Far Cry 2

It's not the best Far Cry, but it's the one most committed to realism, immersion and having a really lonely and oppressive setting, which I have to respect.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☑ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☑ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☑ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☑ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

Walking 20 minutes to take a bus in the vague direction of where I think I'm supposed to be going just to pass out due to lack of my tummy pills. 10/10.

This is a highly polarizing game. You'd either hate it or love it, there's no middle ground. So, allow me to make a case as to why one would love it.

Let's start with the visuals and physics. The game has one of the best visuals and physics of any of the Farcry game series. You shoot a tree branch, the branch falls down. You shoot an enemy through thin cover, you damage the enemy. And the fire mechanics and propagation are unparalleled.

The game itself is a tale of human darkness, you are alone against everyone else. Nobody really cares if you live or die. You're only worth your actions, your decision making and your ability to adapt to any situation. You have some buddies but they're mercs too and won't hesitate to put a bullet in your head if you're against them. The closest thing to an ally that you have is a Journalist reporting about human rights abuses in that country. The game itself is filled with little tableaus telling you about those atrocities - A mass grave here, some human bodies dumped in a pit there, of course no one explicitly tells you anything, you just have to go looking.
The game is not easy, it was never meant to be. You have malaria, while you do have medicine, it inevitably runs out and you'd have to do some favors to the underground to get some more medication. Guns jam - You pick up an enemy's weapon, chances are it will jam in about a full clip. The enemy AI is extremely good, enemies try to employ different tactics towards you, some rush you, others flank you and some hide and try to ambush you. The roads have mobile patrols on them and checkpoints re-spawn once you leave the area.
However, the game is not frustrating like most people claim because you're not playing a normal shooter here. You're playing a game which likes to test your decision making, how you can adapt to different situations and how you can handle chaos. You can truly become an unstoppable force if you master generating chaos. But chaos itself is a display, as the Jackal puts it, "Like the roar of a Lion or the chest thumping of a Gorilla". You need to tactically understand where cover/supplies/flanking paths are, else you'll lose control over the chaos that you generate.
The game is not totally unmanageable, it does give you some precious few things to manage this hellscape.
Your guns jam? Pickup new ones at the gun shop, better yet, buy some crates so that you can swap guns at safe houses, thankfully, your enemies' guns jam too. You need to travel a long distance? Use the bus. You're losing in a firefight? Your buddy shows up and gives you some breathing room. Malaria keeps bugging you? Find cover and take a pill, it's not that hard- You only take like 20 pills throughout the entire playthrough, if you take your pills on time that is. If you play with the music on, the game also has a way of telling you that enemies are near (viz. the music changes to a tense one), which kinda works as an enemy indicator, which I'm quite sure was un-intentional.
The game punishes rash decision making, though. You assault any place guns blazing, chances are one of your enemies is going to flank you and shoot you from behind, so you better watch your back.
The game is immersive and realistic in a way. It never holds your hand. There are no stealth meters, no dumb tattoos giving you B.S. superpowers, no radio towers or map unlocks telling you places of interest. You want to know where your hidden enemies are, use your ears to pinpoint their location and pray to God that you spot and shoot them before they start shooting at you. You want to find all hidden diamonds, explore the map and keep an eye on the diamond case beacon.
Of course once you keep completing missions and keep progressing, your reputation increases. And as your reputation increases, your enemies start to fear you. And somehow, a high reputation in FarCry 2 seems much more rewarding than B.S. custom weapons.
The game is not without flaws, this exposition on the human nature is only made by humans of course. I personally think the checkpoint re-spawn mechanic could be improved a bit and that there could be a field cleaning mechanic for your guns.And there's no aggressive wildlife - in Africa. However, I still prefer the re-spawning check points over an empty, boring map.
I've played this game 4 times across 4 different GPUs, I've played 3 subsequent Far Cry games and found each one to be increaasingly boring after a point. FC2 always holds a special place in my heart. It's not a game which explicitly tells you what's happening or what happened. It's not a game which holds your hand and assumes that you're someone with superhuman powers. It's a love letter from the developers to the player, written when game companies cared about the games they made. It's a journey into the heart of human darkness and the horrors of war - all set up in a beautiful african country.
In Summary, FC2 is that one sushi course in a series which had ended up becoming fast food with a lot of sugar.

This was a different breed of a game. Built different if you will. But definitely not a game that caters to the general taste. So I'd expect not everyone enjoying this game.

The story is bare-bones and honestly lacklustre. And definitely not the focus of the game, even less than the first game. But 90% of the game, you kind of forget that a story is supposed to be followed, so it is fine imo. The buddy system is okay. Only the first and second buddies are important considering gameplay, whereas the other buddies are just quest npc's until *SPOILER* the end of the game *END*. The Jackal is kind of a fascinating character and feels kind of wasted on such a lacklustre story. The main missions provide alternative routes to complete the mission, which features your best buddy, and so makes the gameplay much longer, and as far as I am concerned, better. Although, not much of the story is attached to the alternative routes, except *SPOILER* a certain quest which involves the in-game African monarchy *END*.

The gameplay loop is very gritty and feels realistic. The environment is hostile and you feel very lonely throughout the game. And that is the appeal of the game. Some portions of the game are very half-baked though. Outposts replenish with enemies almost immediately and stealth is almost mandatory in the highest difficulty (Infamous). The option for quicksaves removes the requirement of safehouses, but for extra challenge, not using quicksaves may be a fun way to play the game. It has for me anyway. The game does have a lot of collectibles, mainly diamonds, but they aren't necessary for completion, atleast since there isn't any achievements - which is in this case, a positive due to the sheer amount of diamond cases which are NOT fun to find. Driving feels very authentic, and the controls are very responsive, same with riding boats.

The game tries very hard to push you into rage quitting. And although I do like challenge, there is a fine line to be drawn between gritty realism and straight up masochism. I like the gun jamming, I love the gun blasting, but I do draw the line at malaria. Malaria was crossing the line. But the line itself is very subjective and differs from player to player. Another criticism, which is unavoidable in a game aiming for realism, is the travel time. You spend a majority of time going from point to point B. And it is a shame since the feeling of badassery you get when you clear an outpost or a hostille settlement is unmatched.

Overall, a fantastic and flawed game. As far as my recommendation goes, it depends on the gamer I am talking to. I loved it. You may not.

This is the Far Cry with survival mechanics. Ubisoft improved and expanded nearly every aspect with the sequel compared to the previous game from Crytek. Far Cry 2 has a large open world with amazing gunplay and fire simulation. You can finally drive and fast travel in the game now. Also No Ubisoft account or any kind of login to Uplay/Ubisoft Connect is needed to play! Multiplayer mode is dead as of writing this review (frankly never even knew it existed before looking at the message from Steam on storefront).
It's the most immersive Far Cry game I've played so far. Since this was among the first modern Ubisoft open world games they've experimented a ton of things with this one. Your guns will get jammed and breakdown if you keep using the same weapon for too long. Enemies are relentless and will hunt you down and even damage your vehicle if you decide to run away. You're character is vulnerable to malaria and will get infected during the worst key moment during the game just when you run out of pills.
I think this game easily was the worst with the story for me. You play as one of many mercenaries shipped to a fictional country in Africa to assassinate this Jackal guy. The villain barely appears for more than 3 times throughout the game and it really lacks the evil bad guy monologues we're used to in the series. The progression is very slow and throughout the game you'll complete missions for two enemy factions and it's very repetitive by the end. All missions follow the same pattern of killing waves of enemies, going somewhere and blowing things up which is a common trend with a ton of open games now. The only way to unlock good weapons that dont jam mid gameplay is by completing tedious side missions and activities or buying guns through shops in exchange of diamonds (in-game currency).
If you like challenging open world experience then Far Cry 2 should be on your radar. FC2 is very different from the newer open world games in many regards. Avoid this game like a plague if you hate driving long stretches because nearly every mission will take from one side of the map to the other! There's a lot of driving and shooting.

Alright, this is an underrated masterpiece, and here's why.
If you're looking to try out Far Cry 2 going from other previously played games in this franchise, I assure you that you most likely wouldn't fancy picking up this one. It's a middle child of Far Cry games, forgotten and more so, rarely mentioned anywhere in the fanbase, but for a good reason behind it. It's different. The key mechanics might lead you to believe that it's similar, however, this game feels way more realistic and immersive than any Far Cry games I've played. The setting and gameplay itself is so unique that you won't find anything like it in the gaming industry. That's why a lot of people refer to this as driving, running or malaria simulator, because it is really kicking your ass. You don't have fast travel elements besides few bus stops around the map (like 6 of them) and gg's for you if you destroyed your car along the way. The malaria "feature" isn't even that painful to deal with, it happens ocasionally. So far, only 11 hours in and I've gotten it like 3 times, which is what I don't understand all the complaints made towards this mechanic. People are really harsh towards it, and so it lead me to believe that it shouldn't be a far cry game to begin with.
Unique things this game has that any other Far Cry doesn't
-Weapons break down after excessive usage.
-It barely has any hud elements, only an ammo counter and an optional crosshair if you do need one.
-Previously mentioned malaria disease which the main protagonist has to deal with along the way.
- Stealth is an option that practically doesn't work since the radius of enemies noticing you is sky high. ;(
-Outposts restock enemies constantly, which might be painful, but reasonable if you dig down into the story.
-Fast travel option is limited to bus stops placed around the map.
-A spot on setting, which in that case is Africa, a beatiful map design that rivals Far Cry's 3 island at this.
As for the story, it's all co-related to civil war and whatnot, based on real life counterparts with a little bit of rambo twist in it. I will not spoiler it as I do believe that the story isn't a big part of the game itself, just the gameplay and mechanics itself which made this game interesting to me after all these years it's been out.
Get this if you want a unique never seen-like experience...
It should have been named differently to make it stand out so people wouldn't overlook it thinking it's a bad far cry game, not because it is, it doesn't feel like one, rather a survival game at this point. Bear that in mind that you do have to make some tweaks in order to make this playable on high end systems. FAR CRY 2 - Patched is highly recommended by me as it is the only thing you need to make it enjoyable and more so, playable in 2024.