The first thing Far Cry fans will notice is the change of setting. The original game was based on an archipelago with a distinct South-Pacific theme, whereas Far Cry 2 is based in central Africa. When you hit up the single player campaign, instead of sticking you in the boots of one protagonist, FC2 lets you choose from a healthy list of protagonists. The choice may be hard, but those who aren’t chosen will become potential allies or enemies in your adventure.

Civil war has broken out and there is no government in sight, leaving the rotting carcass of the African state to be gnawed by two factions, the UFLL and the APR. In the centre of the war is a man known simply as The Jackal, an arms dealer fuelling both sides of the war. You’re mission is simple, you have been sent to the central state to take out The Jackal and defuse the war, though finding him will likely require a moral sacrifice, and your task is only made harder when you are infected with Malaria. To gain information and respect, the player will find themselves doing dirty work for either faction, though every story enAside from the many spin-offs such as Instincts and Vengeance, Far Cry has always been thought as a series bound to the PC platform. However, with the standards of console shooters always going up, it was an easy decision for Ubisoft when they launched the direct sequel, Far Cry 2, on Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3. The battlefields have been broadened, but does the series still deliver the same impact it had back in 2004?ds in a location known simply as the Heart of Darkness (a reference to the famous title written by Joseph Conrad.)

The story is flimsy to say the least. There are only a couple of characters players will take a liking to, The Jackal potentially being one of them. The rest of the cast each have minor roles, and as you progress through the game you will realise that they are also expendable. As for the lead character, he/she is a silent protagonist with only a block of text to describe their attributes and background. If Ubisoft would have spent more time developing the lead characters as well as the secondary ones, it could have been a more meaningful and better story.

Far Cry 2 is best described as a Sandbox title played via the first person perspective. You have the freedom to travel the North and South sectors picking up a variety of quests and building a reputation for yourself. However, the number-one element to sandbox gaming is missing in Far Cry 2 due to there not being a single civilian, meaning no shenanigans whatsoever. 99% of NPCs you run into will carry guns, 80% of them with the intention of killing you, which can take getting used to. A small range of NPCs can be chosen as buddies (allies) as mentioned before, with the ability of aiding you on missions or in gunfights.

The mission structures are all very similar, though Far Cry 2 tries to mask this with a broad array of different locations including shanty towns, mountain villages, mines, breweries and so on. Deliveries, sabotages and assassinations is as far as the variety goes, but sometimes buddies will contact you offering side-missions that impact your main goals. Quest givers will always pay you upfront with conflict diamonds, the in-game currency which can only then be spent on weapons and upgrades to them such as accuracy of ammo capacity.

The more missions you accomplish, the more people will fear you, though this is only noticeable in the cease-fire zones. There are a few of these zones spread throughout the in-game world and they will serve as hubs for quests and the much-desirable quick-travel buses. Navigating the open world of Far Cry 2 may be a treat at first, but a few hours down the line and it will become a troublesome chore. This is due to the fact that your only bearing are via a in-hand map and small GPS device, which is only worsened by the extortionate distances quest-givers expect you to travel. A common trend in recent sandbox titles is a pinpoint system that guides you via a drawn path on your mini-map, but this is not evident in Far Cry 2. Aside from the actual tools of navigation, the unpredictable terrain and random militia troops also make travel difficult, which can only be remedied by the several quick-travel stations located throughout the game.

FC2 plays out just like a conventional first person shooter including iron sights and limited sprinting. Your health and ammunition are displayed at the bottom of the screen as well as prompts for picking up items or performing similar actions. Gunplay is effective and the constant changing of terrain can intensify certain situations, though this can also develop into frustration or tedium.

The most favourable feature of Far Cry 2 has to be its authenticity, it’s evident in almost every aspect of both setting and gameplay. Losing too much health, for example, will cause the player to bleed out, forcing them to find cover and patch themselves up to avoid a slow death. These bleed out moments aren’t just a matter of consuming one of your health packs, instead the character will initiate an action such as patting out flames on their body or painstakingly extracting a bullet. When explosions take place in Far Cry 2, any shrubbery, trees or long grass adjacent to the instance will also catch fire and spread, opening a window for several authentic tactical opportunities. If your vehicle takes damage you will be able to repair it by hand, though you can also use battered vehicles as mobile explosives if you bail out just in time. One last note of authenticity worth pointing out within the gameplay is the guns themselves. Those use to playing series such as Medal of Honor, Call of Duty or Battlefield will never come across faults in their weaponry, but this is not so in the harsh wilds of FC2. Taking up a fallen weapon isn’t always the most efficient choice, as they can often jam halfway through a clip, or even backfire on the player, creating one of the most unpredictable first person shooters to date.

To run a sandbox game such as Far Cry 2, there is a tremendous amount of power used, and when coupled with hundreds of wandering enemies and masses of explosions, the graphics aren’t exactly top notch. Some of the textures and shadowing effects are grainy and somewhat ugly in places, though this is balanced by the variety in scenery and the healthy color palette employed by the developers. Character and weapon design is over average, with significant NPCs bearing a unique character design as well as voice work. Character motion is a mixed basket; during combat some of the movements of enemies can look awkward, but during phases such as mission briefings, it feels organic.

It’s the same case for the voice work too. The accents are generally spot-on, but this is betrayed by the lack of appropriate pacing and emotion in the dialogue spoken. The prime example of this is how The Jackal talks to the main character; he speaks way too fast and the flat tone of his voice fails to grace the role of the game’s antagonist. The soundtrack accompanying Far Cry 2 is simply described as African, a blend of drum beats against a backtrack of the wilderness stirring in the distance, adding to the authentic feel.

Far Cry 2 may not be the great accomplishment some may have thought, though it’s a must have for any who are fans of the FPS genre. It can take time to get used to the slow pacing and travel, but patience is steadily rewarded throughout the rest of the game. As mentioned throughout the review, authenticity is FC2’s forte, and this carries over to the online component. Coupled with the in-game map-maker too, there is plenty of content to explore, even for those who have the intention of hammering straight through it. With a few tweaks made, Far Cry could have easily been one of the best titles of 2008, but onlooker must consider the sequel to be the first multiplatform voyage the series has taken.

[starreview tpl=16]