2.5/5 ★ – fez219's review of Far Cry 2.

This game was a repetitive mess! But it had some really cool ideas in the mix and I had some fun with it, although I wanted it to end long before it actually did. I felt like it was a bit like No More Heroes, where the game devs made certain monotonous and frustrating choices on purpose to make a point to the player. Far Cry 2 is certainly a midway point between 1 and 3. Far Cry 1 is an entirely linear sci-fi shooter with large levels, while Far Cry 2 is where the series permanently turns to open worlds and contemporary realism (minus the fantasy elements of the later titles). You're in a war-torn African country, an interesting setting that the game uses in shallow but interesting way to talk about the folley of war. Still, the game is almost purely a shooter. Unlike 3 and on, which give checklists of varied activities and collectathons to embark on, you're given very simple missions that are entirely built around combat. There are side missions, but they play almost exactly like the main missions and have little to no story attached. Moreover, while you can spend diamonds on new guns and small upgrades, these are extremely shallow mechanics and a far cry (heh) from the RPG-like systems and upgrade trees of later titles. However, it does have visceral syrettes and gory healing, which later titles keep going back to (because they're awesome). Like all other Far Cry games, you're dropped into a hostile exotic locale. But unlike the player-friendly checklist of activities and vibrant vistas of later titles, Far Cry 2 is purposely extremely hostile, and has little to do. Almost every mission is the same: go to a location, kill everything, then interact or kill the objective. There were side missions, but not too many types of them and they didn't feel very necessary. They also aren't scattered around like the other games; you do a mission at a time, and there's incentive to go off the beaten path other than finding a stray diamond or the extremely rare voice recording. The graphics are good for the time, but everything is muddy and depressing looking; I never wanted to stay in the game's world too long. The fast travel is extremely limited, so you'll constantly be driving around. Enemy outposts respawn and their trucks randomly teleport behind you constantly, which is quite annoying. But that's the point! The whole game is meant to immerse you in a world that's extremely antagonistic and hostile. The game is not fun at all if you just try to jump from objective to objective and rush through everything. It shines when you plot your route and bring along the right weapons for the job. As my arsenal opened up, I began to have more fun with the gameplay, which is mostly emergent. The most interesting things about the game are how every single thing is meant to break and bother you, along with the immersive, uncompromising UI. Weapons jam, especially if you don't switch to new ones for a few missions, and always at the worst times. And this is the only game I've played where malaria is a not just an in-game mechanic, but persistently and randomly causes feverish bouts that alter gameplay in interesting ways. These struggles, mixed with the always-unfortunate enemy spawns, made lots of interesting challenges and pulse-pounding encounters that were pretty fun. The combat and gameplay otherwise is mostly basic shooter stuff emblematic of late 2000s games. One thing that stands out is the amazing fire effects; fires spread like crazy and make for fun chaos. The engine is quite impressive for the time, even if the devs didn't do a ton with it. My favorite thing about it was its map, which was an organic, in-game paper map and GPS device. It was really cool and made navigation and driving organic, fun, and emergent. Plotting routes around the always-hostile outposts and sneaking in to snipe everyone at an objective was the game at its best. The way diamonds were hidden was cool too, where the GPS would randomly flash and give clues when you were near. All that said, while there's some emergent fun to be had and very interesting ideas at play, the game is still broken and repetitive, and the story is pretty stupid. Stealth only works until you kill someone, then all of a sudden every enemy is alerted, even if the kill was silent and hidden. Vehicles get caught on tiny rocks all the time, forcing you to hoof it for entirely too long distances. There's a buddy system and story choices, but they're all meaningless nonsense (which is kinda the point, but doesn't make it all that compelling from moment to moment). And while the story's themes of futility and war were interesting, the lines were so poorly delivered and the Jackal's motivations were so nonsensical that I couldn't really take the underlying ideas all that seriously. All the characters are interchangeable, which is also a purposeful choice, but makes it hard to get invested in anything going on. My least favorite thing about the game is that it never really changes. While you get stronger, the enemies stay the same, with weak guns, stupid AI, and no more health. While the map was cool and first-person driving was fun, I got pretty sick of the constant driving necessitated by how limited fast travel is. Most of the game ends up being going from Point A to Point B, not actually doing things. And although the hostility of the world can make travel interesting, the constant gunfights with the same truck full of idiots at the outpost I cleared out minutes ago got old fast. I wish the game was about half as long and the map half as large because driving the same sepia-filtered roads and fighting the same moronic enemies got old, and random misfortunes can only spice up gameplay so many times. But this is an interesting sandbox to goof around in for a bit and the dev's unique philosophy of making the game painful is worth experiencing for some emergent chaos. If it had more gameplay and enemy variety and was a bit less shallow, it could have been something more.