Far Cry® 2: Fortune's Edition

With plenty of side missions, vehicles and enemies to fight I've yet to grow bored of Far Cry 2. The thing it nails so well is the atmosphere. Unlike most open world games and certainly most Far Cry games, FC2's war torn Central African plains carry a cynical, cold indifference, devoid of traditional "good vs. evil" and deistic heroes. I think it is this quality that draws me back into the game time and time again. I feel as if the game world doesn't give a hoot about me, and I am just another pawn in a whirlpool of violence and confusion. Both the main missions and the side missions have you attacking convoys, clearing out enemy bases and sometimes protecting VIP characters (these are the worst missions) and afterward you are paid in blood diamonds to spend on new guns and upgrades. Much of the game is spent driving and walking on or off the beaten path through dense brush and muddy swamps. Unlike the other FC games you can choose your own character. Some (myself included) might find the ability to play a black character is a refreshing alternative to the 1000s of "white savior" games out there (I'm looking at you Far Cry 3), others won't even notice the feature. Either way the voiceless nature of your choice only serves the cold indifference of the world. I like it. You never feel like a god in this game, your guns will rust and jam, your cars will break down, and you'll be stricken with malaria time and time again, some find this really annoying. The biggest problems in the game, mainly the quickly respawing enemies, are easily fixed by heading over to Mod-Db and downloading "Dylands Mod, which makes the game more stealth friendly. I love driving across the desert, listening to BBC's "Africa Today" podcast on iTunes and pondering the best route to attack a weapons convoy, sometimes just driving over a sand dune for the hell of it. Does this sound appealing to you? if so then this is the game for you.

Far Cry 2 is an interesting game. The "redheaded stepchild" of the franchise goes for a realistic and gritty feel, not just 'down to earth' but 'down into the dirt and mud'. And it ends up achieving that feel respectably well. The gameplay is formulaic, but oddly compelling. You're a mercenary, betrayed, sick with malaria and half-lost in an African country in the middle of a "civil" war. Most missions you get given will have the same formula, depending on whether you're working for one of the warring parties, delivering passports in exchange for medication, obeying the mysterious man who calls you on the cell phone, or doing something else. Passport runs will always feel the same, faction missions will switch things up a bit every so often... it's undeniably repetitive. And yet, in a way, that helps further reinforce the atmosphere and feel of the game. You're not a hero saving the world from killer aliens, you're a merc doing gruntwork for money and to try and live through this mess. The story's not amazing, with the ending being particularly weak, but it keeps with the vibe of the game very well and that works in its favor. Half of the story is your own journey, what you do outside the main story and how you interact with the world, and that's yet another thing that adds onto the overall feeling of immersion of the game. The gameplay is good by itself, but I think a mod like Far Cry 2 Redux is essential. It solves the sponginess of the enemies and the main character (don't worry, the game's not too hard anyways), it rebalances the guns, adds to the immersion a great bit, and overall makes the experience better, if a bit more niche. With a respectable arsenal of weapons to unlock and run around with, plenty of stuff to do, and two quite large maps to traverse, the open world aspect is good and enjoyable, but again, prone to being repetitive. I recommend playing this game at an easy pace, throughout a couple of weeks; you'll enjoy it a lot more that way.

Took me over 10 years since first trying it to finally have a complete playthrough. Always got extremely bored of it a dozen hours in, and it takes about 30 for full playthrough. The narrative is terrible, all you do is errands for local warmongers with 0 personal stake in the matter because your protagonist is a mute yesman to everyone, including supposed main villain of the game. On top of that it's presented with voice acting as if actors are on call-collect, having only a few seconds to rattle off their lines. No sense for pacing. Over 200 collectible around the world suitcases with 1-3 diamonds each don't help it's case either. So what's it's saving grace? The details of core gameplay mechanics: -Weapons degrade, jam, and explode -Healing from critical health state has you pull bullets from wounds and non-critical is also animated syringe injection (in it's time this was innovative) -To fix a car you pop the hood and tighten the bolts -Map is not a menu, but an in-game item: a folder with collection of maps of varied scale -To buy pristine weapons you interact with an old af PC at weapon dealer and then go to adjacent warehouse and pick it off the wall -In combat explosions throw around the wooden shacks, set off ammo and fuel piles, shockwaves affect flora, fire ignites it and spreads... -If you're downed, you "buddy" can come save your ass All of this combined creates an increadibly immerisve sandbox experience, but it doesn't really ramp up as time goes on. By 10th hour you've seen everything and all that's left is twice as much repetition of the same stuff till the end. It's worth experiencing, but may not be worth completing.

I like the game, but no matter what method you try to play it in Spanish, it doesn't work correctly. The missions and the characters' dialogues simply don't start.

A never repeated recipe for fun.Shame so many mechanics from this game did not pass on futer Far Cry games.