Buy Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 is an action open world game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released in October 2008. You, play as a mercenary sent into Africa in the midst of a war between the APR and UFLL. Both sides are wanting power and control of the nation. This review will discuss the campaign and the open world element and provide a general recommendation in the conclusion.

Far Cry 2 features a very good and tight campaign. The story is simple, you are a merc and you will bid for any of the factions that pay you the most. The caveat is you have to complete missions for both sides, which do eventually learn that you are doing work for the enemy. Story-wise, the game really drives down the power hungry aspect of things in which you have to assassinate leaders, and multiple of them. It’s a strong narrative and I immensely enjoyed the story and the twisting elements of it. Furthermore, I did not experience the 'Ubisoft bug' where it hits about 15 hours in the game and it feels like a chore to complete it, which is a refreshing thing to say about an older Ubisoft game.

The main characters in the game, whether it is enemy characters or allied buddies, have distinct personalities. In particular, your buddies have a very brief journal in the game that allows you to discover and learn of their background. Buddies are important because when you gain a main mission they contact you to provide an alternative approach to the mission, which has many benefits including making the mission easier, increasing your reputation and upgrading your safe house. Further into the game it becomes fairly irrelevant as you get more powerful.

The open world element is very nice, it isn't too large but it isn't small. There are two maps, both have safe zones, and a variety of areas including enemy guard posts, gun shops, and so forth. All of these provide the open world aspect of it. Furthermore, the side missions actually add to the game. For instance, you can get missions from the church to help you cure your malaria illness, which is essential. Or, you can go to the gun shop and do their specific missions to unlock more weapons for you to purchase. In other words, side missions are not filler, rather the majority of them add to the experience of the game.

The gameplay portion is absolutely fun and realistic. If you have shoddy weapons for example, they can jam mid-battle causing you to flee before retackling the objective. The story is realistic in that there is no money, rather the currency is diamonds. I enjoyed the little things in the game per say as they added realism to the game.

I experienced some notable annoyances and glitches. The first was the health system because the enemy somehow have very accurate accuracy as it hurts if they hit you and it takes several bullets to hit them, which actually becomes annoying and unrealistic. Furthermore, I absolutely hated enemies automatically respawning at guard posts. Second, when you answer the phone during missions or at any time during the game, the dialogue does not pop up on the screen and there is no sound, meaning there is a glitch. Lastly, there were multiple crashes when trying to save the game.

Far Cry 2 is a pretty good game. It features a thrilling story that is both compelling and immersive. It provides a very realistic and accurate take on the current state of civil war in Africa in contemporary times. I enjoyed the gameplay, in particular the elements that made it more realistic such as weapon jamming and weapons getting rusty. In contrast, there are major glitches relating to dialogue and crashes that did hurt my play-through. I feel this game would have been excellent provided there was no multiplayer and the focus was the single player as it was nearly great. In saying that, I totally recommend this game, as I enjoyed it considerably.

8/10

- Excellent story with twists and turns.
- Gameplay.
- Realism.
- Side missions as they did not feel like filler content.

- Crashes.
- Bugs within the game.
- Enemy AI, in relation to gameplay but also enemy respawning.

If you found this review helpful, please give it a thumbs up. If you would also like to follow my reviews more easily, be sure to join my group Antwog's Analysis (Reviews).

http://store.steampowered.com/app/19900/

"See that plane? Last one out of the country"

This review contains a good amount of history so the game is less confusing to people who arent fresh on African History, you have been warned.

Farcry 2 is a game that will at first, confuse people from the newer games in the farcry series.

To the untrained eye, this is a brutal, not fun, masochism sim. You will die, you will kill people you care about because they beg you to. You will run in the jungle away from packs of native Africans who are dying to cut your tendons and leave you to starve, but Malaria will get you first.

To kill the confusion, lets have some background

Farcry 1 was essentially a linear half life style shooter, albeit an incredibly difficult one. It has almost nothing in common with farcry 3 and 4, which can be summed up as giant playgrounds of 0 difficulty.

Farcry 2 is a mix. Open world, brutal, Quick tutorials, no holding your hand. This is Africa, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, not some cute little island, not the scenic mountains of India, every ♥♥♥♥ing thing in this country wants to kill and eat you, the people most of all.

The big components of later games, stealth, vehicles, first aid in first person, etc, are present here, but are not given to you nicely. You may not even realize the stealth system, exists until you are in a bush with 10 men with machetes walking by on the road, and they dont see you.. puzzling you as you realize this game is deeper than it looked.

In addition to all the features of later games, this game also has a ton of immersion. Your map is actually pulled out to use it, you get to pick from a selection of (Sadly only male) Characters and your choice affects your viewmodel, etc. Fire is even more realistic than later games and will change entire battles for minutes at a time, and is dynamic, If say for instance the fire spreads over a guys dropped gun or an ammo cache, the bullets might start going off from the heat, and best of all, guns deteroriate, and actually jam, realistically. One last mentionable feature which is quite interesting, is enemies in this game actually behave like people. They arent ludicrous men of no fear, they actually panic, and even flee. You will find yourself sniping a small outpost, and the last man you try to kill will book it into the jungle, the battle music stops, you raise a brow, you run around in the outpost like a tard trying to get him to notice you, assuming he just lost sight of you or ran the wrong way by accident, but hes gone, he didnt want to die and instead of sitting around like every other NPC in every other game waiting to be shot, he ran away, Fight AND flight are represented here.

To be fair and describe both pros and cons, the game is missing a few features. There are no dangerous animals such as lions or crocodiles (The game devs felt this would make an already unfair and cruel game too frustrating, but I wish they had added them) Theres some very "African" scenarios that were never played on, such as hunting or big dangerous game with a large caliber gun, for instance. And one feature I feel would be super nice to have had is the ability to use a gun in cars, not while driving like Farcry 3 and 4, but just pull up your gun, letting go of the wheel, that kinda thing. You get ambushed by people in cars with massive machineguns in the back ALOT in this game, so having to change seats or get out of the car every time is a -massive- pain.

If you don't know anything about Africa, this game will also fly completely over your head, so let me spell out some stuff.

This game models itself after African countries such as Angola, which were heavily affected by the cold war. Multiple sides, sporting nicknames like UNITA or the MPLA, sprouted up. These sides usually were based on their tribal and ethnic origins, but they pretended to be for whoever was sending them weapons. An MPLA officer may scream joy for the soviets who buy my guns, joy for communism, but what he means is "Joy for my Tribe" the two sides in most of these battles cannot be told apart, and in this game that occurs too, which confuses many a player trying to find which one they want to support.

Once the cold war died down, these factions had lost their free toys, so now we have a bunch of tribes armed with ridiculously lethal weapons and no backers, so they start mining Africa's rich Diamond deposits and selling them off. These "Blood diamonds" fund wars in Africa that essentially still go on today.

So, in this game, you are a merc hired to track down a man who trades weapons for these diamonds. To do so, you work with various factions whose names are all acronyms just like real life African war-factions. You may also get jobs from certain locals, missionaries, "Princes" to take care of dirty work in a country abandoned by the world. You will fight men with machetes, rockets, flamethrowers, but Africa itself is your worst enemy. Between psycho wildlife, malaria always a mere spell of sickness away, and the humidity and weather rotting your guns into dust in your own hands, this country wants you dead.

Do not buy this game expecting Farcry 3 africa edition. Buy this game expecting a rust-style survival simulator. Buy this expecting to be confused, afraid, lost, and desperate. Read heart of darkness, watch apocalypse now, get in that mood, that is the point. Do not buy this if you are afraid of unfair odds or unwinnable situations.

The last bit ill touch on is the buddy system. This was introduced to make resource management and the overall stress level even more horrifying. You have people, who will try to help you stay alive in various ways. You have a main one and can have side ones, and theyll actually exist and can be found in "Mikes bar" and they interact with eachother and you. They can do a number of things, giving you info, offering alternate ways to take on missions (These ways drastically alter the way a mission is played and are up to you to choose or not) and If you "die" they may save you, drag you to safety, etc. But they can die, in battle, on the way back, heck, you might be saved, 30 minutes later find your bleeding out on the side of a riverbank, some militants in an airboat shot him up? Why? because he was there. You can heal him, with one of your expensive needles, but what if you are out? then you can leave him there I suppose.

But he will beg you to end it... Embrace the pistol you put to his face, and you will pull the trigger.

The last plane out left as you arrived. Death is the only way out now.

Far Cry 2 is the sequel of the FPS Far Cry, this time set in the heat of Africa. It involves hunting down "The Jackal", the feared arms-dealer that fueled the war between two nations. Meanwhile, you're also constantly fighting against your contracted malaria.

PROS:
+ Long gameplay
+ A very worthy game for its price
+ Good graphics, despite its age
+ Immediate freeroaming
+ Packed with the Fortune's Pack DLC
+ A good variation of satisfying-to-use guns
+ Lovable open nature of flora and fauna (as cheesy as that sounds)
+ Raiding outposts and towns is incredibly fun

CONS:
- The missions and various subjects (music, sounds, voice lines, etc.) are slightly repetitive
- The health system and certain damage sources are a bit odd/unrealistic
- The voice acting sounds like it is sped up somtimes

It's a little hard to explain why, but this game really feels like a masterpiece; it plays smoothly, it's fun and feels a little realistic as well. Definitely one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played.

My rating: 9/10

Like Far Cry 3, but slightly less streamlined, less quest / notification markers and (in my opinion) a far nicer and bigger map.
Honestly I did prefer FC3 when it came out, but after re playing it, I absolutely love the freedom you get with FC2, you're not CONSTANTLY nagged by the game to do the next mission with a ♥♥♥♥ing obnoxious phonecall every time you die / load a game. You just pick and chose what you want to do at your own pace and I love that.
Plus all the little secrets, hidden diamonds have you spending hours trying to figure out how to get up a cliff, take special routes. Its great.
It has its flaws, for a start the muddy graphical filter and occasionally bizarre AI.. But 2 mods easily fix that. Check MODDB - Dylans mod and SWEETFX.
I've been replaying this for the past 7hrs, so underrated.

2 words can describe the whole game.
Mercenary Simulator.
It's like, an actual merc simulator.

Looking back, this game was WAY ahead of its time. Though there is the off glitch here and there, the mechanics are strikingly modern.

For start offs this game Far Cry 2 is good value for money, especcially on sale. I clocked over 54 hours on it and there still side missions available or buddy missions. This Game seemed to get a lot of bad press when it came out and in a way thats a reason i avoided it until a month ago. This bad press was unfair in my view, theres a good game in there if you give it a chance. The gunplay is quite good with the added feature of your guns jamming through aging or general abuse, no other game has that feature i have ever seen. This feature actually adds to a firefight when you are in the middle of one in the adrenaline rush to get your gun back up and running. The graphics for a 2008 game are reallly good too and the African countryside of Savannah, desert and jungle are spectacular looking. This open world feature is one of the games strongpoints. I didnt have any real complaints about the game other than mercenary checkpoints do respawn after you clear them out but its no real issue. The Dialogue in the game can go very fast sometimes too.
This is an underrated game and for the price is definitley good value.

if any game ever had a good direct approach at being a mercenary in warn torn africa, then it would be this. diamonds are also currency for weapons.

Far Cry 2 is an open world FPS where you play as a merc hunting down "The Jackal"; a notorious arms dealer that has armed two warring factions (APR and UFLL) in an Unnamed African Country (UAC).

In terms of gameplay, you will spend most of your time doing the following:
-Driving through the jungle, savannah, desert, and rural town settings of the UAC.
-Shooting, exploding, burning, or sniping your way through hostile outposts, infrastructure buildings taken over by enemies, and the roads of the UAC.
-Looking for diamond cases.
-Completing main missions for both the APR and the UFLL; (kill this guy, destroy this outpost, destroy part of the UAC’s infrastructure) and side missions that include buddy missions (kill this guy, blow up this structure, retrieve this object) , underground missions (give these passports to these refugees to get Malaria pills) gun runner missions(blow up this weapons convoy), and assassinations (kill random guy in suit and his bodyguards). These are all the mission varieties you will ever have.

I listed driving first because you will be doing it A LOT in this game. There are only four fast travel points (bus stations) per section of the map (two sections); and most of your missions will force you to drive even if you take a bus to be closer to your destination. Unfortunately, driving in Far Cry 2 is hampered tremendously by two things: enemy patrols and the overall terrain. You can't go for even 4 minutes of driving without some patrol truck hunting you down. It gets worse at the second act of the game, when they get heavy mounted MGs and even one hit kill grenade launchers. Your vehicle will get stuck all the time in small holes in the ground, rocks, tree roots, small trees, other cars, etc. At least there’s a wide and believable variety of vehicles to choose from, ranging from trucks, ATVs, actual Jeeps, and even a buggy.

The shooting in this game can be immensely satisfying. You can either go in guns blazing with machine guns, snipe from afar, use a mortar to thin out enemy positions, burn them with a flamethrower, or blow them up with RPGs. Stealth is supposedly an option, but the game isn’t really built for it since shooting even with silenced weapons alerts all the enemies in the vicinity.

There are a lot of weapons to choose from, including assault rifles, pistols, machine pistols, LMGs, RPGs, sniper rifles, grenade launchers, etc. Experimenting with these will be your main incentive to obtain more diamonds, which will allow you to buy more of these weapons and their respective accuracy and reliability upgrades. Weapon jams and explosions are a feature of the game. The longer you use a weapon, the more prone it is to jam and eventually explode, and since all enemies use worn out weapons, buying from the arms dealer with your diamonds is a must.

The combat AI in this game is well designed for the most part. Wound an enemy and his ally will come to his aid, allowing you to kill them both. Enemies will shoot towards your last known location, and if you’re no longer there, you can flank and shoot them with ease. The AI feels dynamic and believable, but it is relentless. If you’re spotted by an enemy patrol they will chase you, even on foot, and shoot you until you take them out. It can be quite overwhelming to face more than five of them at a time, because the foliage will prevent you from shooting back properly.

Now, this game has several underdeveloped ideas that all aim towards a more “realistic” experience, but only interrupt gameplay and annoy the player. The worst offender by far is Malaria. You will need Malaria pills to treat your symptoms for every 40 minutes of real time. If your Malaria goes untreated, you will faint and magically reappear at the nearest main city. It breaks the flow of gameplay during exploration and missions. Were it not for Malaria, you wouldn’t even touch the Underground missions.

You can repair any damage to your vehicles, (from explosions to machinegun fire) by tightening a single socket in the engine. Buying the vehicle’s manual (10-20 diamonds per manual), allows you to tighten the socket faster, but there are no changes in the animations or in the way you repair vehicles. Overall, it’s much simpler to find a new vehicle instead of stopping every 5 minutes to repair.

In terms of player progression and overall changes in the game world, this game is quite lacking. When completing main missions,none of the factions will care that you recently murdered their leaders and hundreds of their comrades. Your missions are supposed to be “top secret” which supposedly explains why every outpost and soldier wants you dead even if you’re doing missions for their faction. But really, it’s too obvious that the developers simply didn’t code friendly AI for the soldiers. You will destroy a lot of the country’s infrastructure: the train tracks, the morphine production centers, the Malaria pill shacks, the WATER PIPELINES, the diamond mines, etc. You can visit these places again and see the destruction firsthand, but the amount and types of enemies, the amount of drinking water, diamonds, Malaria pills and the way to obtain them, will pretty much remain the same. Your efforts to support either faction end up feeling pointless.

The same happens with buddy missions. You can have two buddies: One for upgrading the many safehouses throughout the UAC, and one that can come to your rescue if you get fatally wounded. You earn points by doing additional mission objectives for your buddy, or doing buddy missions, which is really pointless considering that a “level 3 buddy” will give you all the same benefits as a “level 15 buddy”. You never learn anything new from their stories, which are summed up in two or three sentences at most.

Hunting for diamond cases can be a lot of fun, but some of them seem to be impossible to reach. Nowadays it can be regarded as a way to pad out game length, but I found entertaining.

*SPOILERS*
The story in this game won’t pick up until the second act. You will support the equally tyrannical and selfish APR and UFLL because you’re looking for information about the whereabouts of the Jackal. But your character never really tries to learn where the Jackal is, and your employers never tell you anything. You will NEVER hunt down the Jackal, and by the third time you see him, you will be working with him. It just feels nonsensical because of all the people and infrastructure you will destroy for killing a single guy who probably caused less death and destruction than you did. The game justifies this change of heart by presenting the Jackal as a “humanist” who is tired of the war and wants to save the civilians, but it all feels forced.

The developers need to be given credit for how gorgeous the game looks even for 2016 standards, and the style that they chose for the game. The game runs smoothly and beautifully on modern rigs, and asides from a few AI glitches, everything looks, sounds, and feels as if you were in an actual African jungle, savannah, or desert. Structures, vehicles and weapons look used, broken down, barely functional, worn out. It really adds to the immersion in a spectacular way. The way you can create dynamic bushfires in this game is amazing and a viable strategy in the drier regions of the map.

Despite all all of its problems, inconsistencies, glitches, and underdeveloped ideas, this game can be a lot of fun. It took me a while to complecomplete my first playthrough on Infamous difficulty, along with all the side missions, almost all of the diamond cases, and all the weapon and vehicle upgrades. All the while, I was having a blast on the combat segments; even if the driving wasn’t so smooth and game progression was non-existent. I can safely recommend this game to anyone remotely interested in open world or FPS games, just know that this ride can get a bit bumpy.

REally great game! I played FC3 first and loved it so much I wanted to play the previous game and was amazed that it is just as good (except the lack of hunting animals to upgrade stuff despite there being animals in FC2.) You have plenty of awesome guns to buy after finding diamons hidden all over the place and a few vehicles and boats to drive around in. It is a few years old so Its not as diverse and in depth as the more current titles but its gameplay makes up for it.