Far Cry 2 Review

David Wells

Picture walking through the swelteringly hot plains of Africa with a pack of syringes, a map, grenades, Molotovs, medicine, a machete, an AK-47, a pistol and an RPG Launcher. Tires you out just thinking about it, doesn’t it? Well, for the characters of Far Cry 2 this is a reality- but you don’t see them complaining! From the start of the game you can tell that it’s going to just get better and better- and the game does not disappoint. You start off in the back of a Jeep being driven to the main town in the north territory, when all of a sudden you start to suffer from a random attack of Malaria and pass out. Waking up in a hotel, you are thrown into a scene of madness with the APR and the UFLL in an all-out war in the streets, prompting a quick tutorial before you’re thrust head first into the conflict.

Now, when it comes to games such as Far Cry it’s much better to experience it in all its glory on the PC- but I thought I’d give the 360 version a chance and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed. The controls are extremely easy to adapt to, many of them even being customisable.

The map of Far Cry 2 is absolutely immense! It is extremely large and has all sorts of cool places to go explore- there’s swamp lands, waterfalls, rural towns, ruins, airfields and even trash dumps. There’s just so much thought that has gone into both the northern and southern territories. From what I’ve seen the PC version of Far Cry 2 displays the best quality graphics ,but the 360 version still has vast beautiful landscapes with brilliant textures and a huge amount of detail put into even the smallest things (the PS3 version is presumably the exact same). To complement the breath-taking scenery Ubisoft have developed a 24 hour system, which means a day in Far Cry 2 is a day in the real world- the sky will get darker or lighter depending on the time your console clock is set on and just watching the sun rise is amazing. They’ve also really put a lot of effort into the elements- the rain is realistic, the wind just blows you away (no pun intended) and the fire propagation system is utterly brilliant. It’s easily the most up to date system in gaming history. I love how the spreading of the fire is very realistic and it’s brilliant how the A.I respond to the it- they try to manoeuvre themselves and find a way around it, out of its path.

There are also a huge amount of things to do in this game- you can rack up over 30 hours of game play not even doing the main story! This will include things such as assassinating a target, stopping a convoy of weapons reaching its destination, general exploring and finding random suitcases with a small amount of diamonds in them (not really worth looking for, but there is just something that won’t let me drive away when the detector goes off…you become obsessed with finding every last piece of diamond in this vast land). The main story itself lacks character development- it would have been a vast improvement if they had an individual story going on for each of the characters you can pick to be at the start but there isn’t, which is a real shame as with a bit more character development this game could have achieved a lot more. The story itself is a bit dull; it’s just a case of running back and forth between two rival factions, doing missions for them both until you finally catch up with the Jackal who has been supplying both sides with weapons- it won’t be winning any awards any time soon.

Another problem I have with this game and I have had with all the games before it is the A.I.- it can be very buggy at times. I’ve had a moment where I’ve shot one of the guards in the back and the guy next to him just stood there watching me whilst I approached him with a machete!
Another problem is that they seem to be experts at tracking. For instance, if you run from a battle then they’ll pretty much follow you to the ends of the earth if you’re on foot. If you’re in a vehicle it’s a whole different story..well..not that much different, as it’s pretty much the same but they chase you around in a vehicle of their own gunning you down until your car breaks down, which means you have to hop out take out the pursuers and then hop back in and drive off, which can get extremely repetitive and frustrating.

The multiplayer on this game isn’t too great, it feels like call of duty mixed with well..Far Cry I guess, most people would think this is a great combination but it just doesn’t work well. Also, the lack of offline multiplayer is huge let down- Far Cry: Instincts predator was a great offline game because you could bring friends round and have a laugh by playing on silly and wacky maps you’ve made in the map editor, but sadly due to the sheer awesomeness of the scenery the 360 can’t handle offline split screen.

This isn’t too bad though, as its still extremely fun to play on the maps which other people have created online. The map editor in Far Cry 2 is utterly brilliant! There are so many tools and so many objects and landscaping tools that you are only limited by your imagination..and the object limit of course.

Finally, I have to mention this little thing, which has kept me entertained through the whole of the game. When you reach the last little rectangle of your health bar you begin to bleed out, if you are quick enough you can tap LB and you will heal yourself in some extremely gruesome way (such as prying out bullets our snapping your ankle back into joint). We had great fun grossing Scully out with this, the daft ponce.
Far Cry 2 is like a science experiment- first of all you take the original chemical (which I shall refer to as Far Cry 1) and pour it into a sieve. By seiving away the impurities (such as trigens and tacky Hawaiian shirts) you’re left with the perfect bits (such as beautiful detail and fun game play). You then add a new chemical, which shall be referred to as Awesomesauce. This includes new things, such as real time game play, more freedom and beautiful detail to weather and lighting effects. Once added leave it to set for over a year and ta dah! The experiment is now a success and you can enjoy over 50 hours of killing people for shiny stones! Beware though- there is a hideous side effect: everybody will hate you, chase you in Jeeps with mounted guns on them and scream nasty things at you. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

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