I personally love the hell out of this game. Yes, the multiplayer is rather crap, but I did have fun looking at some of the maps people made. A better multiplayer would have made that game an absolute stand out. Best one I found was an almost perfect recreation of Helm's Deep.
But off of the multiplayer and onto the singleplayer.
Woodsey said:
Negatives:
- The narrative tries to be deep and meaningful, but it appears 3 times (for about 5 minutes each) at the start, middle and end.
- Enemy camps respawn once your back is turned, so all the ammo you've just bought is spent on them instead of your mission
- Fast travel is a pain in the arse
- Enemies know your exact position, even when you're sniping from a considerable distance
- Stealth system isn't very good
- The machete requires 2 hits for a kill, even though:
a) You're stabbing them right in the back
b) Everyone in the world knows that knives > guns in games!
- Malaria is just annoying
- The map is too big and boring
- There's nothing to do other than the main missions (bar find diamonds - whoop)
- The factions are near indistinguishable
- Characters are flat and dull including the Jackal who (like the story) tries to be all interesting and deep but only has a screen time of 10 minutes max.
That's all I can think of right now.
Woodsey, I'm going to tackle your list of criticisms because it's the largest and best written, and I'm going to quickly say why I felt some of them actually improved the game.
The narrative firstly I had no problem with, so I won't say anything against it. I thought it was a really interesting way to show how you got the mission handed to you like a contract, and enjoyed how you could sometimes alter dialogue during it. As I recall I once accepted a mission immediatly before I even got the full briefing leading to most of the others in the room giving me a quick look and a pause as if asking 'Do you even know what you're doing?'.
The enemy camp respawn thing was a bit annoying, but normally you could either plow through there and fight them off as they try and chase you in jeeps with a machine gun or avoid them entirely with a bit of stealth. Also made it more fun when you wanted to have a bit of combat because you could just find one on your map and blow the hell out of it.
The buses fast travel thing was rather well done. I like how the fast travel system doesn't let you go to immediatly where you wanted, but instead made you plan out a travel route. It's a nice compromise between instant fast travelling in games such as Fallout 3 or Oblivion and none at all.
I don't remember having that much trouble sniping. I'd normally take a position in the bush and they'd have difficulty finding me. I'd normally be able to pick off multiple before my position was compromised.
Stealth... Alright, I'll admit that's was executed rather poorly. Yes, you could sneak up on someone, but you'd have no real way to kill them without the who base knowing, even with silenced weapons.
The machete being underpowered... I liked it actually. Sure it made the slot rather useless, but think about it. Instead of shooting a man with a silenced pistol, instantly killing him, you are attempting to butcher him with a machete quietly. It just doesn't really work that well when you think about it.
I never really had a problem with the malaria thing. You could usually wait out your first fit of it, then take a pill later when needed. It wasn't a huge problem or advantage.
There were a few side missions such as blowing up convoys or assassinating targets, but I'll admit, they could definetly used more variety.
Now, I think the factions being indistinguishable was a good thing. It was a major part of the theme of the game. It shows you that you're not fighting for a side that is good. Both sides are bad, very bad. They are indistinguishable from each other to show that both are evil forces, which demonize the others while saying they are the just ones. It's actually a bit of a deep note when you realize that in situations like this, there is no good, just suffering.
I'll agree that the Jackal could have used more screen time, but I felt I got a connection to several of the other characters through my limited time with them. Hector Voorhees was my favourite in the game by far, since he eminated awesomeness, but there were also several of the buddies who'd come and save you that made me feel very attached to them.
Anyways, that's what I feel about most of those points. There are some flaws in this game certainly, but I felt differently on a few of the points you had, and wanted to raise my opinions on them. Like I said prior, I love the hell out of this game, and it will sit forever on my shelf as an old favourite, that's differences help define it.
