New Setting, Same Brilliance

Published November 7, 2008

Far Cry® 2 from Ubisoft takes the concepts that made the original game such a success: a rare open-world approach for first-person shooters, gorgeous real-world environments, player-designed tactics, and perfects them all in this much anticipated Xbox 360® sequel.

And you thought the first game was gorgeous.

A New Foundation
You begin Far Cry 2 in a fictional African country on a mercenary mission to track down the elusive Jackal and bring him to swift, fatal justice. Alas, things go terribly wrong in the opening moments and you're captured by the very man you've set out to find. Worse yet, you've contracted a nasty case of malaria, leaving you weak and on the verge of death.

This is one shooter that lets you play it your way.

Rather than kill you, the Jackal simply leaves you to the ravages of your disease, arrogant enough to believe that you'll no longer pose a threat in your isolated, weakened state.

Why would you go on? Why continue your pursuit of this villain despite being cut off from the outside world and stripped of supplies while suffering from a frightening disease? Because the Jackal has brought war to this nation, insidiously playing both sides, supplying each faction with the weapons they need to prolong the war and so feed his greed.

Your Own Approach
Once you've completed the tutorial level, you'll find yourself fit to tackle the world, a vast African-inspired landscape riddled with checkpoints, safe houses, warring factions, strongholds, secret diamond caches, remote villages, and a great deal more besides, in whatever way you wish.

That's a tough slog, fighting uphill.

Yes, your overriding mission remains the same, but it's up to you to build contacts, earn valuable friendships, execute on the wishes of arms dealers to gain access to more valuable weaponry, accept mercenary work from warring factions, and assist an underground resistance all so that you may gather enough intel to find and eliminate the Jackal. How you approach this end goal, who you help and when you help them, is very much up to you.

Mission Approach
When you do accept a mission in Far Cry 2 you're given just the bare essentials: the mission's purpose and the basic location of your objective. From that point on, it's up to you to figure out how best to execute your own plan of attack.There are no false barriers in Far Cry 2. You can approach your mission from any angle and with all manner of tactics.

Maybe you want to approach the enemy compound from the high ground and break out your Monocular to gather intel (this spyglass helps you highlight key items like health and ammo locations). Is the enemy camp surrounded by dry grass? You might try lighting it up with the flamethrower to force the guards out into the open. Do you see a nearby Jeep with a mounted machinegun? Why not sneak up to it, hop in and ply that .50 cal on its owners? Of course, you could try all three approaches back to back.

Buddy Time
Throughout your Far Cry 2 adventures you'll meet up with fellow expatriate mercenaries, war-weary Buddies that know the lay of the land and are willing to lend a helping hand.

They may come to your aid in an emergency, reviving you when you're fatally wounded in combat and then fight by your side for the rest of the encounter. They may offer you unique side quests, but perhaps best of all, Buddies grant you access to otherwise unavailable strategies when approaching an objective.

For example, when you're asked to take out a platoon of mercenaries planning to snatch up a valuable VIP, it's your Buddy that suggests an open attack is suicide. Instead, he marks the location of the mercs' radio operator so you may infiltrate the camp and threaten the operator until he orders the enemy platoon to a much less defensible location. Do you need to do it? Absolutely not, but it's mighty nice to have the option.

Poor guys have no idea.

Odds and Ends
From the dry savannah grass swaying in the wind to the almost painfully clear sunshine beating on the bump-ridden dirt roads to the slick FPS control, excellent voice acting, physics, and intensely tactical A.I., every bit of Far Cry 2 screams polish. There are tons of game highlights:

• First-person immersion: Far Cry 2 takes great pains to keep you immersed not just in your character, but in their very body as well. Every casual action is greeted with an animation that tilts and adjusts realistically to whatever you're doing. Wait until you see your character tilt back, reach up and pull themselves out from the driver's seat to the machinegun turret in the Jeep. Even knocking on a door, reaching to grab an item, or hacking up a lung from a malaria attack are all handled with unparalleled attention to detail.
• Fire spread: Chief among the game's great effects is the handling of fire. Spray your flamethrower at a patch of grass and watch it ignite, flourish and spread realistically and inexorably over every flammable object in its path. It's gorgeous, and exceptionally important in combat.
• Used and new: The war-torn nation that serves as the game's setting is riddled with old, rickety gear often in need of constant repair. Bash your car up too much and you'll need to pop the hood and get busy with repairs. The low-grade weapons pilfered from enemies can often jam in the middle of combat. Conversely, weapons you spend time earning or pay hard-earned diamonds for can be expected to work flawlessly.
• Medic: In contrast to the popular "cover up and heal" feature used by many contemporary shooters, Far Cry 2 uses a more hands-on approach to healing. Your health meter consists of five bars, and if a fraction of a bar gets taken off, you still stand a chance of recovering that bar. However, if the whole bar goes, you'll need to break out one of your precious medical syringes to recover. If you're injured with just one bar remaining, you'll begin to bleed out and need to find a safe spot so you can rip free the bullet with a pair of pliers to stabilize yourself. Your malaria needs to be held in check too with pills or you'll suffer from seriously disorienting side effects.

Far Cry 2 may differ in subject matter from its much-loved predecessor, but it excels in improving on the refreshingly original approach and mechanics that made the first game so much fun to play. This is one shooter that lets you play it your way.

Article by Ryan Treit