Far Cry® 2: Fortune's Edition

There are many elements of this game that I really enjoyed, and an African setting isn't something you often see in video games, so that was interesting. However, I have to give this one a thumbs down overall, as I found the missions to be somewhat repetitive, and the constantly respawning outposts were extremely frustrating and made this game a real slog to get through.

Right, let's get this over with. This game was a good concept ruined by terrible execution. The game world is huge, but a nightmare to navigate due to terrible mapping. You frequently get stuck miles from civilisation without a vehicle, and worst of all - the 'FPS' element is dreadful. Enemies shoot you while facing the other way, your guns are totally unsatisfying and the frustration is assured since enemies respawn behind you incredibly fast. You'll be forced to fight through some checkpoints 100+ times during the course of the game. Oh, and the destructible scenery? Lies. Top this off with weak story without any real motivation, forgettable characters and tedious collection jobs... the best advice I can give is to go play Just Cause 2 instead. That's how sandbox games should be!

This game has one fundamental fatal flaw that removes much of the enjoyment. The enemy respawn time and their incessant hostility. You are expected to traverse the roads between quests but armed checkpoints are frequents, clearing them is a chore, skipping them is leads to vehicle chases, the enemies are persistant and reappear every time you come past. It's enough to make you put the game down when you see this broken mechanic. If there is a mod to fix this out there, it would make this game a great gem of ideas and innovation. With the perfected FPS health system, the use of brushfire and explosions, the open ended engagements, the buddy system (where you can recruit, help, rescue or be rescued by them), the factions with choices and consequences (albeit very light and ultimately make little difference), and the great orienteering map and vehicle traversal. That plus all the great animation like the healing bullet wounds and repairing cars. I saw the game through the frustrating times and putting it down for days at a time and eventually finished it, and despite the looming flaw I see it as much better than many linear shooters with their six hour campaigns, and worth trying, and sticking it out for the rare light freedom you get from it.

I loved Far Cry, and enjoyed Crysis. However, FC2 was a bit of a let down for me. The idea is good enough, but as others have stated, it becomes boring quickly. If you want an open-world shooter, see if you can get STALKER:SoC.

This is a great game if you want to scratch a FPS itch for about an hour a week. After 3 hours I find myself thoroughly bored. As Herzalot's review stated - the game is just boring. You get a quest, which is about 95% of the time to go shoot someone in the face, drive across a big map getting ambushed the whole way, shoot someone in the face, then repeat. So yeah, buy it, play it, enjoy it, but it's really a secondary game, not one I'd try to work all the way through over the course of a few weeks.