- Joined
- Jul 30, 2008
- Messages
- 589
I started writing this up in the far cry 2 thread, but then just kept writing, so I figured Ide make a new thread for anyone really interested in this game but who has not taken the plunge just yet.
Slight Spoiler warning (even though its all been covered in various outlets online before. If you are weary, ide say skip over the Story and Setting section then read on.
Story and Setting: This game takes place in Africa... duh. Basically you are dumped into a fictitious African nation on the brink of war. Not only that, but you have malaria. You learn that a man who is called the jackal is supplying two opposing factions with weapons allowing them to escalate their conflict. You are tasked with killing the jackal....
This is an open world game and as such there is no real linear structure to the story. I am not very far yet in the game, but you get to choose the way you play. If you want you can tackle the main story quests, or run side quests to unlock weapons or earn currency (diamonds) to purchase upgrades.
There is a lot of repetitiveness in the quests, such as go here, kill guy, or go here destroy convoy, etc.
The game takes place all over this 50 square km country with landscapes ranging from jungle, to savannah to desert.
Graphics: I'm sure the first question out of everyones mouth in this regard is whether the graphics hold up to crysis. I would have to say that as a whole, Crysis still looks better, but there are areas where Far Cry 2 excels, such as textures. The lighting is great and the shadows are also great. If we are comparing it the Crysis, it seems as though the draw distance is not as far, but that may be more an issue of design rather than graphics. The water at times can look a little bland and the skies look a little flat. The skies are more than made up for with the dynamic weather system though. Overall, the design of the open world and the fact that you have lush jungles to dry desert really make this game stand apart. In short. It looks beautiful, and whil the graphics may not quite be as good as Crysis, Ide say that the setting, and the design exceed it and personally I find it a better looking game overall.
Controls: There are a few issues here... at least issues I have been having. This may be specific to ATI, or to my PC, but searching some forums has shown these are rather widespread. Mouse lag is present. In the menus, the mouse lags quite bad and in fact doesnt seem to register any movement unless you are moving at a certain speed. Again, this is only in the menus, but it is annoying. In game, mouse lag sometimes shows up, and obviously the higher the framerate, the better this can be. There are also no advanced controls as a lot of us PC gamers are used to. There is no leaning, which can seem to hinder the whole hide and gun technique, and there is no prone as well. This is less of an issue, because recoil is not a huge issue and there is no real gun sway to steady.
Other than that, the game seems to handle just fine, personally I think that Source games handle very well, and this game doesnt quite measure up, but it feels good so its not really an issue.
Performance: I wouldnt normally throw this in as its obviously dependant on hardware, but there are some issues I thought worth mentioning. Overall, the games runs quite well. If we are going to compare it to the old standard, Crysis, it runs quite a bit faster. On my PC, graphics options can be set to the highest settings, even with some AA enabled and it generally seems to run close to twice as fast as Crysis. The issues here is that with the recent drivers released for this game (which should be used as they really do increase performance) there is noticable stuttering, there may even be noticable stuttering with older drivers too. The stuttering occurs because there are large fluctuations in framerate. Setting either vsync on, or changing gfx_maxfps to 30 or 40 in console seems to help by limiting the framerate and hence the fluctuations decrease dramatically.
Weapons: There is a large selection of weapons in this game. Some of the standard weapons you would expect are here, mp5, ak47, etc. You have 4 slots in which to carry weapons. A machete slot, a secondary slot, a primary slot, and a special slot. The secondary slot can hold pistols or small explosives. The primary shot would hold your normal weapon, your fully auto smg, or sniper rifle, if you prefer. The Special slot can hold weapons such as rocket launchers, larger machine guns or the flamethrower. Again, I have no completed this game, so there is a large selection and much more than I have listed here. Weapons degrade over time, can jam, and eventually break and need to be thrown away. Weapons can be picked up from the dead or bought at weapons shops.
AI: I would say the AI here is mediocre. In general it performs well. They dont automatically lock on to you, but occasionally it seems like there is no way to sneak in without them seeing you. During fights the AI can also be kinda dumb. I have seen three guys running straight towards me while I was standing in the back of a jeep on the mounted gun. I just mowed them down, they didnt even attempt to take cover. Other times, you can shoot and injure a guy, but instead of trying to move and get to cover he will just stand there, literally. Other times however a guy will indeed crawl away only for you to pop around a corner and have him fire a couple pistol rounds at you before stabbing him to death with a machete. Things like that are very cool and lend some coolness to the enemies. In addition, you can shoot and injure someone from far range to lure his buddy over to check him then kill them both. Overall, the AI is pretty good, but as I have said there are certainly some glitches and issues. Doesnt detract from the game overall.
Travel and Misc: This game is LARGE. you can walk everywhere if you want to, but it really would take you forever. There are jeeps, cars, and those boats with the big fans on the back scattered all over the game world, some have mounted guns, others dont. Driving in this game is practically a necessesity, which is OK, since the driving isnt really too bad. You feel kinda closed in by the actual car itself, but you are free to look around in any direction while driving.
This game is also very immersive, the HUD is minimal and only shows up when needed. Otherwise the game almost never leaves first person view. This is intentional as it is supposed to increase the immersiveness of the game. Again, some people may not like this as much, especially when driving, as you can only drive in first person view from inside the car.
Fire! This has to be one of the coolest features of the engine and of the game. While the fire graphics themselves are not the greatest the way fire behaves is really awesome. Most of the grass and trees can be set on first, and the fire propagates as well, that is, it spreads out from where it started and the weather affects the fire as well. Wind blowing will actually affect which way the fire spreads. Very cool to watch, and can be used to good effect during fights to block enemies or set things on fire.
The health system consists of 5 refillable bars. If a bar is partially depleted, it will regen to full given a small amount of time. Once you fall below One bar, you are critically wounded and need to heal yourself quickly or your health with continue to drop until you die. Otherwise, you carry around syrettes (sp?) that you can inject yourself with to refill your health fully.
The map is not an overlay, and pulls up in game time held in the players hands. This is done to keep the immersion. Combined with a GPS, the map is easy to navigate. When driving, there is a GPS attached the dash at all times, and the map can be pulled up and held in your lap while driving. This keeps the immersion of the game intact, however, when scouting, the map magically updates, which is useful, but does sort of break the immersion.
Multiplayer: Multiplayer feels more like an afterthought, but it is not bad, just nothing all that new. I have not explored it much, but it seems that weapons are earned during play by gaining upgrades instead of finding them scattered around maps. There is also a capture the diamond mode, which is basically capture the flag. There are a few other modes, which i cant recall off the top of my head. It is still quite fun though being able to play multiplayer in the whole african setting on this game engine. Fire still behaves the same in multiplayer as in single player, which again could make for some interesting tactics and gameplay.
Also included is a map editor, which, if I may say so myself is awesome! While it may not have the freedom of some other editors, in terms of scripting for single player games and mods (in fact you cant at all) it is very easy to use to make some nice multiplayer maps. I cant really explain it too well, just go watch videos and you will see. Expect to see a lot of user created maps in the future for this game.
Closing thoughts: If I could say one thing, I would say that this is a real "next-gen" shooter experience. This game is difference from any shooting i have played before. While the shooting mechanics are pretty standard and the AI is not the greatest, the open world idea is something a lot of gamers want, and something that works very well here. You really do get to choose how you play this game. Combine the open world with beautiful graphics and you have a game that is engrossing and fun.
The future for this game though may not be as certain. The single player game should easily last 20 hours, and probably double or more if you go through and do all the quests. In terms of replayability, it may get old after the first run through, but I think the open nature of this game may indeed make for some good replay value. In addition, while it seems the game will be the same, there are a handful of character to choose to play as and the rest can show up as your buddies throughout the game.
The multiplayer game may keep users hooked for a while, but probably not in the very long run. User created maps will probably be the biggest selling point of this game. Maps can easily be created and shared and then rated for the community to see. Otherwise, the game modes are standard and since right now it looks like the map editor can ONLY be used for multiplayer, it seems that we will not see any single player map packs and probably no mods as well as it appears that there is no SDK yet.
This may change in the future, but we will have to see.
Pros:
Cons:
I would say overall the positives far outweigh the negatives. Personally ide give this game about a 90% overall. Not perfect, but very fun to play. This game may not be for everyone as it seems like it will mostly be played in single player, but there may be some life to be had with custom maps in multiplayer. If Ubi ever opens the code to this game allowing mods to be created, this game could open possibilities for some truly amazing gameplay in the future.
Slight Spoiler warning (even though its all been covered in various outlets online before. If you are weary, ide say skip over the Story and Setting section then read on.
Story and Setting: This game takes place in Africa... duh. Basically you are dumped into a fictitious African nation on the brink of war. Not only that, but you have malaria. You learn that a man who is called the jackal is supplying two opposing factions with weapons allowing them to escalate their conflict. You are tasked with killing the jackal....
This is an open world game and as such there is no real linear structure to the story. I am not very far yet in the game, but you get to choose the way you play. If you want you can tackle the main story quests, or run side quests to unlock weapons or earn currency (diamonds) to purchase upgrades.
There is a lot of repetitiveness in the quests, such as go here, kill guy, or go here destroy convoy, etc.
The game takes place all over this 50 square km country with landscapes ranging from jungle, to savannah to desert.
Graphics: I'm sure the first question out of everyones mouth in this regard is whether the graphics hold up to crysis. I would have to say that as a whole, Crysis still looks better, but there are areas where Far Cry 2 excels, such as textures. The lighting is great and the shadows are also great. If we are comparing it the Crysis, it seems as though the draw distance is not as far, but that may be more an issue of design rather than graphics. The water at times can look a little bland and the skies look a little flat. The skies are more than made up for with the dynamic weather system though. Overall, the design of the open world and the fact that you have lush jungles to dry desert really make this game stand apart. In short. It looks beautiful, and whil the graphics may not quite be as good as Crysis, Ide say that the setting, and the design exceed it and personally I find it a better looking game overall.
Controls: There are a few issues here... at least issues I have been having. This may be specific to ATI, or to my PC, but searching some forums has shown these are rather widespread. Mouse lag is present. In the menus, the mouse lags quite bad and in fact doesnt seem to register any movement unless you are moving at a certain speed. Again, this is only in the menus, but it is annoying. In game, mouse lag sometimes shows up, and obviously the higher the framerate, the better this can be. There are also no advanced controls as a lot of us PC gamers are used to. There is no leaning, which can seem to hinder the whole hide and gun technique, and there is no prone as well. This is less of an issue, because recoil is not a huge issue and there is no real gun sway to steady.
Other than that, the game seems to handle just fine, personally I think that Source games handle very well, and this game doesnt quite measure up, but it feels good so its not really an issue.
Performance: I wouldnt normally throw this in as its obviously dependant on hardware, but there are some issues I thought worth mentioning. Overall, the games runs quite well. If we are going to compare it to the old standard, Crysis, it runs quite a bit faster. On my PC, graphics options can be set to the highest settings, even with some AA enabled and it generally seems to run close to twice as fast as Crysis. The issues here is that with the recent drivers released for this game (which should be used as they really do increase performance) there is noticable stuttering, there may even be noticable stuttering with older drivers too. The stuttering occurs because there are large fluctuations in framerate. Setting either vsync on, or changing gfx_maxfps to 30 or 40 in console seems to help by limiting the framerate and hence the fluctuations decrease dramatically.
Weapons: There is a large selection of weapons in this game. Some of the standard weapons you would expect are here, mp5, ak47, etc. You have 4 slots in which to carry weapons. A machete slot, a secondary slot, a primary slot, and a special slot. The secondary slot can hold pistols or small explosives. The primary shot would hold your normal weapon, your fully auto smg, or sniper rifle, if you prefer. The Special slot can hold weapons such as rocket launchers, larger machine guns or the flamethrower. Again, I have no completed this game, so there is a large selection and much more than I have listed here. Weapons degrade over time, can jam, and eventually break and need to be thrown away. Weapons can be picked up from the dead or bought at weapons shops.
AI: I would say the AI here is mediocre. In general it performs well. They dont automatically lock on to you, but occasionally it seems like there is no way to sneak in without them seeing you. During fights the AI can also be kinda dumb. I have seen three guys running straight towards me while I was standing in the back of a jeep on the mounted gun. I just mowed them down, they didnt even attempt to take cover. Other times, you can shoot and injure a guy, but instead of trying to move and get to cover he will just stand there, literally. Other times however a guy will indeed crawl away only for you to pop around a corner and have him fire a couple pistol rounds at you before stabbing him to death with a machete. Things like that are very cool and lend some coolness to the enemies. In addition, you can shoot and injure someone from far range to lure his buddy over to check him then kill them both. Overall, the AI is pretty good, but as I have said there are certainly some glitches and issues. Doesnt detract from the game overall.
Travel and Misc: This game is LARGE. you can walk everywhere if you want to, but it really would take you forever. There are jeeps, cars, and those boats with the big fans on the back scattered all over the game world, some have mounted guns, others dont. Driving in this game is practically a necessesity, which is OK, since the driving isnt really too bad. You feel kinda closed in by the actual car itself, but you are free to look around in any direction while driving.
This game is also very immersive, the HUD is minimal and only shows up when needed. Otherwise the game almost never leaves first person view. This is intentional as it is supposed to increase the immersiveness of the game. Again, some people may not like this as much, especially when driving, as you can only drive in first person view from inside the car.
Fire! This has to be one of the coolest features of the engine and of the game. While the fire graphics themselves are not the greatest the way fire behaves is really awesome. Most of the grass and trees can be set on first, and the fire propagates as well, that is, it spreads out from where it started and the weather affects the fire as well. Wind blowing will actually affect which way the fire spreads. Very cool to watch, and can be used to good effect during fights to block enemies or set things on fire.
The health system consists of 5 refillable bars. If a bar is partially depleted, it will regen to full given a small amount of time. Once you fall below One bar, you are critically wounded and need to heal yourself quickly or your health with continue to drop until you die. Otherwise, you carry around syrettes (sp?) that you can inject yourself with to refill your health fully.
The map is not an overlay, and pulls up in game time held in the players hands. This is done to keep the immersion. Combined with a GPS, the map is easy to navigate. When driving, there is a GPS attached the dash at all times, and the map can be pulled up and held in your lap while driving. This keeps the immersion of the game intact, however, when scouting, the map magically updates, which is useful, but does sort of break the immersion.
Multiplayer: Multiplayer feels more like an afterthought, but it is not bad, just nothing all that new. I have not explored it much, but it seems that weapons are earned during play by gaining upgrades instead of finding them scattered around maps. There is also a capture the diamond mode, which is basically capture the flag. There are a few other modes, which i cant recall off the top of my head. It is still quite fun though being able to play multiplayer in the whole african setting on this game engine. Fire still behaves the same in multiplayer as in single player, which again could make for some interesting tactics and gameplay.
Also included is a map editor, which, if I may say so myself is awesome! While it may not have the freedom of some other editors, in terms of scripting for single player games and mods (in fact you cant at all) it is very easy to use to make some nice multiplayer maps. I cant really explain it too well, just go watch videos and you will see. Expect to see a lot of user created maps in the future for this game.
Closing thoughts: If I could say one thing, I would say that this is a real "next-gen" shooter experience. This game is difference from any shooting i have played before. While the shooting mechanics are pretty standard and the AI is not the greatest, the open world idea is something a lot of gamers want, and something that works very well here. You really do get to choose how you play this game. Combine the open world with beautiful graphics and you have a game that is engrossing and fun.
The future for this game though may not be as certain. The single player game should easily last 20 hours, and probably double or more if you go through and do all the quests. In terms of replayability, it may get old after the first run through, but I think the open nature of this game may indeed make for some good replay value. In addition, while it seems the game will be the same, there are a handful of character to choose to play as and the rest can show up as your buddies throughout the game.
The multiplayer game may keep users hooked for a while, but probably not in the very long run. User created maps will probably be the biggest selling point of this game. Maps can easily be created and shared and then rated for the community to see. Otherwise, the game modes are standard and since right now it looks like the map editor can ONLY be used for multiplayer, it seems that we will not see any single player map packs and probably no mods as well as it appears that there is no SDK yet.
This may change in the future, but we will have to see.
Pros:
- Great Graphics
- Open World
- Open Ended Story
- Lots of Weapons to choose from
- Variety of Vehicles to drive
- LARGE game
- Very Immersive, always in First Person view
- Map Editor
- Fire propagation
Cons:
- Pretty standard story
- First person view may be distracting while driving vehicles
- Small performance issues
- Semi-dumbed down controls
- AI can be pretty dumb at times
- Repetitive missions
- Magically updating map doesnt quite fit with the whole immersion of the game
I would say overall the positives far outweigh the negatives. Personally ide give this game about a 90% overall. Not perfect, but very fun to play. This game may not be for everyone as it seems like it will mostly be played in single player, but there may be some life to be had with custom maps in multiplayer. If Ubi ever opens the code to this game allowing mods to be created, this game could open possibilities for some truly amazing gameplay in the future.
and the elephants ? 
