Far Cry 2 (PC)

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk
Exploring 20 square miles of African savannah and jungle is never an easy task. But when you’re up against an army of highly trained mercenaries, the danger becomes unimaginable. Welcome to the world of Far Cry 2.

Far Cry 2 has some of the best explosions in the business

Vehicles are great for cover as well as transport

It’s best to keep some of the game’s factions on your side

The environmental graphics are both stunning and highly varied

It’s been over four years since the release of the first Far Cry, and Far Cry 2 has almost nothing in common with it beyond being a first-person shooter with excellent graphics and advanced artificial intelligence. It’s by a different developer, and you now play one of eight different mercenary characters out to catch an arms dealer nicknamed “The Jackal.”

The sci-fi enemies have also been jettisoned in favour of a much more realistic game where survival skills are just as important as a good aim. The rules of engagement--either by stealth or all guns blazing--are entirely up to you.

Key Features

• Virtual safari: The game features 20 square miles of terrain for you to travel, filled with realistic fauna and flora and fully destructible trees and buildings.
• Fiery realism: With an all-new graphics engine created just for the game, fire moves and propagates exactly as in real-life, with vegetation breaking and snapping realistically.
• The coming storm: A dynamic weather system changes to reflect your mood, with the sky turning dark and stormy during bad times.
• Jungle survival: Highly realistic weapons degrade with use, bullets need to be dug out of your body, and vehicles break down if pushed beyond their limits.
• Buying friends: Meet and co-operate with fellow mercenaries as you pit different factions against one another in a war-torn African state.

About the Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Ubisoft’s huge development studio in Canada has created many of the French publisher’s biggest hits, including the Splinter Cell,/i> series, the modern Prince of Persia games, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Assassin’s Creed, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja and the Far Cry sequels and spin-offs.

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Customer reviews

review by: puzbie date: 2008-11-20 rating:
Supurb game if you give it time.
First of all, this is not a game you should spend all day playing. It is best played in chunks of an hour or so. I've been playing it for over 20 hours in total, according to the game time, so in actual fact a whole lot longer, what with saves etc, and I am only half way through.

This is a big game. A lot bigger than you think too. Contrary to most of the reviews here I have played it long enough to come across the SECOND map. There may be more too, though I doubt it.

So what is the game like?

Graphics: I am playing it with a new XFX 9800GTX+ and it is quite simply supurb. I upgraded from an 8600 and it looked pretty good then too. If anybody thinks it looks like a 2004 game then they must be using a 2004 card. Thats all I can say.

Sound: nice, ambient. Some of the weapons sound great.

Gameplay: so far I have played the following:

Tutorial: lasts about an hour and is designed to show you how to play the game. The rest of the game is not like the tutorial, you have far more freedom.

Part #1: you get a big map to play with, with loads of locations marked on it. These locations range from:

Gun shops. Here you buy guns and get missions which can unlock more guns. The missions are of the format: go and blow up the ammo train at the following location.
You can also get ammo etc. Once you have bought a gun, you effectively can pick up a brand new one for free whenever you enter any gun shop. Later on you can also buy upgrades and repair enhancements etc.

Radio turrets: Here you can get missions which pay you in the diamonds you need to buy guns. The missions are of the format: Go to a location and kill somebody. The fun often begins when you have to escape having killed somebody.

Safe Houses: these are not safe until you kill the people at the house, but once safe you can sleep there. This means for instance, that if you want to do a mission at night, you can sleep in a safe house beforehand to advance time. As the game progresses, the safe houses get upgraded so that a jeep will also be available, and more ammo and health etc. Also, you can buy crates at a gun shop, and stick a weapon in the crate. That weapon will then be available at any safe house. There really is no excuse other than sheer desperation to use a knackered gun. Just learn how to use the gun shop and safe houses properly. At safe houses you will also occasionally meet buddies.

Bars: your buddies hang out at the bar. Occasionally just as you are about to die, a buddy will appear and save you. However, don't rely on this as they don't do it repeatedly and can be killed. Buddies can give you missions. They really become useful though, when you do faction missions...

Faction Houses:
There are two opposing factions, and you can do missions for both of them. Once you accept a mission you have the advantage of being paid up front. Also, you will get a call from one of your buddies. They will suggest an alternative to the actual mission. You can either do the misson proper or follow your buddy's advice. I always did what my buddy wanted, as it was more fun, so I can't say what happens if you do a vanilla faction mission. If you do the buddy mission you get more reputation and history. I have no idea what the history actually does, but it increases.

Finally, you also get Underground missions. These only appear when you need anti maleria pills, and are fairly straightforward affairs.

With the exception of the underground missions, you can do the other missions in whatever order you choose. I went immediately for the gun shop missions, as it unlocks weapons quickly.

You don't have to do missions to get diamonds though. They are also scattered about the island in suitcases. The island map is divided into sections. If you zoom in the detail map actually has a number at the top which tells you the amount of suitcases in that section, so you at least have a clue as to how thorough you should search.

The other buildings you come across tend to be mission related or guard posts. You can explore them whenever you want though. You don't have to wait for a mission beforehand. Opponents respawn fairly quickly, so if you wipe out a guard post, go and finish a mission and return via the guardpost, it is likely to be repopulated.

One other thing to note, there are bus stations at the extremities of the map. So if you get a mission on the other side of the map, don't spend half an hour driving across the map, just get on a bus and you will be instantly transported.

Weapons: weapons vary. You will soon have a decent variety though. I currently have an Uzi for close range spraying, a decent sniper rifle, and a flame thrower. The flame thrower is just about the best weapon I have ever come across in a game, especially in the second half. It even beats the HL2 gravity gun! Avoid picking up guns from dead foes unless absolutely necessary, otherwise they will invariably jam.

Vehicle: small on realism, big on fun. There are a variety ranging from lorries to jeeps to racing cars. There is even the odd hangglider.

Second Half:
When you get to the second half, things also get harder. People take more hits to die for a start, and wounded people still shoot at you. I am enjoying the second half, though it was frustrating at first as I had got used to the ins and outs of the first map. Plus the enhancements to the safe houses were reset.

this game is big. It isn't a run of the mill shootemup. If you play it all day it will bore the pants off you probably, but if you play it in shorter bursts you will be able to appreciate it to its full. It deserves to be played properly.

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review by: date: 2008-11-19 rating:
for some reason people seem out to hate this game..
true its not the best game ever but i quite enjoyed it
bit like gta gone fps in africa

not the best but certainly worth a go. i cba reading anyone elses reviews but im sure theres lots of "omg crysis was far better looking, this is rubbish" but regardless of crysis this is a good looking game. fair bit of walking around. dont buy if you crave the constant arcadey action of something like cod4

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review by: Turtle_Z date: 2008-11-18 rating:
Against the grain
Ok, as one of the very few positive reviews here I'll try and address specific issues which I disagreed with.

This game is like Crysis and Far Cry with the annoying alien bits removed. It is genuinely free-roaming, although there are many roads which are bordered by rocks. However, there are also vast tracts of land which you can cross and get lost on. There's plenty of exploration to be had as you search for lost diamonds and enemy camps. Each map has spotlighted areas, such as an Agriculture plant or ,one of my favourites, the scrapyard. That was the seen of a great prolonged gunfight for me.

The Firefights are furious and can be daunting at first as the enemy aren't stupid and WILL attempt to flank you in an impressively intelligent way. Also, they seem to get demoralised and will run off if you hit them hard.

The stealth system, for me, works well. If you're crouched in the middle of the road 100yds away the enemy will still see you. Sneak through the undergrowth and you can get right behind an enemy and take em down from behind. You ARE required to think about how you approach a situation because the enemy aren't the stupid drones you're used to. They are pin-sharp and the snipers can be particularly hawkeyed, but then thats why they're snipers.

Driving is fairly basic. The vehicle repair mechanic veers between interesting and pointlessly annoying.

The Guns picked up off the enemies are unreliable, but then, unless you're really struggling with the game, you shouldn't have to worry about that after the first hour as you'll have access to the gun shop. Once you've bought a gun it is always available from the gun shop's armoury, as is unlimited ammo.

The missions vary in quality but never dip below decent. Some are genuinely thrilling and require some planning. This is a big action shooter, but it does occasionally demand a little intelligent thought.

I'm not commenting on the DRM because that isn't part of the game. Also, it hasn't bothered me at all.

Overall, I think this is a game where you get out what you put in. I started with 1 character and I have to admit to playing a couple of hours and thinking "?"
So, I stepped back and started again with an adjusted mindset and discovered a deep, addictive game that has kept me busy for many hours. It rewards patience and a willingness to invest in the game-world.

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review by: date: 2008-11-17 rating:
After the First Hour or so it's just boring (plus dodgy widescreen)...
OK first, will have to address the DRM. I don't have an issue with it and not buying the game just because of that only really hurts you as you don't get to try the latest software. I don't think this DRM will cause issues - both FarCry 2 and Crysis Warhead have been fine for me. I think EA have done a better job though as with Crysis Warhead once loaded you don't need the DVD again which I like lots - I hate having to put it in the drive to play. Why couldn't UBI have done the same thing as they are using the same system - you still need to insert the DVD when wanting to play.

There are other reasons not to buy this game however...

Firstly I played for a an hour or 2 a couple of times and both times felt a bit ill (nauseous) afterwards - I thought it was just something else - I have played first person shooters lots and at LAN parties for 12 hours or so without issues before. While looking on a forum for something else I found that the widescreen on this is a cropped 4:3 ratio so you appear to be "closer" to things and that it is a little unnatural - other people had experienced that same issue (though not everyone). Anyway I loaded a widescreen hack someone wrote and I was better after that (although first patch broke that) so had to reinstall and not load the patch.

The game however is just boring I guess - I am not sure why the so called review sites gave it such good reviews - maybe they played only briefly and then on to Fallout 3! You just seem to drive / walk / swim / boat around clearing out checkpoints on the way you have already cleared out numerous times before, to find that each task is much the same as the others.

I wanted to play more stealth after Crysis Warhead but until you get the guns etc to do it you can't. Everyone in the whole place wants to kill you - don't wait and see or try creeping up on them, they do! Cleared out checkpoints respawn as soon as you can drive down the road and turn round to come back and see. I have lost track of what I am even meant to do and how to go about finding out about it.

It is semi real life but then there are suitcases with diamonds in them just laying about. If I can carry a AK-47 and an RPG launcher, why can't I carry a AK-47 and a sniper rifle if I would rather play that way (which I do and found that very annoying)? Weight and size would be about the same.

What are the save points all about - as I can Save when I want from the menu (or quick save) I can't see the point in those.

Don't know whether to sell the game or just use it as an in between others type one. Perhaps I'll try multiplayer and see if it's better then.

Overall I guess it was a pity as the landscape and wander where you want are nice and it does look good on my system (E8400 3Ghz / 8800GT).

I am guessing this will be a game that will be reduced in price quite quickly.

UBI for me are becoming a publisher to avoid - Starforce DRM in Splinter Cell Chaos Theory killed my DVD drive; Rainbow Six 3; Raven Shield was great but lack of being able to join a server by IP Address meant we couldn't play over a VPN and now FarCry 2 with bad widescreen support on a game that could have been so much better.

Hope that helps.


review by: date: 2008-11-16 rating:
What a shame
After playing this game for 22 hours...

Summary:
Awful ending.

Longer Review:
I enjoyed some aspects of the game overall including weapons, upgrades, buddies and so on. However, driving to the complete opposite side of the map for so many missions is just plain madness. The game is good but it is let down by this primary issue. Such a shame really as many other aspects are fun.

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