There will be a lot of different assessments of Far Cry 2 from a lot of different people. It's was and is a very divisive game due to it's 'no hand holding' style of play, deep commitment to realism, and it's slim narrative content. Personally, these are half the reason I love the game so much. Fast travel points are few and far between, so every trip becomes a journey. Enemy checkpoints and patrols are ever present, so every journey becomes an adventure. There's no regenerating health, you have limited health packs and ammo, and your weapons can degrade and malfunction in combat, so every adventure can become a struggle for survival. And there's simply nothing like the anxious thrill you get when your gun jams in battle, or you have to race for cover under fire, or you have to scavenge for ammo or weapons because you've exhausted all your bullets. This game makes me feel a palpable and dynamic tension and excitement that I can't recall any other modern FPS giving me. You have to think on your feet and react to the ever-changing circumstances; there aren't any incentives for doing a job one way or another, you won't get more experience for doing a different playthrough, you just gotta get it done, however that happens. It's all well and good to waltz into a firefight guns blazing, but just when you think you have it under control is when a patrol will roll up behind you and take you by surprise, or enemies from a nearby settlement will show up investigating the noise, completely changing the balance of the fight. Maybe someone shot a rocket at you, and you feel relieved after you dodge it, but the explosion sets the grass alight and now you're fleeing from flames whilst under relentless fire. This is Far Cry 2, and while some may find the travel tedious, or feel directionless with a lack of a solid narrative structure, this is one of the few FPS games that gives your imagination room to grow. Graphically, I don't think I've ever experienced a game that recreates a real environment as authentically as this. Far Cry 3's technicolour paradise feels like an oversaturated toybox, and the junk that fills the HUD in that game only draws you out of the moment even further. This IS what Africa feels like. There are no day-glo-vested enemies waiting to be shot. These guys can and will disappear camouflaged into the scrub, meaning you have to be alert at your best to succeed. I'd venture so far as to say that it might be one of the best FPS games of all time. Note: I didn't say it was *perfect*, I just said that it might be the best. It has its flaws, both technical and gameplay-wise, although I'd argue that one man's frustrating design decision is another man's immersion-booster. I tend to fall on the latter side, and I can think of a positive side to every common criticism of this game. I've thoroughly enjoyed going back and playing through this tense, visceral, stunning creative achievement.
I'm sorry, but my nostalgia just couldn't save this game from itself. Rise of the Triad was my favourite game of all time when I was younger, and initially the fog of nostalgia kept me pushing on when playing this, but the more I played, the more the bugs drove me crazy, and it will do it to you too. That is, unless you can get past the nightmarish platforming that requires an accuracy that the controls just don't offer, the clipping errors, the checkpoint loading system (made obsolete with the implimentation of quick save after much user uproar, except the game defaults to checkpoint loading unless you specifically click to load a quick save every. time. you. die), and the poorly optimised Unreal engine graphics. Look, I don't completely hate it - it does look nice from certain angles, the music is fantastic, and the action is gory and fun a lot of the time, but after many many hours of trying to find the silver lining, the cons outweighed the pros for me. Not to mention, it's more than half a year after release and the most basic game-breaking clipping bugs still haven't been patched. Buy the original - even if it's dated, it's a superior experience.
