Here is my very own review of Far Cry 2 that I wrote just for Edge Gamers. I left out most of the technical issues I had with the game, because I feel that would make the review biased. Anyway, enjoy or hate: your preference.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, I finally finished Far Cry 2, and the ending has compelled me to write this nifty game review. Yes, that?s correct. I am writing a game review, by a gamer for the gamers. I also believe my review to be unbiased, because I don?t play game after game for a living. I played the WHOLE game, including every single side mission and all of the bonus missions. I didn?t, however, collect all of the diamonds. That?s a daunting task that only the most hard core of GTA fans can undertake. The following text may contain mild spoilers, so continue at your own will.
Far Cry 2 is a very artistic game. Right away I noticed the painstaking care the artists put into the landscape and the foliage. I have a gaming computer that would probably be a 7.5-8 of 10 on the grand scale of computers. Not the best of them, but certainly nothing to joke about. Upon starting the game, it did a scan of my hardware and automatically set the graphics accordingly. I was very pleased that it put me on all ?Very High? settings, and I was even more thrilled to have good framerates. Overall, the game runs smoother than Crysis with about as much detail. Far Cry 2 has an advantage over Crysis, though. Far Cry?s environment is absolutely gorgeous. I know everybody?s like, ?Oooh, pretty water? when they?re playing Crysis, but overall I found that game?s environment somewhat dull. Far Cry 2 has a savage beauty about it; an environment that appeals to our darker side as humans. I assure you, there?s nothing more incredible than boating down a river at sunset, with the light filtering through the trees, or sitting on top of a rocky cliff with a sniper rifle in the middle of the day, and the heat waves are manipulating your scope. I am very impressed with Ubisoft?s ability to create such a beautiful landscape that will keep you enthralled for hours on end.
Far Cry 2 is completely unique from its predecessor. By that, I mean it?s not a Far Cry at all. Ubisoft completely remodeled the way you as the player interact with your environment. I could go on and on about the wonderful aspects of the gameplay, but I assure you, it?s nothing you haven?t seen before. Far Cry 2 is first and foremost a FPS. If you?ve played Crysis (or any other shooter, for that matter), I have no doubt in my mind that you?ll be comfortable with Far Cry 2. There are rules, however. I was surprised to learn that there is no prone position. LP Pharand from the Far Cry 2 development team explains the lack of prone, ??we wanted the players to be able to move a lot. Other than that- a lot of uneven terrain?? Not going prone isn?t really a huge problem, but there are times when you wish you could go prone. By simply crouching, most vehicles will completely cover you, but don?t bother trying to sneak up on a camp or a base. To be able to successfully sneak up on your enemy, you have to purchase a nifty camouflage suit that costs 40 diamonds (a lot of in-game currency). Even then, once you pop off a few shots (even with a silencer) your cover is blown and the whole valley comes looking for you. So no hiding for you. You also can?t sprint and shoot at the same time. This is another limitation that?s not usually a huge problem, but I always needed to sprint and shoot at some fairly critical times. There are a few more things that you?ll probably miss from your regular FPS experience, but you?ll only miss them when you need them. If that says anything?
Another frustrating aspect of Far Cry 2?s gameplay is the AI. I think they break sometimes. Or maybe all of the stupid AI are placed together. What am I talking about? Well, most of the time the AI will try to outsmart you. You really have to be on the lookout, because they will flank you and come after you. That?s most of the time. There are moments in the game where they just run straight at you. It?s a little confusing, because they run straight at you and your LMG even after you rain fiery bullets upon their masses. Enemies in Far Cry 2 are incredibly fun to kill. Fire a burst right into their torso and it looks like it?s gonna be raining blood for a week. They are, however, incredibly hard to kill. I haven?t seen this much resistance to death since the first Rambo movie. So a bit of advice: don?t shoot and move on like you would in a normal FPS. Make sure these guys are really dead, because sometimes they get back up.
One area where Ubisoft particularly excelled in the game is the wear and tear system that applies to your guns and vehicles. In my whole experience with Far Cry 2, nothing completely frustrated me yet made me smile quite like the jamming of the guns. You?ll hate it because Murphy?s Law dictates that your gun will jam at exactly the wrong moment. We as gamers should admire this though. I played through the whole game of Crysis with the same gun, but when I finished I still had a nice (not dirty) gun that never jammed. When the gun gets dirty and jams, I think it adds some welcome realism to the game. It made me feel very human to be assaulting a camp full of soldiers and have the gun blow up in my face. I also swam through a lake, and when I walked out of the water on the other side, my gun was dirty looking and later jammed. Vehicles also behave similarly, with old broken vehicles breaking down more often. The environment affecting your weapons and vehicles is unbelievably immersive, and is a welcome element of the game.
Overall, you will find that the game gets repetitive. Before the game launched, one of the developers said the game should have around 50 hours of gameplay. A week before launch, another developer claimed there was 100+ hours of gameplay. I find this second figure a little inaccurate. Collectively, I played around 60 hours in the game, doing all of the side missions and all of the ?GameStop? bonus missions. If you are a very dedicated player and choose to recover all of the diamonds in the game, I think you can expect to meet your 100+ hour mark. In fact, the diamonds are so numerous I would bet you?ll be spending the better part of two weeks trying to find them all. However, I feel that you will be satisfied enough with the story (though repetitive). The biggest complaint I have about the whole game is you?ll only have about 4 allies in the whole game at any given time. That means the rest of the map, including the faction you?re working for, will not hesitate to shoot at you. I take that back. I saw a patrolman yell at me, ?Who the hell are you?!?!? and then he shot at me. Yeah, he didn?t wait for my answer. I was going to say, ?Just mind your own business!? but he just didn?t care for a response. Everybody shooting at me got so repetitive, that I would know exactly where to shoot and who to take down first. I recall driving my truck really fast into an intersection, and as it coasted in I jumped onto the machine gun that was fixed on the back. Coasting in, I killed all of the men before they?d been able to even fire a shot. Yes, that repetitive. Now, multiply that by the sad truth that you?ll be spending most of your in-game time travelling around, and you get one very frustrating batch of repetition. So, my suggestion to you poor gamers out there is to do all of the boring side missions first so you can do all of the fun story missions at once. Once you get involved in the story, the game really warms up and you?ll begin enjoying it. As the mercenary, you shape the story how you like it. Do I kill this guy, or do I let him live? Do I save these civilians, or would I rather make a bunch of money? In Far Cry 2, you do whatever you please. You can even run over a zebra in a Jeep Liberty.
Far Cry 2 isn?t really a bad game. I?ve seen and played worse. However, Far Cry 2 is nothing like Far Cry 1. The best way to describe Far Cry 2 (and you?ve probably heard it before) is a first-person Grand Theft Auto. The game is completely open for you to do whatever you want, so I consider it a FPS-RPG Hybrid. Ubisoft for the most part did a good job blending those two types of gameplay. The game itself, though, is fairly glitch. They have now released a patch to fix most of the problems, but many more still exist. Based on my browsing of other tech support forums, I can tell you with confidence that it?s a crap-shoot if the game will work on your PC or not, so I highly advise playing it on a console instead. I?ve had my ups and my many downs with Far Cry 2. We haven?t always got along, but we finally made it all the way to the end. I?ve read many reviews that give the game points or stars, but I don?t think I?ll be doing that. In the end, only one thing matters: ?Was it worth playing??
Yes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, I finally finished Far Cry 2, and the ending has compelled me to write this nifty game review. Yes, that?s correct. I am writing a game review, by a gamer for the gamers. I also believe my review to be unbiased, because I don?t play game after game for a living. I played the WHOLE game, including every single side mission and all of the bonus missions. I didn?t, however, collect all of the diamonds. That?s a daunting task that only the most hard core of GTA fans can undertake. The following text may contain mild spoilers, so continue at your own will.
Far Cry 2 is a very artistic game. Right away I noticed the painstaking care the artists put into the landscape and the foliage. I have a gaming computer that would probably be a 7.5-8 of 10 on the grand scale of computers. Not the best of them, but certainly nothing to joke about. Upon starting the game, it did a scan of my hardware and automatically set the graphics accordingly. I was very pleased that it put me on all ?Very High? settings, and I was even more thrilled to have good framerates. Overall, the game runs smoother than Crysis with about as much detail. Far Cry 2 has an advantage over Crysis, though. Far Cry?s environment is absolutely gorgeous. I know everybody?s like, ?Oooh, pretty water? when they?re playing Crysis, but overall I found that game?s environment somewhat dull. Far Cry 2 has a savage beauty about it; an environment that appeals to our darker side as humans. I assure you, there?s nothing more incredible than boating down a river at sunset, with the light filtering through the trees, or sitting on top of a rocky cliff with a sniper rifle in the middle of the day, and the heat waves are manipulating your scope. I am very impressed with Ubisoft?s ability to create such a beautiful landscape that will keep you enthralled for hours on end.
Far Cry 2 is completely unique from its predecessor. By that, I mean it?s not a Far Cry at all. Ubisoft completely remodeled the way you as the player interact with your environment. I could go on and on about the wonderful aspects of the gameplay, but I assure you, it?s nothing you haven?t seen before. Far Cry 2 is first and foremost a FPS. If you?ve played Crysis (or any other shooter, for that matter), I have no doubt in my mind that you?ll be comfortable with Far Cry 2. There are rules, however. I was surprised to learn that there is no prone position. LP Pharand from the Far Cry 2 development team explains the lack of prone, ??we wanted the players to be able to move a lot. Other than that- a lot of uneven terrain?? Not going prone isn?t really a huge problem, but there are times when you wish you could go prone. By simply crouching, most vehicles will completely cover you, but don?t bother trying to sneak up on a camp or a base. To be able to successfully sneak up on your enemy, you have to purchase a nifty camouflage suit that costs 40 diamonds (a lot of in-game currency). Even then, once you pop off a few shots (even with a silencer) your cover is blown and the whole valley comes looking for you. So no hiding for you. You also can?t sprint and shoot at the same time. This is another limitation that?s not usually a huge problem, but I always needed to sprint and shoot at some fairly critical times. There are a few more things that you?ll probably miss from your regular FPS experience, but you?ll only miss them when you need them. If that says anything?
Another frustrating aspect of Far Cry 2?s gameplay is the AI. I think they break sometimes. Or maybe all of the stupid AI are placed together. What am I talking about? Well, most of the time the AI will try to outsmart you. You really have to be on the lookout, because they will flank you and come after you. That?s most of the time. There are moments in the game where they just run straight at you. It?s a little confusing, because they run straight at you and your LMG even after you rain fiery bullets upon their masses. Enemies in Far Cry 2 are incredibly fun to kill. Fire a burst right into their torso and it looks like it?s gonna be raining blood for a week. They are, however, incredibly hard to kill. I haven?t seen this much resistance to death since the first Rambo movie. So a bit of advice: don?t shoot and move on like you would in a normal FPS. Make sure these guys are really dead, because sometimes they get back up.
One area where Ubisoft particularly excelled in the game is the wear and tear system that applies to your guns and vehicles. In my whole experience with Far Cry 2, nothing completely frustrated me yet made me smile quite like the jamming of the guns. You?ll hate it because Murphy?s Law dictates that your gun will jam at exactly the wrong moment. We as gamers should admire this though. I played through the whole game of Crysis with the same gun, but when I finished I still had a nice (not dirty) gun that never jammed. When the gun gets dirty and jams, I think it adds some welcome realism to the game. It made me feel very human to be assaulting a camp full of soldiers and have the gun blow up in my face. I also swam through a lake, and when I walked out of the water on the other side, my gun was dirty looking and later jammed. Vehicles also behave similarly, with old broken vehicles breaking down more often. The environment affecting your weapons and vehicles is unbelievably immersive, and is a welcome element of the game.
Overall, you will find that the game gets repetitive. Before the game launched, one of the developers said the game should have around 50 hours of gameplay. A week before launch, another developer claimed there was 100+ hours of gameplay. I find this second figure a little inaccurate. Collectively, I played around 60 hours in the game, doing all of the side missions and all of the ?GameStop? bonus missions. If you are a very dedicated player and choose to recover all of the diamonds in the game, I think you can expect to meet your 100+ hour mark. In fact, the diamonds are so numerous I would bet you?ll be spending the better part of two weeks trying to find them all. However, I feel that you will be satisfied enough with the story (though repetitive). The biggest complaint I have about the whole game is you?ll only have about 4 allies in the whole game at any given time. That means the rest of the map, including the faction you?re working for, will not hesitate to shoot at you. I take that back. I saw a patrolman yell at me, ?Who the hell are you?!?!? and then he shot at me. Yeah, he didn?t wait for my answer. I was going to say, ?Just mind your own business!? but he just didn?t care for a response. Everybody shooting at me got so repetitive, that I would know exactly where to shoot and who to take down first. I recall driving my truck really fast into an intersection, and as it coasted in I jumped onto the machine gun that was fixed on the back. Coasting in, I killed all of the men before they?d been able to even fire a shot. Yes, that repetitive. Now, multiply that by the sad truth that you?ll be spending most of your in-game time travelling around, and you get one very frustrating batch of repetition. So, my suggestion to you poor gamers out there is to do all of the boring side missions first so you can do all of the fun story missions at once. Once you get involved in the story, the game really warms up and you?ll begin enjoying it. As the mercenary, you shape the story how you like it. Do I kill this guy, or do I let him live? Do I save these civilians, or would I rather make a bunch of money? In Far Cry 2, you do whatever you please. You can even run over a zebra in a Jeep Liberty.
Far Cry 2 isn?t really a bad game. I?ve seen and played worse. However, Far Cry 2 is nothing like Far Cry 1. The best way to describe Far Cry 2 (and you?ve probably heard it before) is a first-person Grand Theft Auto. The game is completely open for you to do whatever you want, so I consider it a FPS-RPG Hybrid. Ubisoft for the most part did a good job blending those two types of gameplay. The game itself, though, is fairly glitch. They have now released a patch to fix most of the problems, but many more still exist. Based on my browsing of other tech support forums, I can tell you with confidence that it?s a crap-shoot if the game will work on your PC or not, so I highly advise playing it on a console instead. I?ve had my ups and my many downs with Far Cry 2. We haven?t always got along, but we finally made it all the way to the end. I?ve read many reviews that give the game points or stars, but I don?t think I?ll be doing that. In the end, only one thing matters: ?Was it worth playing??
Yes.
