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Far Cry 2

Real Africa?

Initially Far Cry 2 does a great job trying to immerse you in the game world. For a while, it truly feels like being a hired gun in some messed-up African nation. A lot of effort has gone towards immersion and realism - you are always "in character". If you look at a map, your character digs out a paper map and a GPS unit. If you apply some first aid to a wound, the character may be seen pulling out a bullet from a wound or applying some bandage. If you enter a car, your character actually enters and sits in the car - everything is shown from the first person perspective and there are almost no shortcuts taken with it. You even end up suffering from malaria with appropriate visual effects simulating your condition, requiring you to reach for some pills at the most unfortunate moments to keep you on your feet.

Real map and a GPS unit. Realism!

Please, stop shooting me for a bit, I have to take my medicine.

All this attention to detail is the reason why all the flaws in the game world stand out like a sore thumb. Problems that otherwise could be shrugged of as part of the game become painful to watch and the feeling of a real living, breathing country just isn't there. Biggest problem is that you soon figure out that there are no civilians - only sightings are during scripted missions when the story makes a point about them. Everyone you meet on the field is carrying an gun and everyone immediately shoots at you, from their maximum range, before they could possibly determine who you are.

I could understand a hostile response if I shoot at someone or actually get so close that they could figure out who I am, but these super-soldiers apparently shoot everyone first and ask questions later. The story may talk about two factions battling it out, but in practice it's a nation of armed thugs against one man - all while you are actually running missions for them. Sure, the mission-dealing boss warns that I would be on my own out there doing his dirty work "undercover", and that even his own men would shoot at me. It is still silly.

You can sneak about, but it is limited to crouching and hiding in the bushes - no crawling. You can also - in theory - create diversions to distract the hostiles. In practice, once you are spotted the enemies are very good at getting to you - so good, that the best way to proceed is to make some noise on purpose and then shoot everyone as they rush towards you. Saves you the trouble of hunting down every brown enemy blending to a brown background and avoids the risk of getting shot in the back just as you thought you had bypassed the checkpoint.

Hidden packages of Far Cry 2 provide diamonds for weapon unlocks.

Just order your guns on-line with those diamonds, and you'll have free lifetime supply at our country-wide network of dealers. Realism? Not here.

Available weaponry includes a wide selection of real pistols, assault rifles, sniper rifles, shotguns and heavy weapons. Weapons also have a condition based on the source. If you obtain a gun from the local arms dealer, it's brand new and reliable while a rusty second-hand firearm taken from the enemy tends to jam or outright break apart at the most inconsiderate moment. To make additional types available for purchase, you can run side missions for the gun merchants - repetitive side missions, but it's the thought that counts. Realistic so far, but then Far Cry 2 again becomes a game - additional guns are unlocked with diamonds found in hidden briefcases around the map, and once unlocked, an infinite supply of the type is available from every gun vendor across the map.

Overall the whole "real, living African country you can adventure in" just doesn't work. I mean, Far Cry 2 really tries - I'm sure the plans for that were very detailed and ambitious, and at some scripted special moments it feels like it, but in the end it just doesn't hold up. Sure, the early on the storyline tries to explain the lack of people by indicating that anyone who had the means has already left the country and that the place is a war zone. It still feels forced and unrealistic. As far as I know, in real life the biggest problem in conflicts like this is to figure out who wants to kill you and who is just an innocent bystander trying to survive. There are no bystanders in Far Cry 2 - just kill 'em all.

Heck, even the much-promoted African wildlife is just a couple of pointless animals roaming around. The pre-hype sure painted a picture of living African ecosystem. Nope, not in Far Cry 2.

Getting Around

The map is large - it's a major game feature that it's large, and I'm sure it was all developed in great detail before anyone tried how it actually plays. To get around, you can grab any of the numerous vehicles littering the otherwise so wild landscape. Mostly cars and jeeps, but there are some trucks, boats and a hang glider as well.

Initially I thought that actually keeping a working vehicle available would be important as the first thing you learn is how to fix a car. The distances are impractical to cover on foot and one can't expect to carjack a new set of wheels after each mission in the middle of Africa now can you? Well, actually, you can. Most points of interest have cars parked outside and in case you can't find one, you can just jog to the nearest major road. Very soon a hostile jeep will patrol by, ready to be "liberated" and re-purposed as your new vehicle.

Driving in a sandbox game has usually been barely bearable. GTA IV actually admitted this by adding the taxi feature for those who are tired of driving. If driving in the busy traffic of New York can get boring, you can guess that driving around the lifeless map of Far Cry 2 is boring - and the mediocre physics model doesn't exactly help. You also have to remember that everyone will take a shot at you so if you run into something that isn't a piece of lifeless terrain, odds are it's out to kill you. Every vehicle you meet on the road is always a military jeep with a crew that will try to ram and shoot you. Every road has checkpoints with enough armed thugs to ensure that casual drive-through is not a workable solution. Repetitive and not very realistic. Clearing or bypassing a checkpoint is fun for the first few times, after that you just want to get to your destination. As a final insult, enemies respawn very rapidly - you end up killing the exact same thugs at the exact same checkpoints on your way back that you killed on your way in.

In fact, it appears that even the developers figured out at some point that the travel was not fun. As a last-minute band-aid fix, both map areas of the game are dotted with five "bus stations". You can instantly teleport from one station to any other, cutting down travel time considerably. In a game that is so proud for being immersive, the jarring bus engine sound coupled with the instant teleportation feels like a quick hack it is. You never see any buses moving anywhere and the buses don't actually have a route - you can use one of these invisible ghost buses only to teleport between the designated locations, and it doesn't matter how many checkpoints full of armed thugs out to get you are between the bus stations - click, and you are there.

To further ensure that the work towards immersing you to a game world is ultimately a wasted effort, the game world is one of the worst examples of a "videogame map" I've seen in a while. The landscape is dotted with impassable terrain and bottlenecks. Sure, Far Cry 2 doesn't actually box you in with flimsy fences or other "obstacles" and the terrain looks believable with sheer cliffs blocking your way, but that doesn't change the fact that overall the play area feels artificial. In case you try to exit the play area, you inevitably pass out and find yourself at the border of the sandbox.

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: GameplayPage 3: Graphics, FOV IssuesPage 4: Performance, Visual QualityPage 5: Multiplayer, Summary and Scoring

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