I’m going to split this review up into three categories, each with its very own heading: Singe Player, Online Multiplayer and Final Word.
Single Player
So, the whole thing starts off with you selecting a personality from each of the 9 available at the start. Will you be the creepy Irishman or the old man from one of the ‘Stans in eastern Europe? Really, it’s up to you. Supposedly picking your character alters your storyline ever so slightly. If you’re on the fence about who you want to be, just pick someone, you’ll be seeing the other 8 folks as NPCs throughout your gaming experience. You’ll make friends, earn missions and even be saved from death a few times. They can die though, so don’t let someone you like kick the bucket… From there you’re brought thru the heart of a generic African, war-torn country side via the back seat of a car. It’s a lot like the opening bit in Call of Duty 4; as you ride along you’ll witness some things that aim to bring up the immersion of the experience. Too bad for me, because my voice-track cut out about half-way through the cutscene. I had to watch that thing like five times over before I got to hear my driver for the entire ride. Yea, that’s weird. I haven’t seen any other reports of something like this on the net yet, so perhaps my experience can be considered an isolated case.
You’re given a mission in Far Cry 2, and it’s extremely basic (much like the story)… there’s a weapons dealer named The Jackal somewhere out there in the 50 square km of terrain and it’s your job to hunt him down and eliminate him. Sure, the storyline clocks in at over 30 hours (for me, anyways), so there’s clearly a lot more to this game than that. You’ll make contacts by committing acts of violence and warfare between the two battling sects. Earn some rep, meet some people, and slowly the story unfolds. I do mean slowly, by the way; it’s going to be a while before you even get into the heart of hunting down that damned weapons trader. I can safely say that at 10 hours in to the game I wasn’t even near the meat of the story. So, if you’re looking for a compelling ride like the one in GTA IV, you’re not going to find it. Things don’t start picking up seriously until the latter part of the game.
Oh yea, you’ve got malaria. Forgot to mention that. I’m sure you’ve read reviews elsewhere by now that have brought up this mechanic. Every so often your screen goes green and fuzzy, you press a button and pop a pill, the shit clears up and you move on. It’s easy except for the fact that the pills eventually run out. You’ll be performing a lot of increasingly difficult missions to get medicine essential to keep your illness in check. It’s an okay part of the game, but it isn’t necessary. All it does is interrupt you during driving, walking or, and this sucks big time, fighting. It really rearranges your priorities when you start getting sick in a gun fight. Yea, YOU try to take cover in order to pop a pill when some crazy, shirtless rebel is bearing down on your with a beat up AK-47.
That’s what the game is all about really, keeping up the level of realism and immersion. Animations are slick, sprinting is realistic, gunfire is as awkward as it should be. From start to finish, Far Cry 2 is one of the most realistic shooters out right now. If you get shot too many times you have to take a break and rip a bullet out of a random part of your body; yes, there is an animation… and yes, it does look entirely badass.
One thing that Ubisoft has been touting since the beginning of this hype train was the fire effects. Start a fire and it will spread. Use explosives, Molotov cocktails, you name it… if it lights up, you can burn down part of the savannah with it. And it is impressive. You’ll be able to tactically use fire to tear apart guard camps. Start a fire on either side and watch the flames eat their way through your enemies. You can play the role of clean-up crew as you sweep through the charred area killing off those that escaped the blaze. The only thing that I can complain about in regards to the fire physics is that it’s always over too fast. You’ll set a fire and it’s over within a minute. Even when there’s more dry grass to leap towards, the fire will simply go out after time. Maybe it’s something that the game engine got in the way of, who knows, it’s only a minor knock.
Pick up a rusty gun off of the ground and it’s going to jam up and eventually explode. Ram your car around too much and you’ll have to hop out, pop the hood and apply elbow grease vigorously. This is the highlight the game, in my opinion. Ubisoft did a wonderful job on creating a world that feels real. It lives, breathes and is difficult to traverse. This is 50 square km we are talking about; you shouldn’t be able to get around quickly. And you can’t. Nearly 30 minutes of every mission is going to be spent travelling. You’ll walk a lot, and when that doesn’t cut it you’ll hop into a dune buggy. There are bus stops, but even they are tough to get to. Yet it’s cool and rewarding, but if you’re looking for fast thrills then maybe this isn’t the one for you.
Online Multiplayer
A big drawing force for first person shooter games is always the multiplayer aspect. With titles like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4, the standard for a good shooter is set incredibly high. It takes a lot for a game to even register as a blip on the radar. And, unfortunately, Far Cry 2’s multiplayer side falls short. In-game it’s nothing more than a run of the mill title. Objectives you’re used to, mechanics you’re familiar with. Nothing really stands out. There are classes here, and you can buy upgrades with diamonds you earn through exp. You’ll be able to rank up, which is cool. A lot of the bonus stuff is drawn from Call of Duty 4. It doesn’t feel original, which is a problem.
The only thing that stands out is the map editor. It’s robust, to say the least, and you’ll waste hours of time on creating your own maps. Nearly limitless, you’re given a tool set and a blank slate. Go. No tutorial, nothing like that, you’ll have to sit down and figure this out. It isn’t TOO complicated, but the controls can be wonky at times. You’ll feel like you should navigate easily around, but it’s more than simply point and click. But what this editor does create is a limitless potential for user content. The community is bound to come up with insane maps. You can’t make your own game types, but the potential environments are unreal. Control weather, terrain, time of day, objects and placement… this is way more epic than Halo 3’s, in my opinion, subpar editor.
Also, I’ve had friends that have run into huge problems when trying to party up. They tried for around 30 minutes with no luck. That’s not the intuitive multiplayer party-ups that we’re used to as gamers.
Final Word
Far Cry 2 is huge. It’s going to take you forever to beat. The game earns little in terms of legs where the multiplayer is concerned. It’s enough to keep you entertained for a little while, but it certainly won’t hold your attention in this incredible holiday season. The realism is fantastic, but little hang-ups are going to tear you out of the action. How about this? When gun down an animal you get nothing, no blood, no kick back, nothing… they just drop to the ground. Enemies don’t always take hits from bullets in the way you would expect them to. It’s small stuff like that that will manage to pull you away from pure bliss.
Yet the game is too good to be ignored. This is big, really, and any fan of large, open-world games will love Ubisoft’s take on the genre. Give it a go, but don’t expect solid gold from the experience.
Crave Online Rating: 8 out of 10
