Pros: Impressive graphics with luscious landscapes and amazing effects
Cons: Too much emphasis on the graphics made them forget about the gameplay fun factor ?
The Bottom Line: FarCry 2 is not the revelation the original game was. It does have the same graphical splendor, but sadly gameplay didn't evolve and in some ways even degraded
Introduction When it came out, in the beginning of the year 2004 (if I am not mistaken) the original FarCry baffled the gameworld, with elements that were hardly ever witnessed before : luscious landscapes in a tropical setting where one could wander about for hours at free will and interact with many objects on the map, shooting them, kicking them, etc.. A second plus was that the opponents effectively showed signs of artificial intelligence. It was also the game where realistic vehicle driving (including boats) was nicely paired up with the setting of an exciting first person shooter. These elements reunited made it for me the game of that year and in that way it stole the crown of the long awaited Half Life 2 (HL2)
Now I don't know if this sequel to Far Cry was as eagerly awaited as HL2 ; we all know I suppose that the Crytek team split up and went their own way to produce Crysis in 2007 and Crysis Warhead this year. Which left game publisher Ubisoft with the rights to FarCry.
In this respect what ever happened to the Sandbox game engine used for FarCry I don't know because apparently FarCry 2 now uses what is referred to as the "Dunia" game engine.
Graphics Where this sequel shows that it is the true son of Far Cry is in its graphical effects, its vehicle driving and its vast maps, told to be covering some 50 square kilometres. The whole is truely amazing, and bares witness to why we have to spend hundreds of dollars to keep our computers up to date with the latest processors and graphical boards (actually I didn't as you will see below), which brings me to the specs of the game :
Minimum system requirements : Operating System: Windows® XP (with SP2) or Windows Vista® (with SP1) Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 3.2 Ghz, Intel® Pentium® D 2.66 Ghz, AMD Athlon™ 64 3500+ or better RAM: 1 GB Windows XP / 2 GB Windows Vista Video card: NVidia™ 6800 or ATI™ X1650 or better 256 MB DirectX® 10.0–compliant video card or DirectX® 9.0c–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM Hard Drive Space: 6 GB Sound: DirectX 9.0c Compatible Sound Card with Latest Drivers Internet: Broadband connection and service required for multiplayer mode Windows-compatible mouse required
Recommended system requirements : Operating System: Windows® XP (with SP2) or Windows Vista® (with SP1) Processor: Intel® Core® 2 Duo Family, AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 5200+, AMD Phenom™ or better RAM: 2 GB Video card: NVidia™ 8600 GTS or better, ATI™ X1900 or better 512 MB of graphic memory DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM Hard Drive Space: 6 GB Sound: DirectX® 9.0c Compatible Sound Card 5.1 with Latest Drivers Internet: Broadband connection and service required for multiplayer mode Windows-compatible mouse required
My "dinosaur" : Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.40 Ghz 2x 1GB DDR400 memory Sapphire AMD (ATI) Radeon HD3850 AGP 8x [Also reviewed here on Epinions) Here I needed to quickly download the latest Catalyst Driver to get the game to work, as this was the one optimized for FarCry 2 Windows XP professional SP2 DirectX 9.0c On-board 5.1 sound A4tech 3xFire Laser Game Mouse 2500 dpi
As you can see, processorwise and with my "top of the line" AGP graphics card, I am very somewhat nearer the minimum system requirements than the recommended system and it showed : not when strutting around the huge maps but when I engaged in combat. At certain stages due to system slowdowns caused by ennemy computer generated movement I had trouble targeting the ennemies that came storming towards me correctly, but besides that I was able to run up the graphical settings rather high be it a a moderate resolution.
But in spite of the fact that I had chosen the game in its most difficult "Infamous" setting, I was never really into any serious trouble. This must be due to the fact that the game is not really all that challenging especially since I am in no way the ProGamer.
Also reported by other reviewers and experienced by myself was some uncertainty in mouse movement, here also my A4tech mouse's "special power" consisting of the extra fire button allowing for three consecutive shots with only one click, hence the "3xFire" was not recognised by the game.
The other reviewers thought the mouse problems could be blamed on the fact that the game is more oriented towards consoles and their controllers instead of PC gameplay through mouse and keyboard.
Choice of Weapons Allow me to delve immediately into the available weapons here, which are no other than those of your regular First Person Shooter (FPS) with a real world selection of existing handguns, shotguns, machineguns and sniper guns, completed with 2 types of flamethrowers, 2 grenade launchers and a mortar, so nothing exotic here.
The default number of different weapons you can pack at one given moment is four : a machete, a handgun (or explosive pack), any kind of machinegun or grenade launcher, a sniper rifle (be it with darts or bullets) or a shotgun together with two firebombs and two grenades. And here comes my first criticism, I personally like, as soon as I can lay my hand on one, always pack a sniper rifle to reduce the number of opponents as much as possible from a safe distance. If when doing this I am then surprised by characters sneeking up on me I like to be able to instantly switch to something potent with instant deadly impact at close range like a shotgun. Well in FC2 you can't have both at a time, with the sniperrifle you can only have some or other type of machinegun, which in the difficulty setting I played the game at sometimes takes more than a dozen bullets to shoot down a vilain. And even then in FC2 they sometimes only go lying down in agony in the weaving high grass, to start picking at you again when you move closer to where the action is, - and this with amazing accuracy - using some or other kind of handgun they were apparently also packing, and oh what a pain it then is having to locate them where they fell down, this time to really finish them off.
Although you are issued with a handgun at the start of the game initially you get by your weapons and ammunition in the usual manner, by taking them off your opponents for the former or by searching their camps for the latter. A novelty here is that faithful to the African setting these weapons are often not in the best condition, jamming at the worst possible occasion or even exploding in your face after what seems to be little use, this phenomenon can be very unnerving at first, especially when it is the only sniper rifle you have in reach.
But new weapons can be obtained from the weapon depots you find spread out over the maps, but to be able to use them reliably you also need to buy the upgrades in the gunshop next to the depot, where you also need to buy specific weapons first before you will find them in the store room. To be able to pay for these upgrades you need to have diamonds, the only trusted currency in the game.
There is a chance I overlooked it but nowhere did I manage to find a pair of binoculars be it with day and/or nightvision that were oh so useful (and more often than not indispensable) in the original FarCry game. There especially the ability to tag your opponents was brilliant. Sadly none of that in FC2 : not even a basic pair allowing you to explore the chosen target from afar.
The Game Setting The game is set in some unnamed African country with no authority to speak off and split up between two armed fractions, the UFLL and the APR, both fighting each other with the help of hired hands like yourself. It is thus for these fractions that you, as a mercenary will have to do missions and for which you get paid in diamonds. Your ultimate mission is to exterminate the Jackall, the arms dealer that wellcomes you at the beginning of the game : he holds the monopoly for all arms import in the country.
At the start of the game you can choose between nine different characters, all men and of various origins. The missions consist of assassinations, demolitions, pickups and drop offs. the characters you didn't pick to be at the start will later appear in the game as your "buddies".
Buddies And here comes the second criticism : you can call upon the help of these buddies once you have unlocked what is called a "safe house", a shack guarded by two to four men, once you get rid of those you can enter the hut, which will offer you the occasion to save the game, find health packs which in FC 2 take the form of seringes. The cabins also hold containers to store alternative first (handguns/explosives), second (machineguns, flamethrowers, rocket launchers) and third (sniper guns, shotguns) type of weapons. But to be able to use the containers you first need to buy this upgrade at the gunshop. The safe houses will also become upgraded with more health packs and more ammo as you progress through the game.
Back to the buddies: if you have activated them in the safehouse they will sort of help you the next time you run into serious trouble (= get gunned down) with hostile fractions. Although they do target your ennemies somewhat they are in no way useful like in the HL2 sagas : they just drag you somewhat away from the heat of combat, allowing for the game to show off some animated scenes in which you heal yourself in the crudest of manners. These scenes, although impressive at first, did get on my nerves after a while, just like the actual "help" from the buddies : what they did at best was buy you some time but in no way did they put you completely out of harm's way or restore you to full health as you would expect. So after a while I gave up on this completely since more often than not I did die after their "intervention", mostly due to my low health and their leaving me exposed to ennemy fire. I then had to relaunch a previous save to start the combat scene all over again trying not to get killed or too badly wounded this time around.
Here I must also add that at these occasions the game loads very slowly, and during the loading time you are shown some static slides showing various scenes of the game and a text summarizing the story so far. It could of course be that the slowness of the game loads is partially to blame on my ageing computer system.
Road Vehicles and River Boats And in no way were the buddies present or helpful in other ways, especially during the vehicle driving or the boat steering a helping hand was sorely missed. This since some of the vehicles and all of the river boats come with weaponry (machineguns at first but later on you will find some allroad trucks that have heavier machine guns and sometimes even light canons). The catch here is that you are on your own so either you drive or you man the gun, never both at a time. In the trucks it was however easy to slide at the push of a button from the driver seat to the gunners position and back, but not so in the boats where you first had to leave the driver's seat to take up position at the machinegun, making you loose valuable time and exposing you to a shower of bullets from your attackers.
Remarkably all means of transport are completely lacking in armour exposing you completely to your ennemies and once they have fired the first rounds that shattered the windshield (if ever there was a windshield to begin with) you transport easily breaks down and you get killed. Here even the slower river fishing boats with a cabin don't offer any more protection over the fully exposed speedboats.
Finally besides the buggies, the small sedan cars, the Jeeps and the machinegun mounted allroad vehicles there were also some heavy trucks be it with no special added value, they get shot up just as quickly as the rest, have no weapons, are slow and difficult to manoeuvre and you can't even use them to smash into things like buildings or road barriers which would have been great. All vehicles come with the option to repair them after they have been shot at or been driven into something. These repairs seem to be carried out by opening the hood (if not shot off already) and tightening with a wrench either the radiator bolts (with the car radiator baring a high voltage sticker !?) or fixing some or other bolt on the cylinder head of the car engines, or one of the belt drives in case of a smoking boat engine. Which leads me to think that the game designers haven't a clue about basic engine mechanics ;-). The shot up vehicles left unattended for too long, spontaneously combust and explode.
Obviously these repairs are no option when you are under heavy fire, so you had better hop out quickly and deal with the ennemies first. But if you do not repair the vehicles they will either go very slow or even grind to a complete halt with smoke coming out of the engine. As said hoods or doors sometimes get shot off which is a nice touch of realism. When your car has landed upside down you can sometimes get it upright again with the "use" button which will make your character try and turn the car over.
So for some speedier be it unarmed road travel you find these sand buggies, small sedans and two versions of luxury Jeeps and I do not mean Jeep as a generic word, no real JEEPS with the brand proudly displayed on the hood and the steering wheel (some indispensable product placement no doubt). But as luxurious as some may be none come with a REAR VIEW MIRROR, which in a game where apparently every ennemy is out to run into you with the same type of vehicles, is most annoying considering that in some of the vehicles you only have 180 degree vision.
A good point however is that these vehicles are readily available everywhere over the maps where there is human activity. But since the roads are crowded with hostiles after an encounter you will find yourself repairing your vehicles over and over again.
On the Busses! However once you get fed up with confronting the omnipresent hostile patrols and checkpoints spread all over the maps, be it on land or over water, you will resort to taking the bus. Yes, amazingly enough in this precise African country public transport is present and working extremely well, from one bus station you are taken smoothly to another without the bus being stopped, searched or shot at under way and it doesn't even cost you a diamond ! In fact the bus travel itself is never shown : you just hear the roar of the bus engine taking off and hey presto you are at your destination. How is that for some African realism ?
Diamonds are a girl's best friend So in the game diamonds are the only going currency, as said you earn them by performing paid jobs, either for the two fractions, for the weapons's dealers in the gunshops, or some anonymous caller on the phone. But all over the maps you will also "bump" into briefcases, there are over 220. And when I say bump I actually mean a green light that starts blinking on the antenna of your GPS.
Here I only bothered to go and locate them whenever I felt like it because they mostly involved tedious locating them with the help of your GPS (light blinking faster as you approach, and fixed light when you are facing the right direction) and often through climbing obstacles. These briefcases contain 3 diamonds at most and more often than not not even that, so why bother too much stumbling around for them when an average mission is paid in 25 or even more diamonds ?
These briefcases are sometimes located in some very unlikely spots which does once again away with all realism but then again sometimes the spots are a bit more credible like accidented cars or crashed planes, etc. but still the game could easily have done without this briefcase hunt really. GPS So you find your way around the maps with GPS, there is one installed in each vehicle you encounter. You also dispose of a portable GPS device which you can wield together with a paper map but then it is GPS and map and no more weapon in hand. Also annoying here is that with GPS and map in hand you do no longer really see where you are going. And unfortunately it must be some kind of African incarnation of a GPS since it lacks basic functionalities such as the possibility to fix a certain location and let the device guide you there giving you clear indications along the way. Instead the FC2 GPS just mainly shows you the direction of your objectives, whether this is where you want to go that instant or not.
Often even the handheld GPS and landmap lack precision and detail causing unnecessary and annoying detours. You will regularly have to use the landmap while driving or boating because the on-board GPS lacks even more detail. To compensate somewhat the developers have introduced a system whereby the roadsigns adopt the colour of your objectives helping you to find out which turn to take while underway helpful since more often than not hostiles will be in hot pursuit.
In sickness and in health As a sideline and another phenomenon that comes to annoy you at the worst moments in the game is the fact that at the start of it all just after you entered the game and the country you catch malaria. This obliges you to occasionally go and find the representatives of the underground movement, who in exchange of your delivering passports to wannabe refugees located here or there, give you pills.
So from time to time in the game in a Max Payne type (same music ?) of animation you get struck by a malaria attack, blurring your vision which can then only be cured by swallowing one of the said pills, the health seringes being of no help there.
Buddies continued The buddies also come into play from time when, during one or other mission you are asked to complete for either fraction, they contact you through your cellphone to come and meet them somewhere and they then propose an alternative approach, sometimes because they have a special interest in the mission. But don't expect them to shower you in affection upon completion of the mission.
Opponents' Artificial Inteligence It could be that I am looking back at the orignal FarCry with a tainted vision but I was in no way impressed by the AI in FC2 especially since I mostly got killed by one or other annoying character I simply didn't spot and which kept silent and motionless all through heavy battle only to have a go at me as he got revived by my passing and when I thought the coast was clear. This would have been OK if this would have been his strategy but it clearly appeared to me as being a bug or oversight in the game.
Luckily and due to the repetitive nature of the encounters you easily find out how many are supposed to be there, so you then simply start looking for the one lazy devil you overlooked.
In its "Infamous" setting the opponents do display amazing accuracy in their aim, even when they aren't facing you and all this with the crappiest of guns or from points where they couldn't even humanly have spotted you. The reach of their shotguns is also amazing especially compared to your own. And here I must mention that the camouflage outfit, which you can equally purchase at the gunshop, is utterly useless, camo or not, as soon as your presence has been detected, they will target you further on without too much effort or rush into you with their trucks even when you are hidden in the green.
Final thoughts So there is no questioning the graphical qualities of the game which are no less than impressive, be it the quality of the drawings, the vegetation, the climate conditions and the active day and night cycle.
But the gameplay and the storyline itself is somewhat lacking. In FC2 the gamedevelopers resorted to more real world than was found in FarCry with their African setting. But still all movements lack the sought after realism with your character being unable to climb steeper obstacles or step over the slightest of objects lying about, unless scripted to do so. No squeezing through tigher spots, no automatically bending when entering a lower entry, no leaning in or out around corners when firing, no lying down to snipe, no looking around when piloting certain vehicles, no possibility of steering and firing simultaneously. And, can't stress it enough, no rear view mirrors in the vehicles ! Also the checkpoint or whatever other settlement you completely shot up and burned to cinders on your way through is miraculously fully restored and fully repopulated on your way back.
Finally the choice of possible weapons is simply too rigid, keeping you from making the combinations that suit your gameplay best. These aspects of the game were a bitter disappointment to me. I don't expect to have at my disposal a truckload of various weaponry at all times (as happens in certain other games) but at least let me put together my own kit !
Also I found the end of the game to be a bit of an anticlimax. You are presented with two options and I tried them both but neither of them was really exciting.
End Score : All art and animations 9/10 - Gameplay 6,5/10
Epilog - Multiplayer I finished the game only quite recently with considerable effort to persevere and I since totally lacked the courage to explore its multplayer abilities, so sadly I cannot comment upon it.
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