Far Tedious 2 Review
If I were to write a review that attempted to emulate the game play style of Far Cry 2, I would write one interesting paragraph and then leave two pages of blanks, and then write one line devoid of sense, and then write the next good paragraph a few blank pages later. This, in a nutshell is Far Cry 2.
Set in South Africa, after choosing which character you wish to play as(for what reason is never thoroughly explained, they all play the same), you are immediately plunked into the backseat of a jeep in the middle of generic African civil war nation number 226. You shortly after contract malaria, and then are nursed back into health by the very man you were sent to kill, and then left shipwrecked communication wise by your superiors to fiddle about your own devices. The opening is extremely quick, and immediately gets you in tune with the setting and games atmosphere, but Is initially misleading.
You see, Far cry 2 is set in a huge open world environment. And while that?s very nice and all, its very tedious and boring to have to drive or walk from point A to point B all the time, and the game just wreaks of annoying time pandering. Every time you get a mission, be it from the interchangeable guerilla factions, the gun merchants or the guy who sounds like he?s making a prank call imitating solid snake, it?s a guarantee your target will be all the way across the map. This would be fine if there were fast travel options available, but you?re essentially relegated to either your feet or some wheels, and the whole running about gets excruciatingly boring after a while.
Even more annoying however are the enemy encampments all along the way, which respawn five minutes after your done clearing them out. Generally, these encampments would be fun to clear out, and initially they are, but after a while it becomes this annoying routine that doesn?t really benefit the player in any way. Sure, there is usually ammo and health refills at these bases, but you will never run out of ammo or health syrettes, so it just feels pointless.
Other than that however, the actual missions themselves are very rewarding. You usually get a large payout of diamonds (the games currency) and with the gun merchants missions you unlock new guns to purchase. The missions aren?t terribly varied, but they do their job well, it?s just getting to them that is the pain. Speaking of guns, the weapons all handle very nicely, they feel rite, and the effects on old rusted weapons have a nice touch with having to unjam them and all. There?s a large variety of weapons, from assault rifles to flame throwers to mines, and they all feel like they should and are fun to experiment with.
The inventory system works well to, with the player carrying a machete (your melee weapon), a primary gun (this includes assault rifles and the like) a sidearm (from pistols to SMGs) and a ?special weapon?, which includes a whole variety of flamethrowers and anti-tank weapons. You also have grenades and Molotov cocktails, which are exceedingly smooth and satisfying to use. The only downside is that all of the guns fire tinfoil balls, as even Hawaiian shirt wearing rebels can take numerous bullets to the chest before going down.
There is also a system of ?buddies? in the game that works quite well. You have one best buddy who can give you alternative ways of doing missions, and then a secondary buddy who can rescue you from death. This caught me off guard the first time it happened, but its implemented very well, and works very well, giving you a real sense of fellowship as he drags you away from the fighting shooting. These buddies as well can also be injured, in which you have the option to abandon them to their fate, heal them, or put them out of their misery. It was quite powerful euthanizing one of my buddies, even if it was completely unnecessary due to the limitless health supplies.
There are some things that Far Cry 2 just ultimately got rite. The extremely immersive interface (even if the map symbols are tiny and hard to see), the map system in which you actually hold up the map to you face and some of the games animations. Making your character pull a bullet out of his leg when your health is on its last leg with players never gets old, or watching him rub at a burn. It?s very effective and keeps you immersed; this also goes along with all of the superb gun animations for things like jams and the like.
Graphically Far Cry 2 kept the atmosphere well, even if the graphics were a bit weak in and of themselves. The anti-aliasing clearly took a hit with the rendering as all of the edges of the foliage and trees are grainy and noticeable. The character models just don?t quite look ?rite?, and have an odd blockiness and stiffness to them. The fire effects are very cheesy looking, and have distinct 2-D fakeness to them, making them agitating to look at. But this is all almost completely negated by the flow of the graphics, and how they help maintain the gritty atmosphere.
The sound was well enough, but ultimately forgettable. Some of the gun sound effects were a little weak, but the vehicle noises and general ambient noises fit the mood well. The voice acting as well was decent, with a few characters coming off as a little campy, but other than that it works.
You?ll notice as well that I didn?t mention story in this review, and that?s because there is hardly any. The story is essentially just a ploy to throw you into Africa with a gun, and little more, it?s also placed sparsely over such huge stretches of game play that you forget it?s there.
Ultimately, Far Cry 2 is a quality product, but for all of the positive things I can say about it, it is essentially marred by the absolutely tedious and annoying running from one side of the map to the other that you have to do. Clocking in at forty-five hours after doing everything in the game, I could have easily removed twenty of that if they would take out the pointless meandering about Africa. However, underneath(or after, if you rather) all of that lies a quality shooter that stands out mechanics wise above the rest, its just that the game seems to forget that, and wants to take you sightseeing before it lets you have fun.
And yes, I realize the irony in that this review was over a thousand words long.
Final Verdict: Rent It
addendum:I didnt mention the multiplayer aspect of the game becuase I primarily play PC, and going from the precision of a mouse and keyboard to the clunkiness of a controller just wreaks of spawn-die-spawn-die syndrome. Although, I would be willing to bet you spend the first ten minutes of the match walking to the battle area if the single player has any bearing on it.
If I were to write a review that attempted to emulate the game play style of Far Cry 2, I would write one interesting paragraph and then leave two pages of blanks, and then write one line devoid of sense, and then write the next good paragraph a few blank pages later. This, in a nutshell is Far Cry 2.
Set in South Africa, after choosing which character you wish to play as(for what reason is never thoroughly explained, they all play the same), you are immediately plunked into the backseat of a jeep in the middle of generic African civil war nation number 226. You shortly after contract malaria, and then are nursed back into health by the very man you were sent to kill, and then left shipwrecked communication wise by your superiors to fiddle about your own devices. The opening is extremely quick, and immediately gets you in tune with the setting and games atmosphere, but Is initially misleading.
You see, Far cry 2 is set in a huge open world environment. And while that?s very nice and all, its very tedious and boring to have to drive or walk from point A to point B all the time, and the game just wreaks of annoying time pandering. Every time you get a mission, be it from the interchangeable guerilla factions, the gun merchants or the guy who sounds like he?s making a prank call imitating solid snake, it?s a guarantee your target will be all the way across the map. This would be fine if there were fast travel options available, but you?re essentially relegated to either your feet or some wheels, and the whole running about gets excruciatingly boring after a while.
Even more annoying however are the enemy encampments all along the way, which respawn five minutes after your done clearing them out. Generally, these encampments would be fun to clear out, and initially they are, but after a while it becomes this annoying routine that doesn?t really benefit the player in any way. Sure, there is usually ammo and health refills at these bases, but you will never run out of ammo or health syrettes, so it just feels pointless.
Other than that however, the actual missions themselves are very rewarding. You usually get a large payout of diamonds (the games currency) and with the gun merchants missions you unlock new guns to purchase. The missions aren?t terribly varied, but they do their job well, it?s just getting to them that is the pain. Speaking of guns, the weapons all handle very nicely, they feel rite, and the effects on old rusted weapons have a nice touch with having to unjam them and all. There?s a large variety of weapons, from assault rifles to flame throwers to mines, and they all feel like they should and are fun to experiment with.
The inventory system works well to, with the player carrying a machete (your melee weapon), a primary gun (this includes assault rifles and the like) a sidearm (from pistols to SMGs) and a ?special weapon?, which includes a whole variety of flamethrowers and anti-tank weapons. You also have grenades and Molotov cocktails, which are exceedingly smooth and satisfying to use. The only downside is that all of the guns fire tinfoil balls, as even Hawaiian shirt wearing rebels can take numerous bullets to the chest before going down.
There is also a system of ?buddies? in the game that works quite well. You have one best buddy who can give you alternative ways of doing missions, and then a secondary buddy who can rescue you from death. This caught me off guard the first time it happened, but its implemented very well, and works very well, giving you a real sense of fellowship as he drags you away from the fighting shooting. These buddies as well can also be injured, in which you have the option to abandon them to their fate, heal them, or put them out of their misery. It was quite powerful euthanizing one of my buddies, even if it was completely unnecessary due to the limitless health supplies.
There are some things that Far Cry 2 just ultimately got rite. The extremely immersive interface (even if the map symbols are tiny and hard to see), the map system in which you actually hold up the map to you face and some of the games animations. Making your character pull a bullet out of his leg when your health is on its last leg with players never gets old, or watching him rub at a burn. It?s very effective and keeps you immersed; this also goes along with all of the superb gun animations for things like jams and the like.
Graphically Far Cry 2 kept the atmosphere well, even if the graphics were a bit weak in and of themselves. The anti-aliasing clearly took a hit with the rendering as all of the edges of the foliage and trees are grainy and noticeable. The character models just don?t quite look ?rite?, and have an odd blockiness and stiffness to them. The fire effects are very cheesy looking, and have distinct 2-D fakeness to them, making them agitating to look at. But this is all almost completely negated by the flow of the graphics, and how they help maintain the gritty atmosphere.
The sound was well enough, but ultimately forgettable. Some of the gun sound effects were a little weak, but the vehicle noises and general ambient noises fit the mood well. The voice acting as well was decent, with a few characters coming off as a little campy, but other than that it works.
You?ll notice as well that I didn?t mention story in this review, and that?s because there is hardly any. The story is essentially just a ploy to throw you into Africa with a gun, and little more, it?s also placed sparsely over such huge stretches of game play that you forget it?s there.
Ultimately, Far Cry 2 is a quality product, but for all of the positive things I can say about it, it is essentially marred by the absolutely tedious and annoying running from one side of the map to the other that you have to do. Clocking in at forty-five hours after doing everything in the game, I could have easily removed twenty of that if they would take out the pointless meandering about Africa. However, underneath(or after, if you rather) all of that lies a quality shooter that stands out mechanics wise above the rest, its just that the game seems to forget that, and wants to take you sightseeing before it lets you have fun.
And yes, I realize the irony in that this review was over a thousand words long.
Final Verdict: Rent It
addendum:I didnt mention the multiplayer aspect of the game becuase I primarily play PC, and going from the precision of a mouse and keyboard to the clunkiness of a controller just wreaks of spawn-die-spawn-die syndrome. Although, I would be willing to bet you spend the first ten minutes of the match walking to the battle area if the single player has any bearing on it.
