Far Cry 2, though a disappointment, is still a good game.
To start with, the story of Far Cry 2 doesn't exist. You're supposed to be hunting down some guy called The Jackal who is dealing weapons to the APR and UFLL. It is because of the Jackal the conflict is ongoing in this unnamed region of Africa. Your goal is simple, kill the Jackal. Funnily enough that's about it. The story does not develop and though it attempts to give you interesting plot twists they fall flat since the plot is so bland up to that point. The characters are also uninteresting and surprisingly you'll have a tough time distinguishing characters. You'll feel like you've seen this guy before even though it is a new person. It kind of feels lazy. The voice acting doesn't help, everyone who is African sounds the same and everyone who is European has the same British accent. It doesn't help. When the plot was already this bland you'd think you would get some interesting characters. Nope...I will give it this though, in the end the plot does get a bit interested but by that point you're not glad it's ending well you're just gonna end up saying something like, "About damn time it got good..." The story could have been a lot better especially in such a politically charged setting.
As far as gameplay goes the game is pretty standard fare in the action genre. The guns work well, feel nice and they are all pretty good. You can unlock many new weapons but depending on your style of play you're gonna stay with the same loadout for ease. Something that is annoying though is how when you pick up enemies weapons their guns are rusty and are prone to jamming. This isn't realistic or clever, it is annoying. In a battle when your weapon jams it does help to create chaos which is neat I guess. Fire is the best thing about the guns, it's use is ingenius and can help turn the tides of a battle quickly. If you don't use a flamethrower in this game you're doing it wrong. Driving controls work well and they aren't too lose or too tight. The cars are great but there is no variety, just jeeps and SUVs. Funnily enough, every SUV in Africa is courtesy of the company 'Jeep' but that is beside the point.
The problems in Far Cry 2 emerge in the design choices. There are issues with respawns. For instance all over the map there are random annoying guard posts where you get shot at. Most of the time they are unavoidable and it's annoying to be shot at. The most annoying this after you clear it out if you come back a few minutes later the respawns are already there so you have to do it all over again. It's frustrating. If you drive though you get chased down which is also annoying because then you gotta kill the chasers and go and repair your car. You can also get chased randomly, people come out of nowhere and will just shoot you even if you've done nothing. It's stupid.
There is also the problem of long driving sequences. You can take a bus but you're still gonna drive around forever. You often find yourself driving five minutes, fighting for two minutes, then driving for five minutes. That is no exaggeration. The game also suffers from an extreme bout of repetitiveness. Every mission is the same, go fetch this, go blow this up, or go kill him. You do the same thing for every mission either way. Though the variety to which you approach these missions is up to you, you'll find stealth doesn't work. You might be being stealthy, no one will see you but out of nowhere a rocket flies at you. The guards are way to sensitive. You're gonna end up blasting your way through anyway until you get a camoflauge kit so you can stealth with ease. The side missions don't help either since they are exactly the same. Want more weapons? Blow up the convoy the same way you did before. Want to get medicine for Malaria? Go do the same mailman quest over and over again. Get the point?
Speaking of Malaria, it amounts to being nothing more then an annoyance. You have to do a repetitive mission just to get more medicine. Why does this exist? Why the hell do I need to have Malaria?
The game has an alright multiplayer mode though it is nothing worth while. You're gonna go back to a stronger online game anyways in the end. The map editor is robust though and it is a lot of fun though it takes a lot of time to make a good map. The tools though are easy to use but it is not as simple as they made it out to be. The sharing of the maps is neat though and it's enjoyable for a little bit. By no means is it as amazing as it was made out to be though. It's a good map editor, I'll leave it at that.
As far as graphics go Far Cry 2 is top notch. The world is gorgeous and detailed and it has enough variety given what the setting is. It's atmosphere is nailed and it keeps you in awe throughout. The sound is the other way around. The voice acting like I said is dreadful. They used two voice actors, I swear. The music is standard fare. It's like they just copy pasted the soundtrack to Blood Diamond but made it worse. The guns sound find and so do explosions.
Far Cry 2 is a good game, that's about it. The designers could have done a lot more with this game but they made a lot of stupid choices as to where to try to take it. I hope they fix these for a Far Cry 3 or whatever is next in the series because there is traces of a great game in here. As far as your winter game purchases go, give this game a try if you were interested in it. It's not worth buying though if you were never interested in it. It owes itself to a rent or a purchase when the price drops. Other then that the game is destined to fade into oblivion down the road.
Pros: Gorgeous graphics, great African map, good action gameplay. Map editor is a nice diversion.
Cons: Downright idiotic design choices, too much travel, terrible voice acting, terrible story for what it could have been, bland characters. Online is nothing new.
Overall: Proof great presentation doesn't make for a great game