I had no intension of buying Far Cry 2, especially after the last iteration didn’t do so well. It was one of those “spur –of-the-moment” things, with the thought of simply returning it in 7 days. Here weeks later and I still have the game and I’m one happy gamer, here’s why.
Far Cry 2 puts you as a hired gun aimed at bringing down “The Jackal”, a gun-runner who arms the two established factions that are currently at war with each other (APR and UFLL). When you start the game you take your pick of six characters, those left will become your “buddies’ throughout the game.
Touching down in Africa you come down with malaria, sides missions will help you get medicine to control the random ‘malaria attacks’ that you will encounter.
To bring down the target you have been set, you must work your way through the various missions to gain information about him. Being a hired gun, you don’t really care whose side your on to get these missions, whether it be the APR or the UFLL. You also encounter buddy missions that bring a spin to the main missions you encounter but at the end of it you always end up having to save them from death.
In one of the first missions that took place, my buddy and I were under heaver fire, after several minutes of constant fighting, we finally dealt with them. I paused the game to check “our” stats, but it wasn’t “we” . . . it was I. My very first buddy had died in combat without me even knowing and there was nothing I could do, when they are gone, they are gone.
What is great about this game is the decisions you must to make. These decide your fate in the game, and in which direction the game will be taking you. Who will ally with you, who will give you missions, who will chase you down and try and kill you throughout the game.
Having choice is where the game is at its best. Whether or not you save your buddies determines their ability to help you later on in the game. You can even decide whether or not you want to do missions together. This allows you great freedom, and when combined with very realistic graphics and environments in which your walk, drive or even swim through, it makes for a great experience.
One of the main features is the “fire system” within the game. It is very realistic and spreads in whichever way the wind is travelling. Trees, buildings anything in its path will burn. Use it to fight. But it can also go against you, so be careful which way the wind is blowing when you set things on fire. This can very usefully if you’re taking the stealthy option setting up a diversion to keep the wondering guards busy wile you compete the main objective.
You will come across various guard posts, safe houses, outposts that are guarded which you can deal with, or not.
With guard posts you will find them typically at major intersections throughout the maps (there are 3) and can be a real pain if you just want an effortless drive from point A to point B without having to deal with someone along the way.
If you do take the time and effort to deal with them, you are rewarded with health and ammunition. Safe houses are very similar, and usually protected by 3-5 guards, but once you have killed all the guards, it’s unlocked with the added features of saving the game and picking up stored weapons.
When fighting swarms of APR or UCLL, you may face the fact that you have ran out of ammo, and critically wounded and everyone is trying desperately to kill you. What is a man to do? You can pick up enemy weapons.
However, there is a catch, isn’t there always. As with all things in the game, they wear out. All of the guns you will pick will have a certain degree unreliability, will jam in the midst’s of gun fights or it could simply explode in your hands.
In conclusion Far Cry 2 is in its own league and sets the bar high for first person shooters; it offers visual pleasing graphics and dense, rich environments that you find yourself lost in, combine this with realistic scenarios, you can go wrong buying this game.
GF365: "There are some games with extraordinary visuals that impress us to this day. Here are old games with outstanding graphics."
Same as Killzone 2 and 3, uncharted 2 and 3, Infamous 2, Heavy Rain, Resistance 3
I wish this was entirely true, but you might want to load up Killzone 2 and Resistance 3 again.
@jason I watched some gameplay videos of KZ2 and R3 on my full screen. They are on par or succeed graphically to the first person shooters mentioned in the article that also launched on the seventh generation of consoles. Try the same and see what you think
Killzone 3 was super impressive! I could not believe the graphics back then as I was regularly pausing the game to stand in awe looking at the surroundings! Resistance however did not impress me that much. Heavy rain is also another amazing graphically speaking game. It almost felt next gen
I always thought the first 3 Gears of War games looked great and still hold up for today.
They did for their day. I recently played gears judgement with on the 360 and the draw distance was so blurry. The characters up close look great though
Far Cry 2 was awesome. In addition to having demonstrably better physics and AI than later games in the series, it had a lot of design decisions that, criticized at the time, have since been praised in games like BOTW and Dark Souls.
It might not be super amazing by today's standard but I thought Mgs3 looked really good
Since the first game was released in 2004, Far Cry has set the standard on fantastic open-world shooters.
I would put 5 above 6 but agree with the other ratings. Though 6 has more refined gameplay compared to 5 it's lack of a compelling story really does hurt it imo but if you are a gameplay fiend and don't really care about story it makes sense.
Faceless Gaming's Greg Segal writes: Why Far Cry 2 is Still the Superior Game of the Franchise.
The game was pretty amazing. I remember the random unscripted nature of the game, I was driving away from bad guys then got malaria attack, crashed into a tree. Hid, took my pills. Shot, fixed my car and drive away before more bad guys showed up. It was intense, to make sure u did missions to get the pills while completing the main game. Remember taking down a huge enemy gas tank from a mile away with tons of enemies at the fort. Shot a rocket and they all mobilized to my position. But I just drove off before they could. This kind of game you make your own memories, too many games now a days script everything. Just cause is also great in the same regard
Definitely not. Remove your nostalgia glasses and replay it to see why. It did a lot right, but what it did wrong truly ruined the experience that you definitely can get with a few of the others since then.
I replayed literally last week and to me at least, is still my favourite, the atmosphere does it for me the most
Is it really that fricking hard to respect someone else's opinion? Or at least if you won't respect it, then at least give valid arguments instead of just hating for no reason.
All it had to do was tone down the malaria episodes and enemy respawns. Seems like some pretty minor inconveniences when it made for the most immersive and atmospheric far cry still to date. What has the newest far crys offered? A pot burning mission to some raggae with terribly stupid ai? Gimme more of that far cry 2 vibe
The handling of respawns is not a minor inconvenience. It's a core element of the gameplay that affected every aspect of the game. It's also my biggest gripe with Far Cry 6, which isn't as bad as Far Cry 2. It's insanely stupid to stop one medical vehicle and then to see them continually spawn new enemy vehicles one after the other. It doesn't add to the story, doesn't make it more challenging, it just wastes time, and does it in the laziest of fashions.
Don't get me started on the insane respawn on certain areas, such as the airport, if you go there outside of the story to collect chests. In a game that preaches exploration, to put up respawn silliness as a barrier makes no sense.
Agreed.
The fire burning and Africa was cool, but the outpost system was horrendous and enemies litterally respawned by just doing a 360 in place.
Also gun jamming was cool for like the first 10 minutes.
Definitely the highpoint of the series. You were completely immersed in the environment and there was no pausing the game to look at the map or to instantly fast travel to anywhere. But hey - Far Cry 3 had Vaas who you fought as a quicktime event in a FPS, Texas holdem, and the ability to hunt animals to craft a backpack to hold more animal skins so you could craft a holster instead of just taking one off of the many people you kill.
Far Cry 3 was the best game in the series and the last game I enjoyed. After that the franchise went downhill.
Same goes for Assassin’s Creed. I enjoyed the series up until Black Flag. After that it’s just more of the same and not interesting anymore.
True. The last good Ubisoft AAA game I've played was probably Watch Dogs 2. Tried the demo for Legion and it seems like an abysmal, soulless shell of a game, like most Ubisoft franchises nowadays.
AC2 Revelations though? That was hot garbage. And Syndicate and Origins were way better than Black Flag.
I agree, not with the Far Cry part because I didn't play 3, but with the Assassin's creed part.
AC 3 was not a masterpiece, it had flaws but Ubisoft fixed that in Black Flag, then Rogue came and it was the same as Black Flag, it only had small differences. Maybe Syndicate and Unity were also good, mainly because of the movements, but it kept the essence. But in Origins and Odyssey the franchise was extremely different, it didn't feel like an AC game at all.
3 did some stuff better, but also some stuff worse. Playing it made me miss the relentless AI, weapon degradation, interactive map, buddy system, extensive player animation set, and environmental destruction of 2. Also wasn't a fan of 3's end game where if you clear out all the enemy outposts you're pretty much stuck only fighting animals, boring.
The atmosphere was certainly the best in far cry 2 the world was much more harsh gun jamming brutal animations death at every corner compared to 6 where after three hours I was a one man army.
But checkpoint respawns really killed it for me and made it a huge chore.
After 20 hours of gameplay time I just finished up with FarCry 2 myself. Your review was spot on with how I felt about the game as well.
FarCry 2 is a game Im really glad I didnt pass over.