This game is not overrated, check out the reviews on GOG or Steam...

Just go on ModDb and look for Dylan's Far Cry 2 Realism Mod.

Removes all the heartache.

"his mod fixes what Ubisoft left unfixed. Dylan's Realism Mod changes Far Cry 2 from an Africa-based sedan and pickup truck simulator into a (semi accurate)
African conflict simulator. Realistic weapon damage, recoil, realistic ammo loads and weapon reliability have been added, along with a more effective stealth suit, and revamped AI weapons. (No more SPAS12s and AR15s for militiamen). Checkpoint AI has been tweaked as well. Checkpoint guards now have a 60% chance to chase you after passing through, as opposed to 90%-100% in vanilla. Militiamen also communicate more frequently in combat, and use suppressing fire more often. However, you are now as vulnerable as the AI. A single burst of rifle fire can kill you, so you are probably going to need that extra ammo and stealth suit. "

Stealth suit?! Was there something like that in the standard game as well?

By far the best and most immersive Far Cry expirience i ever had was with this game.Then it started getting dumbed down for the masses sadly.Graphics,sound and physics is still unsurpassed to this day.Lighting a fire just before a rainstorm and the wind blowing it towards a guard post is just jawdropping.The respawning enemies are a bit annoying but nothing serious like some users above stated.Cheers

I always find it hilarious that people claim Far Cry 2 is some kind of super difficult, hardcore experience when it's hilariously easy in comparison to Far Cry 1. Now *that's* a game that will kick your ass and laugh at your broken corpse.

Far Cry 2 isn't a game that's difficult. It's not hardcore. The enemies I deal with are the lowest tier, easy enemies in Far Cry 1. There are no Trigen, no helicopters, no heavily armored mercs that can take multiple shotgun rounds to the face, so the game never ramps up its opposition enough to truly feel overwhelming and require a ton of planning to overcome. You die quicker in Far Cry 1 as well, and health and armor pickups are actually quite rare. The respawning checkpoints are a nuisance, not some great threat that makes it feel like an accomplishment to survive. In fact, dealing with the checkpoints becomes easier as you get better gear and upgrade your safehouse. The only difficult thing about Far Cry 2 is mustering the patience to deal with all the busywork it forces you to do, like endless driving, fighting the same enemies you've killed 100 times before, replacing your guns, getting new pills, all so you can play gameplay that's just a lesser Far Cry 1 with most of its depth removed.

EDIT: Also, any of the immersion and world detail stuff are all deeply unimpressive when Crysis came out the year before and still blows it out of the water, plus because Far Cry 2 was designed with consoles in mind, the resources devoted to adding all these little details is also what makes Far Cry 2 feel so empty and repetitive.

'do some research and you'll find this game has tons of criticisms'

or you could do some research and find tons of articles by serious gamers that consider fc2 the best game in the series. especially on infamous difficulty.

Another thing about Farcry 2 that many seem to have missed: The horrible art direction.

I never seen a video game abuse the color brown more than this, in some scenes is like the entire game was made out of mud.

It's set in central Africa.

Folks that shit on FC2 are babbys that need a flashing arrow to tell them where to go next, and require that a game consists primarily of cutscenes, with a story as subtle as a hammer to the face.

There, I said it.

FC2 is one of the greatest, and most important FPS games ever made. It has lots of problems, but they do not outweigh its genius.

If you have balls of steel, and wish to return to Africa - go for Redux: https://www.moddb.com/mods/far-cry-2-redux

Either way, no one should play FC2 on PC without the brilliant "Multi-Fixer" program: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1620638035

I don't want or need flashing arrows. But I eventually got bored to death with FC2 and never finished it. It's just a dull sandbox with enemies dropped here and there. Once you figure out how to take them out, there's nothing hardcore about it.. it's just a repetitive chore, nothing interesting really happens, it's all the same for what, 50 hours? Honestly even the missions aren't much better than taking out random outposts. To design an interesting scenario, it takes more than dropping a couple dozen guys scattered around some complex.

It's clear they went for quantity way over quality. They built an expansive & pretty nice looking world but failed to populate it with anything more than barebones "here's something for you to shoot" busywork/placeholder breadcrumbs and there's nothing to tie any of it together in a meaningful manner.

I wanted to love this game because the premise sounded interesting and people told me it's hardcore.. nah it's not. A hardcore boredom simulator at best.

The problem with this game is that it tried to be both an action game and a survival sandbox at the same time, and it doesn't do either well.

Can't be a good action game because it lacks proper handcrafting with every encounter between you and the enemy being a generic fight left up to the simulation itself to build around you, and it obviously doesn't do as well of a job as a level in a linear game that was personally made by a developer.

Can't be a good survival game because it is just too easy and simple to be one, right off the bat you can fight your way through hordes of enemies, which the game spares no time throwing against you constantly and apart from gunning them down there is basically nothing to do.

So yeah, i tried finishing it twice too and gave up due to boredom both times as well.

If you think it's objectively the weakest game is the series then you're objectively ignorant. Far Cry 2 is a big boys game. Don't like it? Then go back to the goddamn swing sets!

Far Cry 2 is for wimps. The only thing it tests is your patience.

You want a real manly man's game? Play Far Cry 1.

Far Cry 1 on Easy is harder than Far Cry 2 on Infamous.