Far Cry 2

[SadExchange]

I've been playing this on the Xbox 360 and have been thoroughly enjoying the game. I will admit that the respawn rate of the guardposts seems a little quick in most instances, but the sense of immersion that the developers created is one of the best. While playing, I'm consistently feeling a sense of tension which I've been wanting in games lately. And with not being able to save anywhere on the console, it only adds more to the game.

[Slowtrain]

This game could have been so much better than it is. That seems to be a big problem with games today. It's even more infuriating than simply buying a bad game.

 

 

You know, that's totally true. But my expectations for this game were so low, that it's all gravy to me.

 

Overall, its a little too "gamey" for me to say to say its really great. If the devs had pushed a little bit harder toward making the world a tad more realistic, it could have been a pretty fabulous shooter. It's funny that they seem to push so far toward an immersive, realistic world and then just stopped at the last minute.

[Aram]

This game could have been so much better than it is. That seems to be a big problem with games today. It's even more infuriating than simply buying a bad game.

 

 

You know, that's totally true. But my expectations for this game were so low, that it's all gravy to me.

 

Overall, its a little too "gamey" for me to say to say its really great. If the devs had pushed a little bit harder toward making the world a tad more realistic, it could have been a pretty fabulous shooter. It's funny that they seem to push so far toward an immersive, realistic world and then just stopped at the last minute.

My problem is they kept taunting us with things and then not following up on them.

 

We get to choose our own character to play, but the character we choose has no real impact on gameplay. The characters we don't choose to play are in the game and have voices and personalities, yet the character we play does not, so if you like a character you have to choose not to play that character to even hear their voice. Of course there's no real reason to like any of these "buddy" characters because they don't actually help you in missions--they just add extra stages to missions that don't benefit you to complete.

 

There are two sides you can work for, but you don't actually choose a side to favor. When the plot calls for you to do whichever mission for which side, you have to do it. They act like there's choice, but there isn't. All you can choose is when you want to do the next mission. Half way through, you're faced with this choice on who to "save," but it makes no difference at all which you choose. Even the ending pretends to offer a choice, but either way it's the exact same ending.

 

Why couldn't you actually join a side--have one side's guard posts leave you alone or even help you if you're doing missions for that side? Would it really have been so hard to program? Every time you take a mission, they actually have the guy tell you as you're walking out "by the way, we're still going to try to kill you even though you're working for us" every single freaking time. Yeah, I think we would have figured it out by the 2nd mission.

 

I don't know. The game just feels only 80% done to me. The constant repetition, when really there didn't need to be, constantly reminded me I was playing a console game. Assassin's Creed did the same thing. Huge sandbox world but the sandbox only has three or four toys in it, and the toys are incredibly monotonous. I liked the sort of Red Harvest meets Heart of Darkness plot the game was trying for, but they didn't use it to nearly the potential they could have.

Edited October 27, 2008 by Aram

[Wrath of Dagon]

"by the way, we're still going to try to kill you even though you're working for us"

Sounds like the epitome of Ubisoft game design.

[mkreku]

One thing in Far Cry 2 that bothers me on another level is how there are no civilians. I know it's been mentioned before, but the thing that bothers me in the game about it is that whenever I travel a road, I usually travel in some sort of jeep with a mounted weapon. As soon as I see another vehicle (or anything else moving, for that matter), I instantly press C (to switch from driver's seat to said weapon) and start firing. Often times it's a civilian, tiny car with no weapons and only a driver in it. So I have to sit here and watch my mounted cannon rip the car and driver to shreds until the lifeless, bloody corpse falls out of the blown off car door.

 

I don't know, but it sickens me. Why couldn't they have made at least THOSE vehicles non-aggressive?! If you don't do as I just described, you can bet your ass that same lonely, defenceless driver will follow you to the end of the world to try to kill you! EVERY TIME! Every human being you meet in the game has to die. There are no options.

[Zoma]

Oh man. The travelling system and numerous hostile checkpoints are driving me nuts and tired from the tediousness.

 

Come on man. Why can't Far Cry implement a proper faction system? Such great game with huge potential wasted to bad/simplified design decisions.

[Aristes]

One thing in Far Cry 2 that bothers me on another level is how there are no civilians. I know it's been mentioned before, but the thing that bothers me in the game about it is that whenever I travel a road, I usually travel in some sort of jeep with a mounted weapon. As soon as I see another vehicle (or anything else moving, for that matter), I instantly press C (to switch from driver's seat to said weapon) and start firing. Often times it's a civilian, tiny car with no weapons and only a driver in it. So I have to sit here and watch my mounted cannon rip the car and driver to shreds until the lifeless, bloody corpse falls out of the blown off car door.

 

I don't know, but it sickens me. Why couldn't they have made at least THOSE vehicles non-aggressive?! If you don't do as I just described, you can bet your ass that same lonely, defenceless driver will follow you to the end of the world to try to kill you! EVERY TIME! Every human being you meet in the game has to die. There are no options.

 

That doesn't even make sense from a story standpoint. Some of those people in the cars would try to avoid violence by turning and running. It's simply not feasible that every human being you would randomly meet, even in a war torn anarchy, would be brave/stupid enough to try to fight. Most of them, many of the best survivors, would avoid violence. Some of them would avoid violence at all costs. That would be enough to break immersion for me.

 

In most of these FPSes, we're faced with the "kill it if it moves" syndrome. Fine, but this feature just sounds dumb. ...And what's all this I hear about making the mouse controls sluggish? Why would someone do that. Hell, in Bioshock (I know, I know, you HATE it, Crashgirl) the controls were at least responsive and it was a 360 also. Someone in another thread, or maybe on a webpage or something, suggested that the developers made the mouse controls intentionally sluggish to put it on par with console controlers. If that's the case, I simply will have to pass.

 

You guys had convinced me to purchase the game, but if the controls are really that bad, no dice. Could some of you who have complained about the mouse aiming let me know, is it really bad or just mildly annoying?

[Zoma]

The mouse control is sluggish and it has little to do with the sensitivity but rather, the timing it takes for the mouse pointer from A to B. You can feel it that it is 0.2 to 0.4 seconds lag for the mouse to move around and is much more apparent in the game's menu. It is similar to Oblivion's menu where you can feel the mouse lag except this occurs in the FPS gameplay as well which contributes much frustration.

 

Apparently, this sluggish mouse problem for Far Cry 2 is quite well-known in every Far Cry 2 forum you encounter.

[mkreku]

Apparently, this sluggish mouse problem for Far Cry 2 is quite well-known in every Far Cry 2 forum you encounter.

I don't have this problem at all. Maybe the mouse pointer is tied somehow to the performance of the game? Because I am amazed at just how smooth Far Cry 2 is on my computer, and that includes mouse aiming and menus.

[Slowtrain]

My mouse is fine, too, but I agree with most of the points that people are making.

 

Did you know that the art director and some of the designers actually traveled to Kenya and stayed there for a couple weeks touring the country with a guide, taking pictures and trying to get a feel for the country really felt. And they did a great job of capturing that in the game.

 

But then, despite doing all that work, they turn around and make these really simplfied gameplay parameters which almost totally DEFEATS the purpose of making the game so authentic in the first place.

[Aristes]

If it's just performance, my system can handle it.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

My mouse is fine, too, but I agree with most of the points that people are making.

 

Did you know that the art director and some of the designers actually traveled to Kenya and stayed there for a couple weeks touring the country with a guide, taking pictures and trying to get a feel for the country really felt. And they did a great job of capturing that in the game.

 

But then, despite doing all that work, they turn around and make these really simplfied gameplay parameters which almost totally DEFEATS the purpose of making the game so authentic in the first place.

 

They made a series of documentaries, if you're interested. I watched them on Gamespot and they're a damn nice watch.

 

So far the impression I get is the game has a very developped setting but everything else is less complex.

[Slowtrain]

So far the impression I get is the game has a very developped setting but everything else is less complex.

 

 

That's pretty accurate. If you're just moving around and taking in the world, the game feels almost like a simulation. Very immersive and involving. But once you start interacting with the world, you realize its all quite simplified and not terribly involving at all.

 

That being said, this is one of those games that shows how much expectation can play into reception. I was expecting nothing from this game, and it turns out to be decently interesting so I'm having fun. If I had been expecting this game to be as good as it was hyped, I'd probably be pretty disappointed.

 

Now if only the same thing can happen with Fallout 3...

[Strix]

One thing in Far Cry 2 that bothers me on another level is how there are no civilians.

 

I agree. The game could, and should, have included some people who were just trying to survive and had no interest in fighting. Hopefully a faction mod will come out soon, but until there is a third-party fix it looks like the game will only have hostiles. As for the mouse, it's been fine so far and I'm mainly playing on a laptop that doesn't even meet the minimum specifications.

[Maria Caliban]

I hate jumping. If I'm at a crate that reaches my belly, just let me hit 'e' and get ontop of the damn crate already. I don't want to spend five minutes trying to hop on top of it because that's the only way to get the suitcase full of diamonds.

[wesley2]

One thing in Far Cry 2 that bothers me on another level is how there are no civilians.

 

I agree. The game could, and should, have included some people who were just trying to survive and had no interest in fighting. Hopefully a faction mod will come out soon, but until there is a third-party fix it looks like the game will only have hostiles. As for the mouse, it's been fine so far and I'm mainly playing on a laptop that doesn't even meet the minimum specifications.

Agreed, how that'd definitely drain the processor if they had to render and account for even more people on screen. But I do totally agree, I also think it would have added a nice dynamic of whether or not your character killed them with stray fire, etc or burned their homes down. Just to give your dude some delineation good or bad.