Far Cry® 2: Fortune's Edition

Far Cry 3 takes you on a drugged-out trip to a vacation club. That's great for the youth of today. But Far Cry 2 will take you on a memorable journey that gives you PTSD. Far Cry 2 takes immersion to a new level. The sense of bleakness and futility is enhanced by the oft-critizised features of the game engine: permanently respawning checkpoints, repetitive missions, persistently aggressive AI, jamming weapons. After a few hours, you feel exactly like your character - exhausted and fearing the next firefight. Far Cry 2 is not "frustration-free gaming". It makes you sweat and requires you to plan ahead. This is the only FPS where I have spent most of the time running away from enemies. And I was loving it.

I love this game and it's beyond infuriating that after it installed Punkbuster, the game will no longer run, I shouldn't have to edit files and try to bypass Punkbuster in order to play a game on a service that markets itself as a DRM free platform. Every game's store page on GOG claims "No activation or online connection are required to play."

Far Cry 2 is often called a "thinking man's" first-person shooter. While Far Cry 2 certainly does fit the mold implied by that phrase, it is much more than that. "Realistic" is also a common adjective, and while it is beyond a doubt more grounded in simulation than Call of Duty, it is far from a latter day Robinson's Requiem. What it does do is present a far more honest depiction of the social and personal realities of war than any other game I have played, with some subtle (and probaby unintentional) commentary on the modern military FPS. Disease, a part of warfare since there has been war and ignored in other military games is front and center. The role of mercenaries (or "military contractors" as we now call them to get around the international ban on employing mercenaries) and the international arms trade is explored in the most honest way I have ever seen in a game. Africans are treated as humans; some of them villains, some victims, and some in between. The various mercenaries you meet are similarly not treated as simple, money-grubbing monsters. While still often monstrous and murderous, they have actual motivations, histories, and are not simply out to kill brown people. When they die, the scenes are extremely human, and incredibly difficult. Medicine is still somewhat magical, but the injuries your avatar receives can be brutal, and the game doesn't shy away from showing you what real, battlefield first aid entails doing to yourself or others. The game is also far above the normal difficulty level for this style of game. Much as in the original Far Cry, you are no John Rambo. Incautious movement equals death. Driving blithely around the (gorgeous) countryside will run you straight into ambushes. Running through the jungle on foot will alert every hostile soldier in earshot, and they are not dumb enough to makes as much noise about it as you are. When you look at the map, your avatar has to actually look down at the map. Gunfights or driving don't stop just so you can get your bearings, or talk to your buddy on the phone. I can't recommend it high enough. For $10, with no DRM, it's an absolute no brainer.

I can distinctly remember how excited I was by Far Cry 2's pre-release trailers. It looked like the most ambitious take to the "FPS/adventure/RPG hybrid" I had ever seen before. With the trailers showing off the large and detailed world, some NPC interaction, the competing factions, the "advanced A.I." and so on, in my mind the game was already an improved STALKER, with much more production value and a more realistic setting. Sadly, the truth was quite different. Far Cry 2 comes short pretty much in every aspect, and it's probably one of the dullest, most boring gaming experiences I can remember. The "gunplay" is unsatisfying, with weapons that never feel right and enemies that are bullet sponges even when the run around with the naked torso. Enemy respawn is just *excruciating*. You can cross a enemy roadblock, kill dozens of enemies and if you come back two minutes later you will find everyone alive and ready to shoot you on sight. Oh, right. *Everyone* will ever shoot on sight, even the faction you are working for, and the game makes a lame attempt to justify this claiming you are working "undercover". The player doesn't even need to bother choosing a faction, as he can work for all of them without any coherence. NPC interaction is a joke. You will talk with few characters in specific "quest hubs", when the story demands it, without any chance to choose your answers, but beside that it's all a uninterrupted killing on sight across the entire map. But the worst offender is that enemy variety is virtually non- existent. Those generic guys you are killing in the first minutes of the game are what you will kill for its entire extent. On a side note, the AI is underwhelming, and it doesn't even attempt to come out as realistic, as you can snipe a guy from a mile and everyone in that area will instantly spot and chase you. To be completely honest the *only* praise I can reserve for this game is how it shows off a beautiful landscape, which sadly is dramatically underused in terms of game mechanics. My advice for those who want a non-linear, immersive shooter is to buy S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and ignore this uninteresting game.

1. No X-Ray vision of the enemies. The game will be a challenge. 2. Cool African Atmosphere 3. Large open world 4. Great selection of Weapons 5. Physics are great. Love the fire effects 6. Enemy AI is actually good. They will hide, take cover and help their wonded. Even when wounded they will take out a pistol and shoot you. This game is seriously underated and won't hold your hand. If you want to try it, wait for a sale and grab the Redux + Realism Mod. It will enhance the graphics and add a 1 hour real time timer for the checkpoint guard respons.