Great vistas and cool eye candy but repetitive missions and a rather shallow uninnovative gameplay spoil the fun
The game puts you in the shoes of a mercenary, sent into an Africa torn by civil war, to terminate the Jackal, the guy who armed the warring sides. Unfortunately for your character, things go downhill when he gets smitten by malaria and gets caught in the crossfire.
The first thing that you notice when you get into the game is the beautiful graphics. It may not be as crisp as Crysis but the lighting and fire effects are well done. What more, it scales better too, which means you can enjoy its graphical excellence even on a relatively low end PC.
The lighting however also proves to be the undoing. It strikes the player as too bright, so far as to say that it becomes difficult to see in the midday sun (in-game, that is).
When we talk about the graphics it would do the game no justice if nothing is said about the sprawling African landscape. Right from dry savannah to the dense tropical forests, every vista is a treat to watch. The large play area has a striking contrast of environments with even some wildlife thrown it, which is the closest you can get to seeing Africa in a game so far.
If you think the eye candy is the best part of the game, wait till you experience the sounds. Obviously a lot of work has gone into it. The voice acting is apt. Even better is the sound effects - the gunshots and explosions, the hum of the jeep's engines, the rather subtle sounds of your environment. The star of the sound department is the background score. The action is accompanied by an intense score of drums, which fade into the background once the action passes.
The gameplay is quite a letdown, compared to the rest of the aspects. It comes across as repetitive and shallow. The weak storyline does nothing to remedy this situation either. You could be playing without knowing how the story is progressing and it would hardly matter.
The catchword is "freedom". Choose to take a mission you like, from either of the two factions - the UFLL and the APR, or one of the side missions. Go about completing the mission the way you want it. Destroy all enemy camps on the way or just focus on the target, avoiding anything that does not from a part of the mission or just play stealth and shed as less blood as possible. Even though some may not like this, I would say it is quite the positive aspect of the gameplay.
Far Cry 2 introduces the so-called buddy system. There are twelve potential "buddies" to befriend, who would assist you in achieving your goals. The more you work with your buddies, the more you gain reputation. However, you would often find yourself fighting your own battle while he fights his. The main advantage of this system is that it gives you more than one way to do a mission and at times you would find that doing the mission with your buddy gets the mission easier than if you would do it yourself.
Apart from the main missions, there are several secondary missions, in the form of missions for the "Underground", which secure you the much needed malaria pills, missions for the arms vendor which unlocks new weapons and other side missions, which serve primarily to extend your gameplay time. These side missions are repetitive which requires you to go to an enemy camp and kill all hostiles, followed by meeting someone, destroying something or killing someone. This might get boring soon.
The most irritating aspect of all this is the presence of numerous enemy guard posts and patrols. To get from one place to another you have to pass through several of these. They all look very similar and the firefights play out the same way. This, in my opinion, is the main reason why the game turns out to be not-so-great.
The other irritating aspect is the AI. What were the guys at Ubisoft thinking? Initially you may be satisfied with the "brilliant" AI, but it's not long before you realize that it's just a bunch of scripts overdone. True, the enemy tries to flank you (a bit), take cover and approach you cautiously, but it's not the sort of adaptive AI behavior you would see in Crysis or even Far Cry. As I've said it's overdone. The enemy will detect your presence and rush out from their camp to intercept you even when you're a mile away. Sniping is an even sorrier example for this kind of behavior. Regardless of how distant and well hidden you are the enemy will always zero in on your location the moment you fire your first snipe shot. So in reality stealth is not option.
Contrary to what Ubisoft and even Gamespot has proclaimed, interaction with the game world is pretty limited and is nowhere comparable to Crysis. There are few objects that you can interact with and the day-night cycle, which the developers claim to have a major effect on enemy behavior, does not have an appreciable effect. Nights mean that there are less enemy soldiers on the lookout which makes it easier for you to creep by or move closer. But once things get hot, night or day makes little difference. However, whatever world interaction is possible is quite rewarding. For example shoot vehicles or oil tanks to blow them up or throw a molotov cocktail into the dry grass of the savannah and watch it burn. If you're luck some enemy soldiers will get incinerated.
Lastly, weapon and vehicle handling. Vehicle handling is quite realistic. It's like they developed their vehicles as they would do for a racing sim, albeit slower and rickety. Vehicle damage plays an important role in speed and control of the vehicle. Each bump and every turn feels solid. The same cannot be said for weapon handling though. Weapons show visible wear and damaged weapons get jammed often. The recoil is lacking and the handling has been made easy. If not for the prominent sound effects, an AK-47 would not feel so much different from a light MG.
FINAL VERDICT:
In the end the game isn't all that bad. The missions get a tad too repetitive and irritating, but the way game is structured puts it a notch above the run-of-the-mill FPS. Even if not for the game itself, the sights and sounds are a treat in themselves. I would not call it a must buy but do try it if you can play it at a friend's or something.