Far Cry 2 - First Impressions

Far Cry 2 is a bit of a puzzle...

Forget Jack Carver and that ridiculous Hawaiian shirt. Forget lush tropical island vistas. Forget mutants and mad scientists. It’s all gone. So are Crytek and the CryEngine.

In its place is the bastard offspring of Stalker and Grand Theft Auto. Think Grand Theft: Africa or Stalker: Shadow of the Congo and you wouldn’t be far wrong.

So, what’s this new offering from Ubisoft Montreal bring to the table? Quiet a lot actually, but let’s come back to that after we set the scene...

Welcome to the Jungle

The game opens after you have chosen your avatar from a rogue’s gallery of decidedly seedy individuals. Here’s the first point of departure for its predecessor – you aren’t locked in to playing one character. In an interesting move, you come across the other characters as “buddies” as you play through the game. Help them out and keep them alive and they’ll return the favour.

But I’m getting ahead of myself...

As the game unfolds you find yourself thrust into the middle of a civil war in an unnamed African country. The United Front for Liberation and Labour (UFLL) and the Alliance for Popular Resistance (APR) are vying for control of the scraps, while the shadowy figure of “The Jackal” props up the chaos by selling arms to both sides.

You just know he needs to die. Maybe you’ll get your chance, but you need to find your feet and get yourself sorted first.

What needs sorting out? This is an FPS right? You grab the nearest weapon and point the business end in the right direction. Well Far Cry 2 brings a couple of interesting additions to the genre.

Firstly, you start the game with Malaria. This means you need to maintain a supply of anti-malarial drugs to stave off the disease. Forget your pills and you’ll find a diseased-looking haze closing in on your vision.

Secondly, although the game has the clichéd “health pack” in the form of syrettes, it brings a little something extra to keeping in tip-top shape. When your health is low, usually at the most inconvenient time, you need to “stabilise” and stop the bleeding before you can top yourself up with a Syrette. This action triggers a 3 or 4 second animation of your on-screen persona using pliers, a knife, teeth or brute force to extract the slug from a wound. Only when this animation is complete can you pop a Syrette to top up your health.

It’s an interesting dynamic and tends to put a dead stop (pun not intended) to run n’ gun tactics. You’ll need to tactically withdraw behind cover to patch yourself up before re-entering the fray. That’s one for realism I guess, but I can see this “feature” causing some grief.

I love you for your brains....

Which leads me to the next stand-out feature of Far Cry 2; the AI. It’s truly phenomenal. You’ve never seen virtual enemies act in such an intelligent fashion. They coordinate, flank, retreat, and give chase. Gone are the days of the quick getaway. These bad guys will pile into the nearest vehicle and give chase if you try to leg it from the scene.

I knew the AI was something special when I popped a guard from a distance with a scoped rifle and watch what unfolded. One of his mates scurried over, picked up his hapless mate and carried him inside to safety. He then flagged the other guards who proceeded to fan out and sweep towards me. Finally he jumped on the mounted machine gun nest to wait. Breathtaking stuff.

I made this....

Finally, I’d like to make passing mention of the Far Cry 2 editor. Suffice to say, it deserves the buzz. It’s good, very good. Following the “easy to learn, difficult to master” mantra, it allows you to have a simple, very pretty looking Deathmatch map up and running in under 5 minutes. Wow. That should mean plenty of maps and mods to extend the life span.

Turds in the Sandbox?

So far, only a couple of features stand out as issues. As I mentioned, the obtuse healing method isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Early weapons jam and fail fairly regularly, which is a right PITA. Some of those early weapons lack punch – you seem to have to put half a clip into every bad guy before they take a dirt nap.

All in all, these are pretty minor complaints when you tally up everything else Far Cry 2 brings to the genre. It’s not totally groundbreaking, but it’s well executed and worth the investment of Aus$70-80. Especially if you like your FPS’ a little more intelligent than average.

Highly Recommended