GOONL!NE

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Also on: PLAYSTATION 3
Console Played on: Xbox 360
Release Date: Friday October 24th 2008
Age Rating: PEGI 16, BBFC 18

Lets get something out of the way first of all.

If your curious as to if there is any super mutants like there was in the first Far Cry, let me be the bearer of good news: it doesn’t.

Far Cry 2 is a sequel but only in name, other then that, everything has changed. Just a change in location, a change in characters, a change in the concept of the game.

You enter a un-named war torn African country whose government has fallen and crumbled with you getting to choose from 4 difficulty’s to pick, from Easy to Infamous, and over 9 Mercenaries, with a unique background, to play in your adventures through war torn Africa between 2 factions, the APR and UFLL with either faction looking to run the country with you getting to choose which faction to fight for. But no matter how much they hate each other and practically wanna kill someone, they all want the same thing: for you to hunt down and kill the elusive arms dealer known as The Jackal.

It should be noted that any mercenary you don’t pick, all of the mercenaries that weren’t selected will become AI controlled buddy’s to your selected merc. And your buddy’s are very vital for your progression in the game, they will give you new alternative ways to finish your missions, give you new weapons and if you happen to go down during a firefight, they will come and rescue you.

Do beware though, your buddy’s aren’t as invincible like most NPC’s in games these day, if they go down, they actually go down. You do have the choice to either kill your buddy or save him/her. If you don’t want to waste your syrettes, which are your injections to reboot your health and trust me, you’ll be needing them alot throughout the game, your only other option is to kill your buddy.

And once you kill them, they don’t come back to life or it’s game over once your NPC friend dies, they stay dead. And do also beware, once a buddy does come to your rescue, if you go down again, you stay down and dead meaning you have to go back to the last save you did.

However, it seems that gunfights aren’t the only way to die… somewhat. At the start of the game, you have come down with Malaria. Once the Malaria bouts come in during the game and you pass out, you are taken to the church in the village where most of your missions are given. Luckily, the priest in that church gives you missions so that you can earn tablets for it.

Once the bouts come in, all you do is tap the Right Bumper and pop a pill and Bob’s your uncle, the bout goes although it will come back so basically, rinse and repeat until you run out of pills.

The game’s gameplay mechanic is absolutely good but in honesty and fairness, it does get slightly repetitive. All there is to it is basically get the brief from whichever faction your working for, drive to your mission or your buddy who will have an alternative way to complete your mission, complete it and repeat. But of course, you can go throughout the game at your own pace with the main story roughly lasting over 26 hours depending on how you play it so it’s entirely up to you on how and when you play it.

But in all of this, Far Cry 2′s weapons system is very authentic, you get some of the finest modern weaponry in the world in this game and it’s realism at it’s best. You can get advanced weaponry which will cost you diamonds which you use to buy stuff throughout the game as you get more diamonds for each mission you do or you can use guns from your fallen foes but there is a downside to this cheap alternative. Your weapons will jam and may infact explode just as your using it but it does add a bit more realism to it.

You can use any way to get to your mission. Jeeps, cars, gliders, boats, you name it and it’s there although there is no helicopters just to point out so you can’t go in and do a Rambo.

If Single Player is making you feel you want more out of the game, then Multiplayer is where it’s at. You get 4 modes to choose from in Ranked and Unranked modes of the multiplayer in Far Cry 2. You get the obvious stuff like Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch but you also get Capture the Diamond which is like Capture the Flag only it’s basically a diamond, not a flag and Uprising which is a sort of Control/Zones mode which is mixed with a hint of VIP.

A player on your team is assigned Captain for a team before you fight it out for control of an area of the map, either A, B or C but even when if your team or the other team takes all 3 control points, it’s not over. You then need to go and kill the other team’s captain, once that is done, the game ends but if you kill the captain without taking all the bases as much, it’s a automatic win.

But to sweeten the deal a little bit with multiplayer, Ubisoft have also seen the measure to put in a Map Editor for the game’s multiplayer with a number of diverse options for you to create your map how you see fit.

Once you finish your map and do all the testing, you can then upload your map to Ubisoft and let other people download your map which is a incredible turn around from Microsoft as they usually have strict rules for user generated content on games for the 360 compared to either the PC or the PLAYSTATION 3, a bright example being for all 3 platforms involved would be Unreal Tournament III which is on the platforms above generate user DLC from the PC to PS3 with mods and user made DLC yet the 360 would normally shun user made DLC.

Far Cry 2 also looks graphically stunning although you have to feel a little let down considering how much better they looked in the videos but dont let that take it away from you, it is still a great looking game on the consoles.

The physics engine is impressive in the game, Ubisoft can’t have put it better then they could have  and it’s the tiny things in this physics engine that makes a difference like fire. When you start a fire with either an rocket launch with nearby jeep, Molotov’s or a flamethrower, the fire quickly spreads and starts a mini bushfire, something like this shows how the tiny things in Far Cry 2 make a difference.

Simply, Far Cry 2 is a good little package rolled into one. Single Player, Multiplayer and a fully fledging Map Editor for the 360 and PS3 verisons but sadly, this is where I am gonna say some nasty stuff about the game now… okay, not nasty but bad.

There are a couple of bugs here and there in the game and while it doesn’t ruin the gameplay experience, in a game which feels deep and realistic, it does ruin the realism a little bit. Rockets floats about and come towards you just as you fire one.

As well as that, tires don’t burst when you are driving a jeep under gunfire which ruins the experience somewhat and when you are being followed behind you, being fired upon by the jeep behind you and your engine starts to overheat under the gunfire, your car would normally pull over to the side of the road when you engine was failing and stop but when under gunfire and being followed, your car gets tiny bursts of speed until it goes on fire when you have to get out of the car to stop yourself being killed.

The game would have done with a little bit of testing before release in fairness because of this.

Final Thoughts: Far Cry 2 is a good game which is brought down by a couple of things like the bugs and the open world somewhat. Multiplayer however is very good and the Map Editior in a console game is something you very rarely see, let alone one which is done right.

But it is none the less a great game.

Story: 8 – It is a good story, however, it aint the most exciting story in a game but it aint the worst neither.

Gameplay: 8 – The core concept does get slightly repeative but it still gets the job done.

Graphics: 9 – It ain’t no Crysis but it is a great looking game

Lifespan: 9 – Various gameplay elements, 8 other mercs to play as after your first playthrough, play for one other faction after working with the other faction in your first playthrough, multiplayer and the map editior keeps this game going and encourges you for a 2nd playthrough the story.

Overall: 8 – Far Cry 2 is a good game but it’s story can wind on for a little bit and the core element of the gameplay can get slightly repeative.

None the less, it is a decent game which is worth £40.