The first person shooter that tried to be too much (Far Cry 2 (PC))

Member Name: jonnyr

Product:	Far Cry 2 (PC)
Date:	01/12/08 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Massive arsenal of weapons, Great graphics, Epic scenery

Disadvantages: Long stretches of tedious gameplay, non-compelling story, bizarre sense of realism

The original Far Cry, released back in 2004 pushed computers to their limits. A breath taking realisation of the tropics and a powerful arsenal at your disposal made for an excellent First Person Shooter; until that is, you reached the whole "Genetic Monkey" bit and the plot went a bit South. Crytek, the creators of the original Far Cry created its spiritual successor, Crysis last year (07), which again pushed your PC to the limit (even a year later you'll be pushed to run it on high graphics settings!) Most gamers thought that their Far Cry fix was over after Crysis, but then 3rd Party developer UbiSoft announced that they would be creating a sequel, Far Cry 2.

Set in South Africa, Far Cry 2 delivers great graphics, and explosive arsenal of over 20 weapons, and a new style of "sandbox" gameplay. The game does not follow the usual "on the rails" template with the player constantly pushing forward; instead you are given free reign of the entire game world (some 19 square miles!) and can take missions which progress the main storyline, and sub missions which will award you with new weapons and safehouses. This results in a very different gaming experience and results in a game which feels more like Grand Theft Auto 3 than Doom - and this is where things start to go wrong.

As the game world is so massive and the story so open ended, you will likely spend most of your time traipsing to the other side of the map. To make this slightly less painful, Ubisoft have introduced numerous vehicles scattered around the map (Clearly South Africans are very trusting as all the vehicles are unlocked and yours to steal!), and a Bus "network" which makes London Transport seem like a capable mass transit network (10 bus-stations covering 19 square miles?! Come on!). At first it's quite exciting realising you have the whole world to explore, but pretty soon you will be bored of the constant commute; made even worse by the most efficient Militia known to man - the dreaded "3 Man Checkpoint".

Scattered throughout the map are small guard posts where a three man crew are stationed; this sounds pretty realistic given the game's environment, however, let's just say things become a bit too familiar. In real life you would expect to roll up to a checkpoint and be asked for your papers - not in South Africa clearly - it's shoot on site! As soon as you are within squinting distance; the AI will open fire and come streaming towards you. Sure, you can jump out your jeep before you get to the checkpoint, and sneak past stealthily - but by the time you've reached you 100th checkpoint you just want to get past it as quickly as possible, for, you see - as soon as you have wiped out the guards and have trundled over the hill, they will magically respawn and be waiting for you the next time you pass... Just like real life then.

It's a shame that these two points have marred the game I was looking forward to the most this season (Just ask my girlfriend, I wouldn't shut up about it whilst waiting for my pre-order to arrive, and now I haven't played it since growing tired of it after about 10 hours game play). I really wanted to like Far Cry and have tried lots of things to inject some excitement into the game, but I just can't get excited about it - everything feels like a chore, with long periods of no action; having no HUD makes the game more immersive, but the way the map is implemented is awkward and results in you getting lost on the myriad of back roads.

All in all, this just feels too much like Grand Theft Auto, complete with compelling story line and tedious side quests (why in god's name are there 100 brief cases laden with diamonds scattered around the map?!). The multiplayer does help bring back the punch to this game, but it's still nothing compared to the mighty CounterStrike Source or Call of Duty 4, and I very much doubt many users will be left playing in 6 months time.

If you like GTA then maybe this game will appeal, but for me? I'd rather stick to my on the rails non stop kill fest; bring on Dead Space.

Summary: I really wanted this to be better