Never buy a game based on the reviews on Best Buy's website
I'll start with the "bad news" first... This game doesn't bring to the table everything that was originally promised. They said everything was going to be highly destructable, and whatnot... basically Crysis but better. Well, in this review, you are going to see how it compares to Crysis as well as many other games. I'm not going to get into the DRM like everyone is complaining about. I've had no problems.
Some good news before I begin... This game is FUN.
On with the review:
Getting home with my new game, I did another quick lookup on Amazon to see what other people said, and found that 99% of the people hate the game due to many different annoyances.... I will cover most of these.
Let's cover graphics.
:Graphics:
Far Cry 2 is visually stunning with all the display options turned up on Ultra. Environmentally, the game makes you feel like you are right in the middle of Africa, to the forest areas to the dry sandy desert... there's never been a game that's done an environment like this before. The map is huge, and comparable to Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Why is Far Cry 2 better? No loading when entering buildings... No loading at all unless you are using the "bus" or sleeping (or, of course, loading your savegame).... Yes, none of that annoying jitteryness, the game runs smoooth.
Why is Far Cry 2 better than Crysis? I can run Far Cry 2 on full Ultra and my computer doesn't cry
Seriously, of all things, I am most impressed by the fact that this game actually runs well on the PC. I picked up STALKER: Clear Sky and absolutely could NOT run it until I found tweaks online and turned off all the graphics.... Far Cry 2 runs great out of the box, and the view distance causes no slowdowns at all. Very steady framerate.:Audio:
Far Cry 2 has excellent audio. The ambient bugs and wind and animal noises make you feel like you are there. The guns have distinct sounds and seem realistic and solid. The one thing I am not nuts about is the music. It seems like anytime you are spotted, the same fast paced music picks up and it is getting annoying... BUT if it weren't for that music, I would have been dead sooo many times just because you never hear them coming most of the time unless they shout out something (the enemies, that is). People say that there is something wrong with the voice acting being too fast, but I haven't really had that problem, or if I do, it's not noticable. Don't know what's up with that, but it's fine to me.
:Gameplay:
Ah, this is where the people start to complain. First off, the biggest complaint right now that I can see is the fact that guards respawn almost within minutes of killing everyone. You go in, wipe out an entire airfield, and you go back 2 minutes later (sometimes they spawned right in front of my eyes, which SUCKS) and the are all back like nothing happened. Nothing is permanent. Oblivion is better because if you drop a book on the ground, and go back there 20 days later, the book is still there (might not be totally realistic, but....). With Far Cry 2, you are basically just always on your toes because guards are constantly spawning around you... Even traveling on the road, a random patrol will come up from virtually nowhere and if you don't get out of the way, they will spot you and attack...
Which leads to another thing... Other than the center city area, everyone and their grandmother is trying to kill you. It's like playing Hitman 2 while running, they must hate the sight of your character for some reason... Now with protected areas, I can understand shooting first and asking questions later, but it seems like in every town and checkpoint, they just want you dead, while leaving everyone else alone....
Now I don't feel so bad about shooting people and stealing their cars... Yes, this game is like playing GTA in Africa haha. There are piece of crap cars parked all around that are free for the taking. Or if you're wandering in the desert and see a random patrol, you can snipe or otherwise kill the driver of a very nice Jeep and drive off with it. Damage of vehicles sucks. Rather than wonderful location based damage they had in Crysis or GTA or any other modern day game with cars, they have a general "health" of the vehicle, dictated by smoke coming out of the radiator... How do you fix your car? Go to the hood, and hit the action key to "wind it up" and it's as good as new... So you basically take a socket wrench and screw something, and suddenly the fact that you just smashed your new (stolen) jeep into a tree suddenly doesn't matter anymore!
To be fair, that's more realistic than standing next to the vehicle with a wrench waving it in the air like in Battlefield 2, and having it get repaired, but I expected more from this game...
Another thing that irks me is that there is no "gore" on people... When you shoot them, you see a cartoonish spray of blood, but no bullet wounds or cuts if you whack them with a machete :\
As far as missions go... they follow suit of any Open World games, where you have the main mission you can follow, and also side quests.... The side quests remind me of the side quests from Assassin's Creed. There are many different types, but they are all the same... For instance: if you get a mission from a gun dealer, it's always to blow up a transport truck... That's it. It's in a different location, but it's always the same convoy you have to blow up. Likewise, if you go to these radio towers to get your mission, it's always an assassination of the same character model (a guy in a business suit... it's never different).
One good thing is the way the map is set up, where you never take a pause to look at a map, but rather it comes up in your hand with a GPS location device. Really handy. The GPS comes with a green light that blinks when a suitcase of diamonds is nearby... There are something like 268 diamond cases in the game, so it's a bit like collecting the horseshoes in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Diamonds are the currency in the world, and are rather "rare." Each diamond briefcase has at least 1 or at most 3 diamonds in it. So for 7-10 cases you find, you can buy a gun, though there are guns all over the savanna. The difference, though, is that when you buy guns, they are brand new and not prone to breaking or locking up... When you steal an enemy gun, it's usually old and rusty, and prone to breaking... And after awhile it will literally explode on you and you'll have to find another one.
Vehicles.... There are cars, military trucks, boats, and a glider from what I can see... The cars drive too much like remote controlled cars... If you brake, it comes to a stop instantly, rather than an actual car would.... They drive like they have no shocks installed when you're driving on rocky terrain. They have no location based damage... Overall, the vehicles could have been done a lot better.
I haven't gotten far in the main mission yet. The first part is just a tutorial, and after you get to a point it basically lets you loose in the world to do whatever you want.
I had a hell of a time getting on multiplayer...
-----------------------------FOR PEOPLE HAVING TROUBLE GETTING ON MULTIPLAYER-----------------------------
I would try connecting to a server and getting a "cannot join this server at this time. Please try again later." error... I found that I had virtual networking locations that were in My Network Places from installing VMWare, and also a second Network Local connection that I disabled.... To fix the multiplayer problems, eliminate all but 1 working internet connection. That's what solved it for me.
Multiplayer is still something I think a lot of people are getting used to. It's similar to Call of Duty 4, but the spaces are more open, and it's cool that you can create and download custom maps.
I have not yet tried a "Ranked" server yet, just because I hear you lose EXP. Points if you leave early before a round ends, but in playing regular servers, I have been kicked and booted each time where I would be totally screwed if I had been on a ranked server.
Multiplayer is good. It will add to the replay value once I beat the game. The only downside though is that you don't permanently unlock special weapons... From what I can tell, if you quit and come back, none of your unlocked guns are saved, just EXP points if you are on a ranked server... I played several rounds on one server, and got a lot of EXP points, and they didn't count because it wasn't ranked *sigh* Good practice, but little motivation to play on anyone's server unless they have kickass custom maps.
So here's the conclusion:
PROs:
-Massive gameworld that is fun to just walk around in
-Lots of guns to play with
-Beautiful scenery
-Realistic, but fun and not over-done
-Multiplayer adds replay value
CONs:
-You can't destroy everything like they originally claimed
-Guards respawn too fast
-Multiplayer is broken if the computer setup is not PERFECTLY and takes some work to get on
-No bullet wounds or slash wounds on enemies when you hit them
-Hard to play stealthy, night is not dark enough, and enemies can see you if you can see them
Overall I would say it's worth probably $39.99, but certainly it needs some heavy duty patches and fan mods to ship it into better shape.
A lot of this stuff is just tweaking anyway... Like respawn rates and adding back in the ability to blow up trees. WTF, that's why PC versions are better. Once the game is out, we can MOD MOD MOD!
Heads blowing off, etc. I mean come on! We need it!
