Far Cry 2 is a big game with potential, but with no sense of direction and being redundant, it will lose appeal to some.
Corruption? Check.
Rebels fighting for dominance? Yes
Story? Kinda.
Tons of stuff to do? Well, sit down for this one.
Far Cry 2 is the sequel to the 2004 game, Far Cry, but this is only in name. This game is completely different than the last one, scrapping out the small island sci-fi setting (some even call than an improvement) for a more realistic, African setting. The game's world is actually prtty big, around 20 or so square miles. There's plenty to do, but be warned that those things may not be particularly fun.
The story's premise is that two rebel factions from a collapsed African state are about to go to war. You must find and kill a man named "The Jackal" the man who armed both side of the conflict. Though strangely whenever you actually encounter him, he always helps you, and never threatens you in any way. It quickly becomes evident that he even wants the war to stop. So why bother hunting a guy that doesn't want the war to happen?
Throughout the game you must be the errand boy for these factions: The United Front for Liberation and Labor (UFLL, led by Addi Mbantuwe) and the Alliance for Popular Resistance (APR, led by Oliver Tambossa, Chief of Staff for the former government). They say they care about the country, but unironically, they care only for themselves, and could give a damn whether children lose their legs or not. They bog you down with the same 4 or so missions: kill someone, blow up something, threaten someone to do something they don't want to then kill them and blow up a convoy that drives in circles. These errand involve convoy ambushes (which you can also do to unlock weapons), blowing things up, or running up in someone fort/house and killing someone. You always get paid in diamond (figures) for whatever you do. Also, there are Underground missions you can do, which involve liberating a safehouse full of civilians and giving travel documents to a group of people looking to escape the war-torn country. These reward you with malaria pills you must take every 30 minutes or so. You would think a sick protagonist would be sort of interesting, but it's so prevelant that it quickly becomes tiresome, and takes you out from your busy schedule for killing things to search for some DayQuil.
There is also something called the "Buddy" system. These are the other eight characters you didn't choose to play as at the beginning of the game. They can give you Buddy Missions, which increase your Buddy's "history", which means how much you like them and they like you. WIth a high enough history, you can even have them tag along on a mission. Your secondary Buddy will be "rescue-ready", meaning if you die, (try not to in this game because it will truely test your patience) they can swoop in and save the day, and increase history. Be warned though, if they Buddy is wounded, you can save them or kill them and if they die, they're gone forever. They say this like it means something. As time goes on, the reputation and buddy thing won't really matter because you go through the entire game without ever even needing their help. And reputation gets you no actual reward, because the guards will want 6 feet under regardless of whether they like or fear you. So reputation is practically worthless and so are the missions to earn it.
My biggest complaint is the fact that there's nothing really driving you to keep playing. The story is by no means engaging, no character development, and no sense of actual accomplishment.
This game has some potential underneath it, and by the next sequel, it may see those through. For now, just try not to get shot looking for zebras.