LOT of driving. Now, whether this is a problem or not is up to the individual. Personally, I only found it tedious a few times, but I enjoy a slower-paced game. I've read of a lot of people complaining about it though. The driving sections are broken up by having to avoid enemy outposts and finding the best route, but they are still long and tedious at times.
One of my complaints was with the overall aiming control. It doesn't seem quite as smooth as other games such as Gears of War and the Call of Duty series. It's still very usable, but it could have been better.
My only other complaint is with the weapon and vehicle damage/wear system. Overall, it's a terrific addition that adds a new element to all your firefights and travels. However, weapons wear out a little too fast and vehicles begin smoking and slowing down too easily. It's not unmanageable by any means, since it's easy to get new weapons with the arms dealer addition and the vehicles can be fixed within a few seconds and several times before being useless, but the weapons are still fairly worn after just 5-8 magazines and usually won't last for more than 15 or so estimated, and the vehicles will start smoking and losing speed after a few rounds from an enemy technical or a half-dozen hard bumps. The vehicles are still resilient enough to be useful, however, so again this doesn't detract much from the experience.
D -- Replay Value
The replay value of Far Cry 2 is, unfortunately, fairly slim. I can see playing through it maybe a second or third time, just to see what new ways there are to go about missions, to work through it as a more experienced player (definitely a valuable point to consider), or to play at a harder difficulty. But there's enough to do on the first time around to keep you busy for a while.
E -- Learning Curve
This brings us to the other common complaint with Far Cry 2. This game is hard to get into at first. For maybe the first half hour to an hour of the game (more or less to the end of the tutorial and slightly beyond) things run slow and difficult. The stiff aiming controls combined with beginning-grade weapons (you start off using what you can find) make for a ruff start. However, if you can tough it through, you're in for a treat. Once you begin buying weapons from the arms dealer and exploring the world for yourself rather than what they want you to see, you'll love it. The control system is the only hard part of the learning curve, since it is different from other popular games.
4 -- What didn't fit in the other categories
The only thing to mention here is the final complaint: Glitches. There are really only two major ones I've run into either by experience or reading, one being common with some and not with others. The first of these is really fairly common with most 360 games anymore: Lockups. Mine began to lock up fairly frequently, so I began to save often. Thankfully Far Cry 2 has a quick save feature that allows you to save whenever you like, rather than waiting for save points. I found that the problem decreased with a hard-drive install, so give that a try before you use the disk as a Frisbee out of frustration.
The hit and miss glitch is a bit more serious. I never experienced it and I've read of more people who didn't experience it than did, so definitely don't avoid the game because of it. They also may have released a patch by now to fix it, but since I never experienced the problem I can't tell whether it was fixed or not. Basically, there can come a time late in the game where either all of your saves become unusable or you are unable to advance any farther. Unfortunately I can't remember which was more common, but either way is obviously annoying. Again, it’s not a reason to avoid the game by any means, but it's worth keeping in mind.
5 -- Final Word
This is already a pretty long review so I'll make this a quick section: Far Cry 2 is an excellent game. It was worth a purchase at the original $60 and at its new price of $30 it's inexcusable to not pick it up! If you don't mind a slower pace at times like in games such as Fallout 3, it's an amazing experience with plenty of enjoyable hours. If you can't stand not shooting something for more than a couple minutes at a time like in Call of Duty or Halo, this game is probably not for you, but you should give it a try anyway!
This is by no means a complete review as there's just so much to cover about this game, but hopefully it'll give you a good idea about whether or not to give Far Cry 2 a chance.
