Brutal Gamer

Far Cry 2 (Xbox 360) Review

By Leigh - December 19, 2008 - 00:51 UTC

Far Cry 2 is Ubisoft’s newest attempt in the Far Cry series, after the complete and utter shit factory that was Far Cry Instincts, can they really regain faith in there once great fan base?

Something which has dragged a great number of people to buy Far Cry 2 is the map editor, in the original it was a great piece of work and would keep you amused for hours trying to tweak your map so it worked in every situation, and in the second installment the game continues on that. And the map maker in Far Cry 2 builds off of the first ones, featuring thousands of objects you can throw into it and all the different terrain tools make this something you could play around with for hours on end (trust me, I know.) On all my time on the game, I have spent most of it in this, failing miserably at trying to make maps.

Don’t get me wrong here, the map editor is extremely easy to use as everything is clearly labelled; just I have always been terrible at trying to actually put the crazy thoughts which go through my mind on a daily basis into any game which has creative things such as this. But I’ve got to admit, some of the maps which have already been created via the map editor are better then the ones which Ubisoft them selves have created.

This leads me onto the games multiplayer where all of your attempted great maps can be used in. The multiplayer offers a wide range of maps to play on and the usual bog standard game modes, although a few of them have there own little twist on it, such as ‘capture the diamond’ which is just capture the flag. My only real problem with the multiplayer is the more someone’s played it, the more they have unlocked, and the more you upgrade your weapons, they become insanely more powerful. Which in the end makes it horribly unbalanced. Also, the guns which you start with and that are widely available through out the whole game just don’t have that kick behind them. If I fire a gun in a video game, I enjoy the sound they give off, but in this game they just don’t have that ‘umph’, that lovely dirty gritty noise you are used to hearing.

The one reason that I wans’t looking forward to Far Cry 2 was the fact that it was dubbed ‘a free roam shooter’ which usually with games now, means its extremely linear and the only bit of free roam is the bit traveling between the missions. Thankfully, it’s safe to say that Far Cry 2 is truly a real free roam shooter, yes there is a lot of travelling involved but how you get from the different sides of the enormous map is completely up to you. I advise the bus; otherwise you’ll spend a good part of your in game time walking because you’ll crash your car into a murky-watered lake, it kept happening to me anyway…

As soon as you hit that option to start the games single player experience, you instantly must pick one of nine playable characters all with there own unique back-story and look. And after a short jeep journey through the lush landscape of Africa your character realizes he was a dumb fuck and decided to travel to Africa without getting a malaria jab, idiot.

Possibly the most entertaining part of the whole game is how you actually do your missions, such as what weapons you will use, how will you use them, have you planned your escape route and have you scouted the area which your attacking, the amount of variation is incredible. The best example of this is a mission I was playing during the games story line; I was set to go into the depth of the thick jungle to assassin a certain person. This specific person’s hide out was on top of a cliff, hidden away by tree’s and thick grass, also right next to this hide out was a canyon, featuring a 200ft drop back down into the jungle, however at the bottom of this drop there was a river weaving between the cliffs. Once I killed the target, my next part of the mission was to escape, but unfortunately it wasn’t going to be as simple as that, I heard from outside the building several packs of troops coming in for the kill. Before I killed the target I scouted the area, and noticed there was a broken window in the building which I then dived out of and ran to the cliff side and dived into the water below. Seriously, how fucking awesome is that? Ever since that specific situation, I’ve been obsessed with the game.

Although I have just been praising the game for being a free roaming shooter, I have a major bone to pick with it. When a games map is this big, why would you not give us more quick travel locations or options? We have to deal with 5 bus locations on each territory which are in the middle off fucking no where. Plus whenever missions are set you always end up having to travel to the opposite side of the bloody map, it’s so frustrating! Also, one more thing which does bug me in the game is how the sub-machine guns and assault rifles don’t actually work, ticking there arse holes with the end of the gun or throwing the gun at them will probably hurt more than a clip in there face.

Ubisoft have proven there worth with this title, obviously there is a few bugs but it’s very rare there will ever be a perfect game. But what is available on the disk straight away is fantastic, and will keep you playing for months to come. Creating those beautiful vistas in the map editor takes a long time to perfect, I’m still trying now. Far Cry 2 is one of the best games this year, no matter what platform you are picking it up on, so I advise anyone and everyone to pick it up as it’s totally worth it.

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