Far Cry 2

I was born in South Africa in 2002, so this game is basically a documentary of my early childhood. 11/10.

This entry into the Far Cry series is definitely not for everybody, especially those who are used to the gameplay loop that began from Far Cry 3 onwards (I first played this when it released, and hated the subsequent entries). It definitely has that tech demo feeling to it, because it essentially was a showcase of the new engine at the time of its release. This said, for those who like a challenging gameplay experience a minimum of hand-holding, Far Cry 2 stands out as one of the most unique FPS games of all time.
Far Cry 2 makes no attempt to empower you, the player; rather, everything about the game is meticulously designed to do the opposite and make you feel small and insignificant. Old guns will jam on you at inconvenient times, malaria can strike you when you least expect, enemies are intelligent and extremely relentless, and this depressing open map is as dangerous as it is gorgeous (even today). Throughout this, the game is trying to hammer home one crucial fact: You are not a badass death god, you are just a guy with a gun who got caught up in somebody else's war.
If I can sum up Far Cry 2 as its own separate genre, it would be called "anti-fun". There is no XP bar patting you on the head for your sick moves, the only value of currency is to buy more guns, and your only reward for getting through a tough firefight is that you get to live another day. It's great, it forces you not only to plan ahead for when a fight is and isn't necessary; but the fact that most firefights in this game actually serve no purpose makes you begin to think about the cyclical senselessness of the violence in the broader context.
This is the entire foil of the plot. You're a mercenary sent down to hunt an international arms smuggler, The Jackal, and end up perpetuating the very same bloodshed you were sent in to end to begin with, at the behest of cynical warlords who don't care about the people they claim to fight for, and who don't care about you -- and the feeling's mutual. It's a blood for cash trade, just like the Jackal himself. There isn't any stunning cutscenes to this game, but in my opinion, this game had a brilliantly subversive plot for 2008 as far as shooter games go.
Is it my favourite Far Cry game? By far.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely.
But for anybody who's going into it expecting it to be like any of the other games in the series, I'd just recommend them to temper their expectations and go into it with the understanding that the game will never go easy on you or give you the chance to feel like Rambo, except for some select moments where you planned really well and the odds fell in your favour.

Far Cry 2 is a game that actively hates the player.
Guns jam, malaria interrupts everything, checkpoints respawn endlessly, and the world never lets you relax.
It is miserable, hostile, and exhausting.
I love it.
10/10

they could never make me hate you, my beloved. best game in the series
also check out No Man's Home and Red Tears Angola

Good game. Very pretty scenery and the ai are surprisingly smart.
Ubisoft haven't ported the game from console very well though. It is fully functional barring a few sound glitches so long as you limit the games framerate each time on the main menu. To do this, press the ` key next to 1 and type in: gfx_maxfps 60
Hopefully that helps!

It is my second time playing this game. The state it has been left in is sad beyond belief. A game that delivers something no other game does, the fact that there has never been a spiritual sequel is actually a sin. No other game portrays the raw human desire for violence and greed like Far Cry 2 does.
After finishing it I set to work right away reading 2 books about how the Diamond trade works and it was sickening to witness myself, read so often a story about yet another man who had been killed by foreign mercenary guards at an illegal mine and had his insides searched thinking he had swallowed diamonds and tried to make a break with them. So often did I read these stories so that when it kept happening again and again I didn't even stop to ponder it and just keep going as if I had just seen a man walking his dog, a mundane unimportant thing. Yet meanwhile there is a strange fear in my body if I hear in the news that someone in the small town I live in got robbed, let alone killed. The mind can grow so complacent, even a massacre can feel like another Tuesday. All for that diamond to end up on the ring of a white woman living in the suburbs of California which her Banker husband bought at Tiffanys.
There is a sickness in the sand and dirt and it only grows. There is nothing new in Far Cry 2, there are only things you don't know about that you are taught. The disgusting human desire for more than enough. The Jackal was right though, how are we supposed to know? The dead 24 year old they brought in from the USA will get plenty of news time after he steps on a landmine, but the mass graves of the 50000 locals are not mentioned almost ever.
Your character is a horrible person, one who knows nothing else than to do this again and again until it kills him. Shame he will die here, this place has seen far worse men than him who came and went, quite a few of them richer than they were before their arrival. But its better this way, we have to burn it all, so that it can start again, without the sickness. It teaches you a valuable lesson, that you should at times feel as happy as possible as your eyes reflect the fire particles flying in the air, as you witness it all burning away, including your own flesh. This sickness needs to be cured and you are part of it.
NEVER FORGET: That the term "Diamonds are forever" and the popularization of non-rich working men giving a diamond ring to their future wife was a marketing campaign by De Beers in 1947 which "Increased wholesale diamond sales in the United States from $23 million to $2.1 billion." Before this only 10% of wives had a diamond engagement ring, in 1990 it became 80%. This demand needed to be met somehow, who can fault the diamond cutters in Antwerp, Belgium for having a simple selling procedure where anyone can walk in and present a diamond and sell it without any questions asked about origin and receive a handshake, no receipt, cash in hand and promptly be asked to leave.
Please read:
Tom Zoellner - The Heartless Stone (journalistic non-fictional work)
Greg Campbell - Blood Diamonds (journalistic non-fictional work)
Joseph Conrad - Heart Of Darkness (fictional work based on author's real world experience as sailor employed by a belgian company in the Congo in the 19th century)

I ♥♥♥♥ you not, this game puts a curse on your steamdeck. It refuses to uninstall, instead it opens itself when trying to do so. Once it boots, there is no escape, not even the home button can save you. This game is possessed, 9/10