A truly fantastic game with all goodies packed in. Still Far Cry 2 has too many stupid mistakes!
Short review, this is Far Cry 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLUN5OExP_s
Video is not made by me, but its freaking awesome. Imagine even better maps than this.
It has a lot to offer.
Games are getting bigger and bigger all the time. And storage space is what we need nowadays. Games not only are getting bigger at environment, but also highly detailed textures are needing a huge amount of space.
Far Cy 2 shines with its physics, graphics,map eitor It's a very huge game.
Story:
You're thrust into an unnamed African country being torn apart by two warring factions. Your mission: To kill The Jackal, an arms dealer who's fuelling both sides of the conflict with weapons, and making a mint as a result. Easy!?
You can pass the "gameplay" part if u already know everything about this game and read the "comparison" part
Gameplay:
You can mess around on 50 square kilometer area, its definetly bigger than Oblivion! And over 50 hours of gameplay. AI keep watch, eat, sleep, smoke, and not only that, but they also care for their buddys and do other stuff (watch "Deceiving Your Enemy" Trailer). The revamped health system incorporates five health tabs, each one of which can "heal" automatically if you rest. But once one is empty, it requires using one of your limited supply of healing items to refill it and heal.
Btw, when u reach to the edge of Far Cry2s map, the game reacts kinda like we have seen in GTA (like the unlimited amount of water), in this case the desert that marks the edge of the game, the desert doesn't put up an invisible or shimmering wall; feel free to go in it, but you'll inevitably pass out (Awesome) and end up crawling back to "safety".
But don't think you aren't able to use some transportation, infact this game has many vehicles, up to 12, theres buggys, glider, jeeps, boats etc
In Far Cry 2 you have to get money to get new weapons, forexample searching diamonds! Your guns may jam during a hot battle, which then need to be fixed, by punching it a few times : ).
Theres many awesome animations, like reloading, picking up objects, healing yourself, fixing a car, ofcourse shooting, etc, they all are visible onscreen, that means you can actually see how your character body moves (especially a hand) to reach certain objects. Its all because to make you feel like you are actually in Afrika, in the real, breathing, living world!
In Far Cry 2, there are Over 30 healing animations, they all can be pretty brutal, forexample if there happens to be some sort of sharp metallic object inside of your leg, then your character can pull it out, with very gore richful movement.
U don't have to pause the game to locate yourself, because you can bring out map during the gameplay.
When u are badly hurt, and there happens to be a buddy of yours, he will come to help you and carry u to safety.
And thats not all, it also has map editor, like the original game had, but FC2 has much deeper map editor, who dosent want to make its own level? its own world! which is only limited by your imagination! Create it, test, and share with others, and take a spectacular online match through your creation.
Comparison:
I was very worried how far cry 2 plays and feels, because I recently played Resistance 2 beta, which surprised me by feeling little bit off, aiming was bad aka unresponsive, not so tight etc, I even didn't know that a shooter game can be so inaccurate, and unbalanced, something what I haven't used to and haven't expirenced long time, (but hey, it's a beta).
Back to FC2. But no fear, in Far cry 2 you will be blessed with very tight, responsive control scheme, the shooting, aiming, all are very well done. similar to cod4.
Its a a slower game than cod4, not that theres anything wrong, but enemys die slower, and its atmosphere is more like chill.
Graphics:
Visually its a gorgeous game, highly detailed textures, fantastic weather system. Fire is very realistic .Though Facial animation is worse compared to uncharted, but still it will do its job! Far Cry 2 has fire propagation, everything real time dynamic, vegetation reacts to everything in the world(it even grows!) and much more!
Multiplayer:
Lets say I expected a lot more from multiplayer, don't get me wrong its awesome, but. First of all theres lag, not always but if it is, it makes online unplayable!!. Then connecting to game is a pain in the ass, it takes quite long time to connect, after the game ends you have to start the connection thing all over again. very stupid thing!
so, Feel free not to finish the story mode, you are forgiven.
Theres 14 maps available. But you will probably create your own!
There are six categories to choose from: the Commando is an all-rounder with a machine gun and molotov cocktails; the Guerrilla gets a shotgun; the Sharpshooter is the sniper class; the stealthy Saboteur gets silenced weapons; the Rebel a flamethrower; and the Gunner gets access to all the heavy artillery.
Combat is certainly close to COD4, but enemys takes longer to kill, if you get shot up but don't die, you'll have to find some cover and use L1 to dig the bullets out of your flesh using a knife,n like in singleplayes its. leaving the enemy plenty of time to close in on your spot.
You can also play tactical here, save a injured friend, and enemys kill isn't counted, but its extremely dangerous. Then again this could be the deciding factor that brings you victory.
Aside from standard and group-based deathmatch, there's Capture the Diamond. Here each team is randomly assigned a leader, who must then occupy and take over three control points on the map. Once this is done, the opposing leader must be assassinated in order to claim the win.
Strange thing is that players are unable to pick up weapons from the bodies of other mercenaries.
Pros:
Being able to create your own map, and enjoying it online, true living, breathing world, Great sence of freedom. This game will suck u into for many weeks. Nice physics, graphics. Awesome online, which means createing your own map gurantees that u wont get bored after singleplayer is over.
CONS:
I suggest u to play Far cry 2 on easy mode, then its not so painfull when its your first time playthrough.
Health drops by nothing, the slow health recovery system means that you often won't get the time to heal yourself. The problem is that this animation, which takes about five seconds to complete, is interruptible by enemy fire. Then you die and reload from the last time you saved, usually miles away in a Safe House.
The combat is at first frustrating, but stick with it, it gets better.
I firstly thought that im giving up on this, but I still earned diamonds, upgraded my weapons, experimented. And after this opening hours of punishing gameplay, the FC2 starts to show its much brighter side!
The enemies are bit dumb. Infact a bit ridiculous, how can a shirtless guy take so many bullets and still walk away from the scene alive? why is it that the enemies never get a gun jammed, and after I pick up their gun, it jams on me? And whats up with malaria, u have to use L2 to take malaria medicine, oh, well, its probably there to make sure u can handle the first gameplay hours. : )
And I really hope they will fix the serious multiplayer errors, long loadings, lag etc
Summary:
But despite the cons, the FC2 starts to show its much brighter side after you have learned African rules to survive!, so stick with it. Still Far Cry 2 puts a very high expectations for ALL upcoming games because, weather sytem, physics, visuals, gameplay, awesome map editor etc, they all make it a MUST Buy. True next gen game.
I cant rate Far cry 2 higher than this, because it sometimes feels like unfinished product, especially from multiplayer part (very long loading times etc). if they release the patch to fix the serious online problems, then i probably will change the score.