Far Cry® 2: Fortune's Edition

Inadequate fast travel options and enemeies everywhere ready to jump on you makes a potentially great game just boring and frustrating. Throw in some bugs and it becomed unteanable. There is a bad bug right at the beginning where you get stuck in a room. I had to re-start 3 times to get through. As the game progresses the situation gets worse with more and stronger enemies all over you plus morter rounds hitting you from god knows where. I was not able/willing to finish the game.

...but it ended up being both boring and frustrating I absolutely LOVE the games that came after this with FC5 being one of my all time favorite games. Being a fan of old(er) school games, going back and trying out the first two entries seemed like a good idea I was wrong Others have mentioned many of the problems with this game and I agree. Repetitive gameplay loop, absurd respawns, too much time spent just moving about, etc. etc etc. The big thing that kills the enjoyment for me here is it's just confusing. Everything is the same color and the lack of a minimap makes navigating even in small spaces is really difficult. When I run up against the constant checkpoint gunfights it's impossible to tell where the enemies are since they are the same color as everything else. I just get shot and don't even know what direction to turn I really wanted to like this game and I almost did. I was willing to look past some of its quirks but it became a slog after only about an hour of gameplay For serious, go play any of the later games, they are all fantastic

I played this game like their is no tomorrow on the xbox 360. It got great critical praise too on its release. The problem with it is that gamers didn't understand it. It's an open world game where survival is everything. You start out with a machete and weak weapons. When doing missions and earning diamonds you can upgrade your weapons and become a killing machine. The game is huge like fall out so you can creatively kill enemy positions the way you want. It was too boring for the average gamer to understand its openness. To slow and boring since it was nonlinear. I like the fact that you have malaria and have to find bottles to save yourself. It brings tension and realism to a genre so filled with same old generic ideas. If you want to be a survivor stalking your enemies in war torn Africa give it a shot. I just wish they had deadly animals to attack you but I guess at the time they didn't have the technology to do it with the the graphics they put in the game.

The game gets a lot of negative buzz in comparison to the rest, but is the least on rails game of the four games currently released. There are no set paths to do missions, so no flying text to tell you you are going off course or mission failures for such. Do them when and how you want to, straight into the action or careful and precise. Explore the map at your leisure, or until your malaria disagrees. And if it matters to you, there is no shoehorned social justice warrioring garbage. This game is just plain fun.

If you just watched Blood Diamond, Lord of War, and The Constant Gardener and want to take a safe month-long vacation in the middle of a hopeless warzone in the most beautiful place in the world, I invite you to pick up Far Cry 2. Pros: +The game is beautiful- most of the time, I play it just to enjoy the gorgeous day/night cycle, weather effects, and stunning scenery. + The game has variety. There are dozens of weapons and vehicles to try, or modify, and they really make an impact on how you approach combat. + The game fakes realism. I liked having to take malaria medication, remember where to find ammo caches, fix broken weapons and cars, and use fire sparingly. I like that my map is actually a scrap of paper I hold in my hands while driving, not a HUD. + Did I mention fire? You can burn the whole country down if you're not careful. The fire in this game is *alive* and amazing. + The game is huge. I've been playing for hundreds of hours and still don't feel like I've walked/swam/boated/or driven every part of it. + You have allies. It's cool to have someone come rescue you if you get in a tight spot. I do far less save/reload repetition, because getting wounded in battle is just as entertaining as making it through unscratched. + The game lets you set the pace. Sometimes I get in and just do a few missions and advance the plot, other times I play just to wander and make my own sandboxy story. + They removed the silly science-fiction elements that were in the first game. Cons: - Taking out an enemy checkpoint feels like a major accomplishment early in the game, but you soon discover that destroyed enemy areas will eventually restore themselves (and their inhabitants). There are no "cleared" parts of the map, with the exception of the safe houses you acquire for yourself. This bothered me a lot at first because I felt like I couldn't really make a difference. Now I don't mind, because if everything I killed stayed dead, this would be a pretty lonely game. Enemies make it interesting, but this aspect won't please everyone. - The game's economy is based on a big hidden-object-quest. I had fun finding the diamonds because it usually makes you explore a new area and see things from a new vantage point. BUT it stops being as fun when you are broke, and *need* to go find the diamonds because you're one short of what you want to buy. - Voice acting. It's excellent for main characters, but random enemies all say their lines way too fast. They have their AI conversations ("barking") in a way that feels tacked on. - Size. The game is huge, and 90% of the time I love that. But once in awhile, I'll get a mission that takes me to the far side of the map, and unless I take a bus (teleport) I know I'll be spending 20 minutes just getting to the starting line. As you'll find from other reviews here, the game is not one that will please everybody. But I feel that negative reviewers are far too harsh with it, and hold the game to unrealistic expectations. This is the biggest, prettiest, most immersive FPS I have ever played. I would gladly buy it over again, and over again once more. Four stars, give it a try especially if it's on sale!