"Beautiful, Despite the Malaria"

We all have those games that we miss the first time around. With the busy release schedule of modern gaming, no one has time to play everything. That is why we at WingDamage present to you “Fashionably Late Reviews“. This is our series on games from the current generation of consoles that we may have missed on their initial release, but have gone back to experience now.

You are dropped into Far Cry 2′s fictional African country at the height of a civil war with a very clear objective: eliminate the Jackal, the notorious arms dealer that sold weapons to both sides, igniting the conflict.

The African Savannah captured in Far Cry 2 is the perfect example of an open world done right. Dotted with unlockable safe houses and guard posts, the living, breathing world of Far Cry 2 is so expertly crafted that it becomes a character itself.

It can be as brutal and merciless as any of your AI enemies, and can be a more powerful ally that any of your NPC companions. Knowing how to use the deadly African landscape against your enemies is the key to success in Far Cry 2.

For example, starting a grass fire on a windy day can be dangerous if you don’t take time to think. Starting a fire in just the right place so that it burns through an enemy camp, efficiently killing your enemies inside can be very rewarding. In that same way, starting a fire that gets prematurely snuffed out by rain, or blown in a different direction by the wind, revealing your presence to any enemies in the area can be an extremely intense, frightening experience, and these are the kind of moments that make the game memorable.

At the beginning of the game, the player selects one of a handful of various mercenaries. All of the mercenaries available (other than the one that the player selects) are used as NPC “buddies” in the game. One of the first missions you are given will have you rescuing one of these mercenaries who, in turn, becomes your first buddy. You will always have a best buddy and a second best buddy (in the game. I can’t speak to your personal life -The Editor).

Your best buddy will provide you with optional objectives to subvert faction-given missions, provided he doesn’t get shot in the process. When subverting a faction mission with a buddy, it generally doubles the time spent on the mission, but some of the coolest moments in the game are during these special missions. Your second best buddy is there to rescue you whenever your health is depleted, which is something that happens quite a bit.

Although your ultimate goal is to kill the Jackal, most of the missions are given to you by one of the two waring factions; the UFLL, and the APR. You soon learn that neither faction is just in their actions, and that the ongoing conflict is hurting the country. There are no good guys or bad guys in Far Cry 2, there are just people. People with their own agendas and motives who won’t think twice about screwing you over. And believe me, they will.

There are a lot of interesting missions that can be given by factions. Although the basic mission objective is generally to either destroy thing “A” or kill person “B”, you never run out of ways to get the job done.

The game never discourages the use of any tactic during a mission. If you want to storm the legion fort with a shotgun and rocket launcher, go ahead. If you think the best way to kill the target is by shelling him from a mile away with a mortar, feel free. Just be ready for his troops to follow the smoke from the shell and hunt you down. I never once got bored with the mission structure. There is a certain pride that I felt as I watched my carefully planned attack unfold perfectly.

The combat, like the rest of the game, is very open ended. There is never a “right” or “wrong” way to enter a battle. I had the most fun sneaking into an enemy camp with a silenced MP5 assault rifle, a dart rifle, and a silenced pistol. Wiping out an enemy camp before anyone knew i was there was really rewarding. The straightforward approach can be just as fun, though. Using the flare pistol to start a grass fire, and waiting until the fire hits an ammo pile, sending bullets every which way, taking out a majority of the enemies, then, when the fire dies down, mopping up the stragglers with a shotgun. Those are just two of the hundreds of different ways to approach a combat scenario.

Your weapon load out consists of a primary, secondary and special weapon slot, as well as a machete. There is a lot of variety in those three categories. Primary weapons consist of mid-sized weapons such as sniper rifles, assault rifles, and shotguns. Secondary weapons are anything that will fit in a holster, such as pistols, SMG’s and I.E.D.’s. Special weapons are the largest of the three categories, and consist of rocket launchers, light machine guns and the infamous flamethrower.

The weapons are unlocked at arms dealers located in various areas on the map. To unlock a weapon for purchase, the player needs to complete a mission for the arms dealer. These missions always have the same objective; hunt down and destroy a supply truck somewhere on the map. These missions unlock 2-4 of the available weapons at a time. As fun as it is blowing up a truck with an I.E.D (improvised explosive device) or sniping the driver from long range, After two or three times, this structure starts to feel stale and repetitive.

Once a weapon is unlocked and purchased, upgrades for that weapon are unlocked as well. These upgrades only come in two forms: accuracy and reliability. This is where i feel the weapon system needed a lot more depth. Sure, an accuracy upgrade would be great for my AK47, and the reliability upgrade is nice to keep my weapon from jamming, but what about an upgrade to lower the recoil on a light machine gun?

The player can also purchase bandoleers and med kits to upgrade the amount of ammo or first aid that can be carried, but they have no effect on the performance of a weapon. Having only a few upgrade options seemed surprisingly lazy for a game with an otherwise large amount of depth.

Another interesting aspect of the game is the constant malaria that the player has to deal with. Throughout the entirety of the game, you will suffer malaria outbreaks every 40-60 minutes of real time. As long as you keep a supply of malaria pills on hand, it won’t be a problem. Once you run out of pills, you need to find a contact in the countries large underground movement to supply you with more of the medication.

There is online multiplayer, but it is nothing special. It has classes similar to Call of Duty 4, with the ability to gain experience and level up, getting new weapons, gear, Etc. The multiplayer map editor is a cool addition to the online aspect of the game. It lets you create custom multiplayer maps and gives you access to a crazy amount of items to set in the map. For me, the map editor controls were really unwieldy on the 360 controller, so I didn’t spend much time with the editor. An imaginative person with a lot of spare time could probably make something really cool.

Far Cry 2 adds up to about 25 hours or so, and is worth playing for every second. I’ve never had a game make me feel like such a terrible person, and at it’s climax, make me feel more human. That’s the only way I can describe how the game ends. I’ve never been so emotionally invested in the outcome of fictional people. With most games, the ending is the culmination of everything you’ve done throughout the game, in Far Cry 2, the ending is your chance for redemption.

I cannot recommend this game highly enough. Its few flaws are outweighed by the vast amount of things the game does so incredibly well. It’s worth a purchase, and at the very least a rental. Trust me, it’s an experience that you won’t soon forget.

Tags: Fashionably Late Reviews, FPS, Open World, sandbox, shooter, Xbox 360

This entry was posted on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.