Before we start, Far Cry 2 has absolutely nothing to do with Far Cry for the PC, the Far Cry Instincts series for the Xbox, or Far Cry Vengeance for the Wii. It is an entirely different gaming experience with no connection in any way with the other titles except for the title itself.
Rather than continue the adventures of Jack Carver in Pacific jungle islands filled with bizarre monkey experiments, Ubisoft took the origins from Crytek and moved the franchise to an unnamed African country torn by civil war, where you play as an unnamed mercenary.
Your objective: to kill an arms dealer known as The Jackal. The one who sells weapons to both the allies and enemies.
To complete your objective, you must make friends and work your way to the top. You do this by completing missions for other characters, which increase your reputation as well as enable you to upgrade your weapons, abilities, etc. But while you make friends this way, you also make enemies with opposing factions.
Far Cry 2 is an open-ended game that doesn't force you to complete objectives on a clock, you can complete them any time you wish, just as you can choose missions anytime you wish. In the meantime, you are able to explore a lush African environment filled with savannas and jungles which really feel alive.
Populated within these environments are trees and plants that react to the player's touch. You can throw grenades at plants and their explosions will accurately and realistically cause the plants to deform. You can set trees on fire and watch the fire grow and catch onto the leaves, which will incinerate to nothingness.
And this extends to the man made environments, as well. You can blow up explosive barrels and watch every object fly from the blow radius. The physics in this game are just amazing and fun to play with. Even if you don't care about the story or the missions, the game is well worth getting for playing with the physics alone.
The environments are also very detailed, maybe not as detailed or realistic as Crysis, but still quite amazing. Watch as the wind blows against the tall blades of grass and watch as they sway back and forth. With the occasional sightings of grazing zebras, wildebeests, gazelles, and other herbivores, and you have a sense of being alive in this world.
The combat system of this game is also very complex, as are the tasks that you must do to stay alive.
For starters, the character you play as is diagnosed with malaria, and you must periodically pop in pills to suppress the effects. When you run out, you need to go to the doctor or a priest. If you are injured during a firefight, watch as your player actually pries out the bullets from his wounds, wraps a bandage around them, and inject himself with a needle.
And for the first time that I can recall in a first-person shooter, the guns that you fire can jam and break -- something that you need to manually fix or even discard and replace. The vehicles you drive are also subject to the same imperfections. Cars will break down, and the player must actually pop open the hood and tighten up loose bolts on the engine with a socket wrench.
Indeed, Far Cry 2 is a first-person shooter with a sense of reality that also manages not to be frustrating. Far Cry 2 truly steps up a level in the first-person shooter genre.
There is no sci-fi element to Far Cry 2 like its predecessors. No connection to its predecessors whatsoever. Having said that, this is the game's biggest weakness.
Despite innovative gameplay and stunning environments, Far Cry 2 should not be considered a Far Cry game, but should be a different game entirely. I would have rather had Far Cry 2 continue the adventures of protagonist Jack Carver in another campy sci-fi survival setting, maybe or maybe not in the African savanna.
There is so much beauty and amazement to behold in Far Cry 2, but the fact that it's even considered in the Far Cry cannon is its biggest weakness. It should be a different game altogether. But regardless, Far Cry 2 is a wonderful game on its own and worth the price as a standalone game franchise.
Rather than continue the adventures of Jack Carver in Pacific jungle islands filled with bizarre monkey experiments, Ubisoft took the origins from Crytek and moved the franchise to an unnamed African country torn by civil war, where you play as an unnamed mercenary.
Your objective: to kill an arms dealer known as The Jackal. The one who sells weapons to both the allies and enemies.
To complete your objective, you must make friends and work your way to the top. You do this by completing missions for other characters, which increase your reputation as well as enable you to upgrade your weapons, abilities, etc. But while you make friends this way, you also make enemies with opposing factions.
Far Cry 2 is an open-ended game that doesn't force you to complete objectives on a clock, you can complete them any time you wish, just as you can choose missions anytime you wish. In the meantime, you are able to explore a lush African environment filled with savannas and jungles which really feel alive.
Populated within these environments are trees and plants that react to the player's touch. You can throw grenades at plants and their explosions will accurately and realistically cause the plants to deform. You can set trees on fire and watch the fire grow and catch onto the leaves, which will incinerate to nothingness.
And this extends to the man made environments, as well. You can blow up explosive barrels and watch every object fly from the blow radius. The physics in this game are just amazing and fun to play with. Even if you don't care about the story or the missions, the game is well worth getting for playing with the physics alone.
The environments are also very detailed, maybe not as detailed or realistic as Crysis, but still quite amazing. Watch as the wind blows against the tall blades of grass and watch as they sway back and forth. With the occasional sightings of grazing zebras, wildebeests, gazelles, and other herbivores, and you have a sense of being alive in this world.
The combat system of this game is also very complex, as are the tasks that you must do to stay alive.
For starters, the character you play as is diagnosed with malaria, and you must periodically pop in pills to suppress the effects. When you run out, you need to go to the doctor or a priest. If you are injured during a firefight, watch as your player actually pries out the bullets from his wounds, wraps a bandage around them, and inject himself with a needle.
And for the first time that I can recall in a first-person shooter, the guns that you fire can jam and break -- something that you need to manually fix or even discard and replace. The vehicles you drive are also subject to the same imperfections. Cars will break down, and the player must actually pop open the hood and tighten up loose bolts on the engine with a socket wrench.
Indeed, Far Cry 2 is a first-person shooter with a sense of reality that also manages not to be frustrating. Far Cry 2 truly steps up a level in the first-person shooter genre.
There is no sci-fi element to Far Cry 2 like its predecessors. No connection to its predecessors whatsoever. Having said that, this is the game's biggest weakness.
Despite innovative gameplay and stunning environments, Far Cry 2 should not be considered a Far Cry game, but should be a different game entirely. I would have rather had Far Cry 2 continue the adventures of protagonist Jack Carver in another campy sci-fi survival setting, maybe or maybe not in the African savanna.
There is so much beauty and amazement to behold in Far Cry 2, but the fact that it's even considered in the Far Cry cannon is its biggest weakness. It should be a different game altogether. But regardless, Far Cry 2 is a wonderful game on its own and worth the price as a standalone game franchise.
