I've been playing Jeff Vogel's games since the original Exile. We had only Macs in our house, so it was one of the few RPGs we had to play, and by the gods were we Mac kids lucky to have Jeff Vogel plugging away on our behalf. Exile 3, the game this is the second remake of, is in my humble opinion Jeff's best game ever. When Exile came out, the post-apocalyptic D&D setting, Dark Sun, had taken hold of my imagnation 4 years previous. Exile, in a similar way, threw the conventions of medieval fantasy through the looking glass into an alien world of mushrooms, crystals, stone, and exceedingly friendly talking spiders. Exile 2 delved into even deeper and more alien landscapes. In Exile 3, Jeff pulled off his greatest trick: making the standard, banal fantasy setting seem wondrous simply because players had spend the two previous games getting used to the subterranean world. Of course it isn't that simple. The world above has some serious problems, and if anything things get even weirder than down in the caves (two words: giant cockroaches). But, at least for me, that feeling of grass and trees being alien and weird held on throughout. Whether today, with weird being almost banal, it will have the same effect on new players, I don't know. But it had it on me, and it just might have it on you too.
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.
