So FarCry2 is many things. It's an open world (More or less) FPS with some pretty nifty changes to the regular run and gun formula of shooter games. You are some government agent sent to Africa to take down The Jackal, a gun dealer who starts wars for his own gains. In your search to find him you come down with some pretty wicked malaria and pass out, only to be awoken by your good frined the Jackal staring you down with a gun and bush whacker. After some... I don't really know what happened, you escape him only to be nursed back by some... other people. OK, I'll admit I didn't really pay much attention to the story as I find it kind of weak. This one's all about the pretty graphics and the intense combat, not the compelling story.
Far Cry 2 uses the Cry engine as if it wasn't obvious enough by the name. It has a few strengths and a few weaknesses to this. The strengths obviously being this game is super pretty. Lush environments, great skies and very real looking water. It also seems it's been very much optimized since Crysis and runs far better on my rig than Crysis did. However, for the bad parts of the Cry engine you get the combat. I'm not saying the combat is bad, it's just Crysis was a game where you were a super soldier fighting (a bit later in the game) other super soldiers who take a lot of hits to make them hit the floor. Far Cry seems to suffer from this as enemies will take blows to the chest with barely a flinch. Fire is very effective though and this is a strong point to the game so I suppose they really wanted you to use that, explosives and sniping as opposed to the regular rambo tactics.
Pretty explosions make my day
The other weaknesses with using the Cry engine are that with Nomad (Protaganist of Crysis) you were able to stealth and no one would see you. While in Far Cry, you can't go prone and hide in the brush and have them lose your track. You can buy stealth upgrades but I still feel like this was a major weakness considering the very green areas and your inability to blend in. However, losing enemies in builidings works very well, and when the enemy finds you the AI can prove challanging as they try to surround you instead of trickling in. It all feels nice when you run away but the hiding can be wonky at times.
The control schemes feel a bit out of place on the PC and seem very much so geared toward the console version. Having to hold down the ironsights/scope button instead of clicking it once and the overall feel just screamed console, maybe that's just me but I personally wasn't a fan of it. You get used to it and it's no game breaker, I just didn't appreciate it.
Now as I'm sure you've all heard before about this game, everyone and I mean everyone wants to kill you. Unless you are at a friendly safe house, weapons store or in a no guns area you will be shot on sight. While some people really hated this, I played along and figured it was because the Jackal put a tasty price on your head and I just rolled with it. On top of this though there are gard posts every ~300 yards in the road and even if you kill all the enemies they simply respawn minutes later. It really hurts to feel you aren't progressing by killing these enemies. There's nothing to gain ad everything to lose unless their post has diamonds in it.
Which brings me to one of my favorite things in Far Cry 2, the weapon shops. You'll get diamonds by doing work or finding them around Africa while exploring. These are the currency for the weapon shop to buy weapons that are permanantly added to your weapon storage room. In addition to weapons you can buy manuals which improve usage of certain weapons, upgrades for how many health packs you can hold, things like Stealth as I mentioned before and more. However, yo gain access to buying these things you need to do trivial tasks for the weapons shop owners. It usually involves blowing up a competitor arms dealers weapons supply truck which drives in circles aimlessly. Very boring stuff but the payouts are worth it considering Far Cry's less than average weapon choices with things like flare guns, flame throwers, 6 chamber grenade launchers (Fortunes pack only, sorry folks!) and more.
The diamond system also has its place in the multiplayer, you gain experience for killing enemies and completing objectives. For each level you get, you recieve a daimond along with it. You use these diamonds to buy upgrades to your loadout whether it be a sniper rifle, silenced MP5 or whatever you want, you name it. The game modes in multiplayer are pretty standard, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, CTF (Or Capture the Diamond in this case) and a control point map where your team has 1 leader and only he can cap the control points. I have yet to play the last one I mentioned as I have yet to find a server hosting it so I can't give an honest opinion about it. Multiplayer overall works well but much like the Call of Duty series has its hiccups of imbalance. The grenade launcher is a thing which many players dislike and find unfair, many servers threatening to ban those who use it (Again, much like Call of Duty) other than that though, multiplayer is a joy to be had. An uncountable number of custom maps thanks to the map creator makes it a worthwile experience that's fun all around.
To wrap it up, I strongly advise this game if you're looking for something a little new. It looks great, plays great even with the consolish controls and overall feels like a full package. Oh and don't let SecuROM scare you out of this, it's all hype. 5 installs plus a revoke tool won't stop you unless you are doing what they don't want you to- sharing it. Of course, the console players won't have to deal with this.
Oh and as a side note, I feel that the CryEngine would make a kick ass hunting game.
Suggested purchase price: $25
Far Cry 2 uses the Cry engine as if it wasn't obvious enough by the name. It has a few strengths and a few weaknesses to this. The strengths obviously being this game is super pretty. Lush environments, great skies and very real looking water. It also seems it's been very much optimized since Crysis and runs far better on my rig than Crysis did. However, for the bad parts of the Cry engine you get the combat. I'm not saying the combat is bad, it's just Crysis was a game where you were a super soldier fighting (a bit later in the game) other super soldiers who take a lot of hits to make them hit the floor. Far Cry seems to suffer from this as enemies will take blows to the chest with barely a flinch. Fire is very effective though and this is a strong point to the game so I suppose they really wanted you to use that, explosives and sniping as opposed to the regular rambo tactics.
Pretty explosions make my day
The other weaknesses with using the Cry engine are that with Nomad (Protaganist of Crysis) you were able to stealth and no one would see you. While in Far Cry, you can't go prone and hide in the brush and have them lose your track. You can buy stealth upgrades but I still feel like this was a major weakness considering the very green areas and your inability to blend in. However, losing enemies in builidings works very well, and when the enemy finds you the AI can prove challanging as they try to surround you instead of trickling in. It all feels nice when you run away but the hiding can be wonky at times.
The control schemes feel a bit out of place on the PC and seem very much so geared toward the console version. Having to hold down the ironsights/scope button instead of clicking it once and the overall feel just screamed console, maybe that's just me but I personally wasn't a fan of it. You get used to it and it's no game breaker, I just didn't appreciate it.
Now as I'm sure you've all heard before about this game, everyone and I mean everyone wants to kill you. Unless you are at a friendly safe house, weapons store or in a no guns area you will be shot on sight. While some people really hated this, I played along and figured it was because the Jackal put a tasty price on your head and I just rolled with it. On top of this though there are gard posts every ~300 yards in the road and even if you kill all the enemies they simply respawn minutes later. It really hurts to feel you aren't progressing by killing these enemies. There's nothing to gain ad everything to lose unless their post has diamonds in it.
Which brings me to one of my favorite things in Far Cry 2, the weapon shops. You'll get diamonds by doing work or finding them around Africa while exploring. These are the currency for the weapon shop to buy weapons that are permanantly added to your weapon storage room. In addition to weapons you can buy manuals which improve usage of certain weapons, upgrades for how many health packs you can hold, things like Stealth as I mentioned before and more. However, yo gain access to buying these things you need to do trivial tasks for the weapons shop owners. It usually involves blowing up a competitor arms dealers weapons supply truck which drives in circles aimlessly. Very boring stuff but the payouts are worth it considering Far Cry's less than average weapon choices with things like flare guns, flame throwers, 6 chamber grenade launchers (Fortunes pack only, sorry folks!) and more.
The diamond system also has its place in the multiplayer, you gain experience for killing enemies and completing objectives. For each level you get, you recieve a daimond along with it. You use these diamonds to buy upgrades to your loadout whether it be a sniper rifle, silenced MP5 or whatever you want, you name it. The game modes in multiplayer are pretty standard, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, CTF (Or Capture the Diamond in this case) and a control point map where your team has 1 leader and only he can cap the control points. I have yet to play the last one I mentioned as I have yet to find a server hosting it so I can't give an honest opinion about it. Multiplayer overall works well but much like the Call of Duty series has its hiccups of imbalance. The grenade launcher is a thing which many players dislike and find unfair, many servers threatening to ban those who use it (Again, much like Call of Duty) other than that though, multiplayer is a joy to be had. An uncountable number of custom maps thanks to the map creator makes it a worthwile experience that's fun all around.
To wrap it up, I strongly advise this game if you're looking for something a little new. It looks great, plays great even with the consolish controls and overall feels like a full package. Oh and don't let SecuROM scare you out of this, it's all hype. 5 installs plus a revoke tool won't stop you unless you are doing what they don't want you to- sharing it. Of course, the console players won't have to deal with this.
Oh and as a side note, I feel that the CryEngine would make a kick ass hunting game.
Suggested purchase price: $25
