Customer Reviews

Far Cry 2

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I finished Far Cry 2, including most of the side missions. The guys that gave it 1-star reviews only played it for an hour or two. My played time was about 40 hours.

The graphics and the environmental sounds in this game are stellar. It's a full world, with day and night, animals (zebra, buffalo, gazelles, chickens, goats, and other flying birds), weather (shifting wind that picks up before a rainstorm), and fire that spreads and burns things. In this world, you can drive cars, Jeeps, trucks, boats and hang-gliders. There are no loading screens as you travel the 5x5 kilometer map.

And the parts of the world react to your presence. Animals run. Plants bend over as you walk on them. Grass sways in the wind. When you shoot, you hear your spent brass landing in the grass. Everything has a shadow that moves with it. It's incredibly well-done.

In the PS3 version, there were some graphical glitches, including basically all the things you always hear about: aliasing, tearing, pop-in, and occasionally slowing frame-rate. Overall, graphics were great though and these glitches are familiar.

The game is a shooter. There are dozens of weapons you can unlock. If you don't like the recoil on the starting weapon, you can buy a much better one.

There are about 85 total missions. Many of them can be done more than one way. It IS repetitive though. Generally, you're going to shoot someone or retrieve something or both. I'm not sure what people were expecting here, but it would have been nice if there were more variety.

The story is unexpected. You play a guy in a situation. There aren't a lot of real choices to be made. And it's a civil war so the choices you do have aren't very good ones. It's like Grand Theft Auto in this way -- don't play it if you always have to be the good guy. Overall, I'd say the story is only ok-to-good. But it wasn't predictable and there was a satisfying pay-off at the end.

Good things about the game:
- Graphics
- Environmental sounds
- Weather
- Malaria - I liked what it added to the story. (Other reviewers thought it was annoying.)
- Swamp boats
- Weapon variety
- Length - 40+ hours is a good value
- Story ending
- Dialogue
- Buddy rescues for continues.

Medium things:
- Voice-acting - Could have been better. It was recorded in South Africa so the accents were authentic. Needed a separate control for voice volume versus shooting volume. And the actors talked a little too fast.
- Few cut scenes - I like cut scenes.
- You don't play a good guy.
- Characters weren't individual enough.

Bad things about the game:
- Soundtrack - it added nothing. It wasn't annoying, but what a huge missed opportunity.
- Getting attacked at every crossroads by guards
- Too much driving (But this isn't as bad as the other reviewers say. It seems bad for the first 60 minutes of the game, but after that you realize you can ride the bus or drive a boat.)
- Mission variety
- Wacky reasons behind some of the missions
- Graphical glitches
- Some bugs - Guys would die and stay crouched. Game crashed a could of times. And vehicles jumped to kill me once or twice. Overall bugs were rare.
- Shooting realistic-looking guys in the face might not be best for kids.

Overall, it was an amazing game. I'm glad I played it. There are games that are more fun. There are games with better stories. There are certainly games with better soundtracks. But this game had a wonderful world and an intriguing story. I hope Ubisoft comes out with another African adventure set in a world like this. I'll buy it.

Wow. For me, this is cutting edge gaming. I like the total immersion in a beautiful, hostile and huge landscape that allows me to explore a variety of habitats in all kinds of vehicles (including a glider!).

The minimal gamer data intrusions on-screen allow for much more of a feeling of entering the African world. On a widescreen HD TV, this is absolutely breathtaking.

Specific game play details are widely available, but I am very satisfied with the array of weapons, confrontations, variable character behavior for repeat play and startling action set-pieces.

The fact that day becomes night, the weather changes, fires left unattended can burn out of control and that weapons age and fall apart over time enhances all elements of this absolutely terrific game. Hard to imagine areas for improvement on this one given the premise.

And let me say again the terrain for open exploration is huge. Must be about 20 square miles of savannah and jungle. That is very big for a seamless open and widely variegated naturalistic landscape.

The mission is simple. You're a bounty hunter looking for an arms dealer equipping both sides of a bloody (tribal?) war.

Oh yes, here's the coolest thing of all. There's a fantastic Map Editor that allows you to design your own level. Yes, create a world of rivers, plains, jungles and structures. There are over a thousand choices! And then you and your friends can enter it for game play.

Highly recommended. This world is hard to leave...

I just played about an hour of single player to get the feel for the game before I tried the map editor and the online play. Single player visually is just a hair below the quality of COD 4 but hardly noticeable and at times it looks better. Guns break down over time and jam and then break unless you upgrade your weapons. Running is more like Gears of War than COD. Fire propagation is brilliant! After an hour I tried the map editor for about 10 minutes and the possibilities are absolutely limitless and show the most potential for online play out of any game available!!! Couldn't stand it anymore so I turned on the multiplayer. Fearing lag problems I was pleased to find NONE!!! We had several fires burning large areas and did not notice any lag at all. It takes allot more ammo to kill someone than Im used to but I quickly adapted to the change in play and absolutely loved it! Shotguns are 1 shot 1 kill at close range, sniper rifles accurate and powerful, the uzi is deadly accurate within 20 feet, and the machete is more fun than a knife ;) There are 6 classes to choose from and many different weapons available. All classes available can be upgraded for different weapons, more grenades or more powerful secondary weapons... Maps are huge and very beautiful! Supports 16 player online battles with an endless amount of maps that are as good as any I've seen. Lobby is well designed and works perfectly. You can vote past a map, vote off obnoxious players, vote to scramble the teams, mute players, and just about everything else we've found ourselves wishing we had in other game lobbies... If you were at all interested in this game you must buy it! If your just tired of COD 4 and not too stoked about COD 5 being WWII AGAIN try Far Cry 2, you will not be disappointed. Any fan of FPS's should buy this game for either console! My pick for sleeper hit of the year!!! I say sleeper hit because its not getting the buzz other games (ie;Little Big Planet and Resistance 2) are and may go unnoticed by allot of people. Absolutely love it so far and can't wait for my clan to get the game tonight!!!

My update - 11-08-2008 After playing this title for a couple weeks I am continued to be impressed! There are a few multiplayer issues that I would like to talk about. When playing "Ranked" games and running a lobby the room doesn't carry over to the next map. Everyone gets kicked (except the host) and goes to new rooms and continue that cycle. There is NO team/clan support so finding the room your friends are in doesn't assure you will be on the same team and there's NO option to change that. You can carry over the room from map to map in "Player" but when that room closes your rank will be reset due to your stats not counting. "Ranked" is the mode that keeps your stats and weapons earned but its easier to play with friends on "player" so that kinda sucks! I messaged Ubi about these issues that everyone is complaining about and they said they were aware of the problem and trying to fix it ASAP! Even with these complaints I still give this title 5 out of 5 because it is that good!!! Don't believe these idiots who are giving it 1 star, they are just trying to bring down the score because they wanted another COD 4! The controls in this game are different (not button configuration but response) than COD 4 but once you adjust your gameplay it works great! Its a poor musician that blames his instrument... The map editor is absolutely brilliant and hopefully a sign of things to come! Burning fields/bushes/and other destructible objects are still as fun as the first time. I have never had the mic's cut out or seen the dreaded "Connection Interruption". For every legitimate complaint I can find I find 5 great things that are only in this title... Single player is fantastic!!! Anyone complaining about the amount of driving should learn the bus system, problem solved... The complete freedom to approach any situation ANY way you'd like is incredible and carries this single player past 30 hours easily!!! Blowing up ammo dumps sending bullets and explosives everywhere while people are reloading is sooooo much fun (multiplayer) and getting shot while hiding and trying to heal myself keep things very interesting! Multiplayer needs some lobby tweaks NO DOUBT but this title has only been out for a few weeks. Mine (and everyones) beloved COD 4 was unplayable for the first month. Give them a chance to perfect it because it would have been a shame had everyone bashed that title and gave it 1 star out of spite and nothing else..... If your still on the fence about this title then rent it and see for yourself! EXTREMELY PROGRESSIVE GAME in my opinion.

One thing about this game is that it's initial appeal is huge. You launch the game and quickly notice that:

(1) Graphically, it's incredible. One of the best I've seen.
(2) It's got tight controls and it's fun to kill things
(3) The story seems immersive

But then after a few hours you notice:

(1) The story's not that immersive.
(2) While the fighting is fun, it's super-repetitive. This is why the game should be avoided. To be honest 99% of your missions are to go scout an area, or kill a guy, or take over an outpost, but they don't feel any different because this is how it plays out:

You get your mission, you spend 3 or 4 minutes driving to the mission, you encounter an outpost and have to kill everybody in it, drive 3 or 4 more minutes, then get to your mission point and kill everybody. That's fun to do for the first couple of times. But then you realize, that's the whole game until the last mission. I'm not kidding, it gets boring really fast. You get another mission, drive, kill people, drive to mission, kill, boring, boring, boring.

It's a shame because the game does look incredible. And it truly is fun for about 2 hours. Don't waste your money. But if you have to feed your OCD and play the game, buy it on eBay for less than $20 if possible. That's how I did it and I'm glad.

This game is set up like Grand Theft Auto but is in Africa. You can do whatever you want. The map is based on 20 square miles, so don't accidentally blow up your car w/ a missle launcher while you are out on the plains. Controls are a lot like those of Battlefield, which I think are perfect. I recommend this game to a mature audience. Has some swearing, even the F-bomb. Game is a lot of fun. I tried the multiplayer briefly. I think it will be fun, however will not replace Battlefield, Bad Company.

I played "Far Cry 2" over a 4 week period, mainly due to being busy, but also due to the fact that, while enjoyable to play, it didn't have that "I just gotta play it every day" feel to it. Don't get me wrong, it is an enjoyable game for the most part, but if you are not a fan of exploring, trial and error gameplay, and re-exploring (emphasis on having to backtrack constantly, nearly every mission), this game definately is not for you.

The locations are highly detailed, particularly the jungles, deserts and mountains. The character models are very detailed, as are the many different weapons you collect or buy along the way. The game has 3 Acts and each one has a cutscene or two setting up the Act, with the cutscene being pre-rendered CGI, which kind of stands out compared to the other scenes with you getting your missions, where those are real-time. The story of the game is interesting enough, but after awhile it drags on as their are constant betrayals, cliches, etc.

The sounds and music are all solid and help with the mood of the game. Voice acting is rather good as well and there are a lot of characters--so many that you will likely be confused as to what faction you are working for.

The enemy AI is very tough at times as a lot of enemies are thrown at you at one time, all with superior firepower and aim. Many of the enemy checkpoints are filled with enemies and it's usually best to just drive through as fast as you can and hope they don't jump in a jeep (which they 99.9% of the time do) and chase you. Then you have to hit "X" and take control of the large mounted gun and take 'em out. (It's fun the first few times, but with all of the backtracking, it becomes tiresome to always have enemies pop up in the same locations and you have to stop to take them out. Also, your vehicles don't take much damage before you have to repair them--yes, repair them. (I thought it was a gimmick at first, but the game developers really make you use it. My suggestion is upgrading your vehicle repair ability early on to avoid frustrating time ticking away as you have to stop and wait while you repair them.)

The controls are good, but the driving controls are a little too loose causing you to veer off paths or roads and wreck your vehicles. Also, an auto-aim would have been a nice touch, as often it is hard to target the enemies as they run around a lot.

I didn't really notice any glitches except a little slow down, which I have become used to. The save system is pretty generous and I recommend using safe houses or any save location as often as you can to keep from having to drive all the way from one side of the map to the other.

For first person shooters, it is a pretty solid game with story, graphics, controls and sound. Overall, I had a good time and it lasted for me for about 15-16hrs. which is good. Again, many missions are underwhelming or similar and there is a lot of backtracking. The side missions are more of the same and are not necessary to beat the game, only to get all of the trophies. Some might get tired of the muted colors of the terrain and locations. Had the missions been a little more interesting and there was less backtracking, I would have given it 4 stars. As it stands, it is a solid 3 star game. It's at least worth a rental or maybe $29.99 (as I have seen it at stores).

3/5 stars

Pros:
*15+ hrs. of gameplay.
*Nice graphics and sound.
*Interesting story and characters (NPC's.
*Controls are solid and intuitive for your character.
*AI is good.
*Nice selection of vehicles and weapons (most are upgradeable).

Cons:
*Missions can become redundant and involve a lot of backtracking. It's a tradeoff between length of game and repeating exploration of some of the same areas.
*There's no real boss characters and no mission is that difficult that you can't beat it on the first attempt.
*You can die cheap deaths, so save often.
*Enemy AI can be nearly super hero at times requiring far too many shots to take them down. (Also, be aware that some don't die immediately and while moaning on the ground, they will still shoot at you.)

I don't have a whole lot to say that hasn't already been said on here so I'll keep it short.

1) You get out of it what you put into it. If you plan your journey from checkpoint to checkpoint, and actually take the time to avoid guard posts, listen for oncoming vehicles, and use a combination of methods of transportation (boats, swimming, walking, cars, etc.), it is easy to avoid the so-called "random" encounters. They are not so random. And
2) I've played through the game 3 times now and I've yet to encounter the "respawning enemies" I've seen claimed. Sure, guard posts re-populate after an amount of time, but they never re-spawn while you are there.
3) Like I said, I've spent probably a hundred hours playing this game, only once did I have to restart due to a game ending bug...I fell through the ground on a mountain where the edges were really jagged. It was weird, but like I said, only ONCE in about a hundred hours. So, I can live with that. And I used to program in some basic langauges and I know how hard it is to test for that kind of bug. So I can forgive them considering the map is huge!
4) If you come into the game expecting COD or another fast-paced shooter, you will be disappointed. But if you expect a cerebral experience, such as moving explosive containers into the road to blow up a convoy or parking your car on a bridge to trap a target, this is a very rewarding experience.
5) On-line experience is not up the par of some other games, but having gone back and looking at it again, it's not as bad as I originally thought. Still, COD is the best online shooter available. But Far Cry 2 has the best campaign experience ever.

Overall, the game is amazing. It's beautiful. It's huge. There's a lot to do. The first time I played through the game I didn't even do half the stuff possible. But again, you'll get as much fun out of it as you put into it. If you just go from check point to check point (WALKING!) and blasting everything that moves, you're sure to have a boring, frustrating, and unfortunate experience. Please ignore the nay-sayers, pick up this game and you'll see what I mean.

Good:
1. Graphics- the first thing you will notice is the amazing graphics. Very few games have better graphics.
2. Huge Map - this place is huge and takes awhile to travel from A to B. There is a ton of land to explore and plenty to keep you busy.
3. Realism - this game tries to make everything as real as possible. You have to take medicine, heal yourself, weapons are not sci-fi weapons, fires started by explosions, and your weapons jam through time or if you pick up an enemy weapon. (this is also a con for some though)
4. Main objectives - the main story objectives are challenging, fun, and offer a variety of different mini levels. This game gets quite repetitive until you get into the main missions. Most of the main missions take you into some type of complex off the main roads and you play in a variety of locations: ranch, junk yard, depot, ect. These require you to plan out an attack and take special notice of ammo, health packs, and explosives. I found it quite difficult to go in and run and gun to complete these missions.
5. Story - I think the story is okay. Not great. It sets you up (like half life) where you take a ride through the environment and see what you are getting into. Then things go terribly wrong (like half life without the critters). The story is very briefly worked out through the main missions and buddy missions and really could have used some cut scenes or more explanation to have made a GREAT story.
6. Side missions - the side missions in this gave at least have a point. For the gun side missions you take out convoys to unlock new weapons. These are not too difficult and offer great reward. The tower side missions (like GTA4 assassination missions) give you 10 diamonds for killing some guy which helps you buy more weapons. The underground side missions help keep you alive by getting you medicine. While the side missions are fairly easy they at least give you something in return but they could have offered more variety instead of the same type of mission as you progress.
7. Weapons - the weapons for the most part are great. You get a huge variety of weapons from snipers, assault weapons, shotguns, smgs, lmgs, rpgs, ieds, grenade launchers, pistols, malotovs, and grenades. You can unlock better weapons through the story and through side missions. The one problem I did notice was how hard it was to kill an enemy in close range. It is like KZ2 where you can snipe or shoot an enemy from a distance without any problems but once you get close you better have a lmg or you will likely take damage. Another plus is you get to carry 4 weapons. You can carry 1. blade 2. a pistol, lmg, flare gun, or grenade launcher 3. An assault rifle, shotgun, or sniper rifle 4. rpg, flame thrower, grenade launcher, or lmg.
8. Explore - going around the map has its benefits. Unlike some games (GTA4 and the rats) this game offers you a benefit for searching every crack in the game. You get diamonds which you can spend on guns. While this isn't what I prefer doing you do get a sensor on your GPS that lights up when you get close to a diamond case. This allows you travel as usual and stop when you want to get a diamond case. There are also about 20 jackal tapes throughout the maps that offer you a trophy for collection.
Bad:
1. Jeep attacks and posts- The worst part about this game is the location of the posts and the jeep patrols. Imagine how not fun it would be to play GTA4 if you were shot at anytime anyone noticed you. It would not be fun. At least in GTA4 you only get trouble when you cause trouble. Anytime you travel for some time you will be attacked by a jeep patrol. If you don't see it coming you will either die or lose a lot of life trying to protect yourself. This is even worse if you are in a car or non armored jeep as you have to get out of the car further exposing yourself then kill 2 guys. If you die you start over from the last save. Also, the posts are right in the road so if you are traveling from A to B and the post is in the way you have to take time to kill everyone in the way before you continue. These posts respawn no matter how many times you take it out. If you drive through without stopping they sometimes will send a couple jeeps after you which you have to stop and take care of. It would have been A TON better if the posts were off the road down a side street so that you could take the post anytime you wanted the weapons or health packs but didn't get in the way when you were traveling from A to B. They could have done away with the jeep patrols all together. It didn't really help the game and only hurts it bad. Also, the cars and unarmored jeeps have no benefit. You cannot out run the enemy and after 10 minutes into the game you will decide to never travel in a car again as it is risky.
2. Realism - for me the realism should only be used in the environments. I don't want to have to stop and take time to use the bathroom in a video game. Imagine 24 with Jack Bauer taking a dump to start the 4th hour of the show. In this game the healing process is annoying, the guns jamming is really annoying (so much I never use a enemy weapon unless I have to), and the dying from Malaria part is insanely annoying. While some may appreciate this I DONT

3. Side missions - the side missions could have been great. There is this huge map with different areas where they could have mixed up the difficultly and area for the missions. For the most part the side missions are exactly the same as the previous one in just a different location but still not off the main roads. They easily could have put someone in a ship off the water with guard boats or heavily armored base of some sorts. Instead these side mission just had people wandering around.
4. Travel - the traveling part of this game can get old. Like Mercs 2 it would have been alot more fun to have some type of system to call in a vehicle or plane to take you from A to B. While this would take away from the story I am sure it would have made this game more fun. At least there are busses that allow you get from certain points on the map quicker. Again, without the jeep patrols this may not even have been needed.
5. Buddies - the buddy missions in this game seem to offer no real reward to the main character. Instead you just have to travel further and do 2 missions in 1. There should have been some reward that would at least let you think about helping the buddy out. Also, they cannot travel in the jeeps with you on missions but can only be used when you die and if you activated them before hand. While occasionally it was beneficial to have them around most of the time they just caused more work for you.

Far Cry 2 has nothing to do with the original Far Cry game. You play as a nameless mercenary in an African nation in revolt. Most of the game, you're going to be tasked with various missions to shoot someone.

The engine is just jaw dropping at times. There is a complete day and night cycle in the game. You've got lush jungles, the desert and everything in between. Some of the waterfalls and other valleys are just so pretty. I have found myself just sitting there in water looking at the sky when a party of guards comes along to shoot me.

The game play is where I have to somewhat downgrade the game. Initially, until you figure out where to go and what to do, the game is confusing. However, if you give it about 6 hours, you're going to find that you're used to blowing through guard checkpoints, killing everyone in your way with ease. That's when this game really turns into an exploration / FPS. And it's fun to boot.

There's a set of side missions where you have to find a series of briefcases containing diamonds by which you can purchase new weapons. That works most of the time. Sometimes, it's really annoying because you just can't quite manage to jump up and reach a case that's in plain sight.

If you can get beyond the initial "WTF?", this is a solid first person shooter.

Far Cry 2 has arrived amongst a lot of hype and speculation. To those expecting crysis for consoles it should be welcome. To those expecting the Second Coming, there may be some disappointment.

First off, Far Cry 2 does many things well.
-Awesome African Setting with a lot of Detail
-Weapon Variety
-Stockpiling and on-your-own playing style
-Atmosphere
-Addictiveness
-I don't care what reviews say, the fire mechanic is not a gimmick and works EXTREMELY well and adds a really awesome dynamic to the game.

What Far Cry 2 falls short in seems less and less important as you play.
-Vehicles are underwhelming
-combat feels awkward at times
-the beginning is disappointing
-the Jackal sounds like he phoned in his voice acting during a call on the way to the grocery store.

All in all, this game is absolutely stunning and really grabs you and pulls you in after the first couple of hours. It is a gaming experienced that shouldn't be missed this generation.