Far Cry 2, much like its in-game currency, is a diamond in the rough.
It is an obvious beta that was polished, but is still very basic, without any real depth beyond combat which can be approached directly or covertly, except when it completely devolves into an outright firefight where both sides can see each other. I'll get into those later.
In terms of gameplay, Far Cry 2 is servicable. The shooting is responsive, the vehicle control is surprisignly smooth and and easy, and on the lower difficulties it doesn't at all feel cheap. The problems crop up in the facts that:
1 the enemies are largely bullet sponges - you will be able to empty half a mag or a full mag into an enemy and they will just continue to come at you - if they're not wearing armor it's egregious, if they're wearing armour, okay, it makes sense, except when I empty several dozen rounds from my machine gun which would cause a dent, if not knock them back a bit. Thankfully, a sniper rifle either kills them or puts them down and injures them, so there is some satisfaction to be had. Regardless, a headshot solves all problems, no matter how much armor they're wearing.
2 the enemies respawn - every few hundred yards, when traveling between towns or mission goals, you will run into an enemy checkpoint that you will have to clear out. This is fine, and indeed realistic, however the enemies constantly respawn at a fast rate. I read somewhere that they respawn the instant you move out of the grid the checkpoint is located in, and that this was used to save memory. Whether it's true or not, I never verified. But it does make return trips after a mission more annoying than they need to be. If they respawned one day later, or after you started a new mission, it would be less annoying.
3 there is no real choice - the game was set up, and indeed implies, that you have a choice who you will support: UFLL or APR, the two main factions. However, whichever one you choose, you will inevitably start working for the other so you can progress the story. There is no choice, beyond helping your buddies or not. And their missions are morally suspect, so there's that. I suppose.
4 the stealth is difficult to pull off - Yes, you can go in guns blazing, or sneak around, but the latter is difficult to pull off since you cannot see where the enemies are, and your only indicators if they saw you are gunshots and whether or not you hear their searching monologues. This is more realistic, I suppose, and I quickly grew accustomed to using sneak attacks for my initial conflict, and then continuing the sneak attacks or attacking directly, depending on how the fight was going and how many hiding places there were. The sniper rifle helped immensely in this respect, as apparently, the enemies had a harder time of tracking me if I attacked with it from a distance and moved quickly in the brush. However, I can see why most people would abandon the stealth altogether, and just attack overtly. However, I would say the stealth, while difficult, is much more rewarding and far less dangerous since while the enemies are bullet sponges, you are not. Constant movement is needed, as is awareness and utilizing cover and distractions.
Yet, despite all of this, I found myself enjoying Far Cry 2, and seeing it more as a pick-up-and-play game, which I use to simply zone out and do simple missions that didn't require any philosophical thought, just survival and tactics. It wasn't very good for long play-sessions, but an hour or two per day, it was just fine.
The combat is mostly why I kept returning. The enemies are surprisingly intelligent some of the time, spreading out, searching for you and taking cover, running around, dodging your attacks. They'keep moving and force you to do the same, especially if they have a sniper that keeps the basic infantry covered. There are, of course, stupid moments. Like when an enemy will stay in one spot while you empty a magazine into them, or when they walk too close to some explosive ordinance, but these are minor hiccups that won't impact your enjoyment, since you'll be too busy trying to survive for dear life.
A nice touch is the above-mentioned searching monologues. Depending on how infamous you are, they'll treat you like a punk looking for quick glory, or a mass murderer of legend, and it pleases the ego greatly to see how news of your deeds spread throughout the war-torn country. That among legions of lunatics with guns, you stand out as the king of lunatics.
And you do earn the gratification, as there were many times where I lost sight of the enemy, often resorting to crouch-walking throughout the locaiton, looking around every, corner, listening to every sound, entering a brief scuffle only to be surrounded and running off, then picking off the enemy one by one after I got my bearings. Emergent gameplay, since no two battles will be exactly the same, especially if you switch out ordinance each time.
And yes, the weapons. They are all beautiful, let's not deny it, and they all feel different. Personally, I'm a Jack-of-All-Trades, so I picked long range, medium range, and explosive, and I was set throughout most of the game. My sniper rifle was the one I used most, and the machine gun second when I ran out of rifle rounds, or the enemy got too close. A grenade launcher was used exclusively to clear out enemies from cover, or simply to fuck with them from afar.
Each new toy was more exciting than the last, and having always kept them new and shiny by restocking at the warehouse, I never experienced jams, unless I was so low on ammo I had to use an enemy's weapons. And yes, their weapons don't jam for them. That's cheap. Trust me, you restock on a clean weapon every time you end a mission, you'll never jam once if you have plenty of ammo during a mission.
Speaking of missions, let's move on to the Buddy System. It sounds special, but it's not. It is essentially your second chance. Your buddies will come to save you in case you fall during a mission, and offer you some assistance in taking down the enemy. However, they can die, and if they get downed, it'll be up to you to revive them with a syrette. However, if they can't be revived in 3 syrettes, they're dead. Or if they get downed enough times, they're dead, and dead for good for the rest of the game.
Now, as with any buddy, their services aren't cheap. You have to do them favours if you expect favours in return. When you start each mission, your main buddy will ask you to help them out with their own task which is related to the mission you just accepted. This will often require that you go out of your way, quite a bit, and get some documents, kill someone specific, or destroy something, so that the Buddy can gain something. Then, once that's done, you go and finish your original mission, which will inevitably go wrong and require you to go and save your buddy from an onslaught. Same rules apply, they can die or survive. But once saved, or dead, your mission is done and if your Buddy survived, you gain reputation and Buddy History.
Now, since you'll be helping these buddies a lot (if you choose that path), you should know that their personalities aren't much. In fact, most of the characters have no real personality beyond one or two characteristics. Their main function is strictly a pragmatic one: offering you assistance, a boost in reputation, or giving you a mission that furthers the "plot" (such as it is). What's a little annoying, is that some of these characters are fun and would offer an interesting character to play off of (such as Hakim Echebi, [[sikh soldier]], or Michelle), because some of them seem sociopathic, others heroic, and others still just professionals who don't care about the details.
That said, there is one interesting character: The Jackal, evne if he is the stereotypical Nietzschian Wannabe. His Devil-May-Care attitude, hiding a genuine caring about the conflict, makes him interesting to listen to, even if he is a little too nihilistic. Sadly, he only appears at (preciously few) keypoints of the game. The rest are just grunt-level missions. Mind you, they are fun, and the surroundings change frequently enough that each mission allows for a new playground to shoot in, but it's not very deep.
Speaking of depth: the plot. There is no plot. Not in the traditional sense. The plot happens away from you, since the main players who make everything happen are the ones who give you the missions. They sceheme, they make decisions, they change the course of things, and you are there as a gun-for-hire. If you go into the game knowing this fact, you won't feel as disappointed by the lack of depth.
But, to balance out the disappointments, I'll need to mention the surroundings once again. In terms of variety of battlefields and how fun they are to navigate through during a firefight, it is obvious this is where most of the effort was spent, and it shows. From a junkyard, to a trainyard, to a swampy little town, to a shack overhanging a cliff surrounded by enemy troops, to an oasis, and beyond. This is where the true fun is derived, simply surviving in a brand new surrounding, with at least a dozen men gunning for you. Combine that with decent AI, a variety of weapons that'll help you achieve your goal, and enemies that also use varied weapons (assault rifles, SMGs, shotguns, pistols, mortars, RPGs, snipers) and the firefights become something that almost makes up for the rest of the game's shortcomings.
And it's because of that "almost" that I think the game is worth three stars out of five. It's a flawed game, a rough sketch of what the author wanted, but it's obvious there's raw skill and talent under it all, just begging for refinement.
However, even the shortcomings can be overlooked, if you're willing to accept them as elements that serve to emphasize the atmosphere of a war-torn country. Constant, tiny struggles that seem pointless and repetitive to the little guys at the bottom of the totem-pole. The charactes speak realistically in a slurry English because they're not professional actors, but soldiers and generals and manipulators. There is no big, dramatic story, just a conflict that goes on and on and on, until somebody finally wins, and very little changes. It's a very zen experience if you're the kind of fru-fru, artsy prick like I am who likes that kind of thing.
In the end, while I would recommend Far Cry 2, it would only be if it's on sale, since I purchased it for €2.19 and I certainly got my money's worth, and only for a very specific type of person who doesn't mind all the listed shortcomings.
Hope this review helped.
