Derrick
ლ(ಠ_ಠ )ლ
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2010
- Messages
- 5,085
- Reaction score
- 5
Ultimately, a very good game that falls short of its incredible potential.
The similarities between FarCry and FarCry2 end at the name. The setting, characters and storyline are completely separate from anything resembling the original game. Crysis would have been a more suitable sequel to FarCry. Having said that, FarCry2 is a very good game in its own right.
There are many bugs and design oversights plaguing FarCry2 which keep it from reaching its potential. It does, however, introduce some great innovations and is generally a lot of fun to play. It is also a technically brilliant game, with top-notch visuals and highly detailed and emotive sound effects.
The storyline is not going to win any awards, but it does enough to hold things together. The protagonist is placed in a fictional African country. The objective of the game is to end the conflict between the two warring factions by killing the man who is selling them weapons.
The game’s main storyline is told through a string of missions. Story missions are a highlight in FarCry2 and are usually quite diverse and entertaining.
There are also side missions which can be completed for various different rewards. These include assassinations, destroying weapons shipments, blowing up buildings, finding brief cases etc. There are also missions that require the player to transport counterfeit passports between locations; these reward the player with malaria medicine. Occasionally, the player will also have to perform missions to help their “buddies”.
FarCry2 requires the player to make buddies. This involves occasionally teaming up with NPC s who will help you with missions, and even heal you and drag you to safety when you are critically injured. Your relationship with each of your buddies is tracked, and will improve as your history grows. As your friendships grow, your safe houses will be upgraded. Safe houses are small buildings scattered across FarCry2’s 50km squared game map. They let you rest and pass time, as well as replace damaged weapons if you have the required weapons crates.
The Dunia engine on which FarCry2 is built is simply brilliant. The game looks amazing and plays efficiently. Even relatively modest machines will be able to handle the game on high settings. While the game may lack some of the detail seen in Crysis, it makes up for it with its superb lighting and shadow effects.
The weapons in FarCry2 are a highlight and there is enough variety to suit various game play styles. Weapons carry a realistic sense of weight and force when used which is very important in a game of this nature. They are upgradable, but unfortunately the upgrade system is very basic with generic “increase accuracy 20%” type upgrades. The model employed in Call of Duty 4 or even Medal of Honour: Airborne which allows the physical upgrading of weapons by implementing visual changes is far more satisfying. It’s surprising that Ubisoft didn’t go a similar route.
The physics engine is generally quite good, but could have been better. There is no real sense of the ragdoll physics seen in games like Call of Duty 4 or HalfLife2. Often enemies will bounce into the air unrealistically when shot in the chest. Ubisoft also could have made environments more destructible, and objects like trees and wooden fences are immovable. That said, the weather affects and particularly the way the wind blows across the long savannah grass are spectacular to behold and add deeply to the games sense of immersion.
One of FarCry2’s greatest flaws is in the basic game design. The game requires a lot of driving around, which would be fine as the driving feels good and the locations look fantastic. The problem is that the map is littered with enemy blockades, and enemies have an annoying tendency to respawn very quickly. For example, the player will often pass through multiple blockades on course to an objective; this will require them to fight their way through. This is fun and not a problem in itself. The problem is that on the way back from the objective, the blockades will be re-populated. There is little reward or variation to look forward to every time you have to do this, so it becomes repetitive and tedious rather quickly.
FarCry2 is surprisingly simple. There is no inventory system, but rather three simple weapon slots which can each be taken up by a particular weapon type for each. This system is inflexible, which is a pity. The health system is also very rudimentary, and a single health syrette restores the health bar completely. The game could have added more detail by accounting for injuries by adding limping animations for example. One gets the feeling that so much more could have been done in terms of innovation, and Ubisoft were sitting on the cusp of what could have been some very fresh game design.
The player will only ever be able to take one mission at a time, which is annoying and inexplicable. It reinforces the linear cycle of take mission-complete mission-hand in mission- take mission style game play, which is a pity.
While the weapons feel great and look good, with unpredictable jamming on inferior or damaged guns, they ultimately feel underpowered. While a single headshot generally does the job, often the player will have to unload half an UZI clip into an enemy to put him down. This just feels unrealistic.
FarCry2 is plagued with more bugs than we would like. There is one in particular which pops up occasionally that fixes your grenade trajectory to a certain path no matter where you aim. The animals occasionally run into vehicles, and even enemy AI is sometimes highly questionable. In general, these issues are quite rare and will hopefully be sorted out in patches.
There have also been some serious issues surrounding FarCry2’s DRM implementation, with people reporting that the game simply won’t load no matter what they do. I did not experience any issues of this nature, and found the installation and activation straight forward. The game loaded fist time without hassles.
One has to commend Ubisoft for FarCry2. It's well built for the most part, looks and sounds great and runs well on midrange PCs. It has a decent storyline with some enjoyable characters. The gun fights are fun and there are many different ways one can choose to play. There are a wide range of weapons and a massive game map to explore with no loading times.
Unfortunately it loses points for playing it a bit safe. It sticks to too many tried and tested formulas where it could have really done something new. The frequency with which enemies respawn, and -constantly having to fight the same battles just to move through an area is what ultimately had me saving and exiting more than I would like.
Ultimately, a very good game that falls short of its incredible potential.
The similarities between FarCry and FarCry2 end at the name. The setting, characters and storyline are completely separate from anything resembling the original game. Crysis would have been a more suitable sequel to FarCry. Having said that, FarCry2 is a very good game in its own right.
There are many bugs and design oversights plaguing FarCry2 which keep it from reaching its potential. It does, however, introduce some great innovations and is generally a lot of fun to play. It is also a technically brilliant game, with top-notch visuals and highly detailed and emotive sound effects.
The storyline is not going to win any awards, but it does enough to hold things together. The protagonist is placed in a fictional African country. The objective of the game is to end the conflict between the two warring factions by killing the man who is selling them weapons.
The game’s main storyline is told through a string of missions. Story missions are a highlight in FarCry2 and are usually quite diverse and entertaining.
There are also side missions which can be completed for various different rewards. These include assassinations, destroying weapons shipments, blowing up buildings, finding brief cases etc. There are also missions that require the player to transport counterfeit passports between locations; these reward the player with malaria medicine. Occasionally, the player will also have to perform missions to help their “buddies”.
FarCry2 requires the player to make buddies. This involves occasionally teaming up with NPC s who will help you with missions, and even heal you and drag you to safety when you are critically injured. Your relationship with each of your buddies is tracked, and will improve as your history grows. As your friendships grow, your safe houses will be upgraded. Safe houses are small buildings scattered across FarCry2’s 50km squared game map. They let you rest and pass time, as well as replace damaged weapons if you have the required weapons crates.
The Dunia engine on which FarCry2 is built is simply brilliant. The game looks amazing and plays efficiently. Even relatively modest machines will be able to handle the game on high settings. While the game may lack some of the detail seen in Crysis, it makes up for it with its superb lighting and shadow effects.
The weapons in FarCry2 are a highlight and there is enough variety to suit various game play styles. Weapons carry a realistic sense of weight and force when used which is very important in a game of this nature. They are upgradable, but unfortunately the upgrade system is very basic with generic “increase accuracy 20%” type upgrades. The model employed in Call of Duty 4 or even Medal of Honour: Airborne which allows the physical upgrading of weapons by implementing visual changes is far more satisfying. It’s surprising that Ubisoft didn’t go a similar route.
The physics engine is generally quite good, but could have been better. There is no real sense of the ragdoll physics seen in games like Call of Duty 4 or HalfLife2. Often enemies will bounce into the air unrealistically when shot in the chest. Ubisoft also could have made environments more destructible, and objects like trees and wooden fences are immovable. That said, the weather affects and particularly the way the wind blows across the long savannah grass are spectacular to behold and add deeply to the games sense of immersion.
One of FarCry2’s greatest flaws is in the basic game design. The game requires a lot of driving around, which would be fine as the driving feels good and the locations look fantastic. The problem is that the map is littered with enemy blockades, and enemies have an annoying tendency to respawn very quickly. For example, the player will often pass through multiple blockades on course to an objective; this will require them to fight their way through. This is fun and not a problem in itself. The problem is that on the way back from the objective, the blockades will be re-populated. There is little reward or variation to look forward to every time you have to do this, so it becomes repetitive and tedious rather quickly.
FarCry2 is surprisingly simple. There is no inventory system, but rather three simple weapon slots which can each be taken up by a particular weapon type for each. This system is inflexible, which is a pity. The health system is also very rudimentary, and a single health syrette restores the health bar completely. The game could have added more detail by accounting for injuries by adding limping animations for example. One gets the feeling that so much more could have been done in terms of innovation, and Ubisoft were sitting on the cusp of what could have been some very fresh game design.
The player will only ever be able to take one mission at a time, which is annoying and inexplicable. It reinforces the linear cycle of take mission-complete mission-hand in mission- take mission style game play, which is a pity.
While the weapons feel great and look good, with unpredictable jamming on inferior or damaged guns, they ultimately feel underpowered. While a single headshot generally does the job, often the player will have to unload half an UZI clip into an enemy to put him down. This just feels unrealistic.
FarCry2 is plagued with more bugs than we would like. There is one in particular which pops up occasionally that fixes your grenade trajectory to a certain path no matter where you aim. The animals occasionally run into vehicles, and even enemy AI is sometimes highly questionable. In general, these issues are quite rare and will hopefully be sorted out in patches.
There have also been some serious issues surrounding FarCry2’s DRM implementation, with people reporting that the game simply won’t load no matter what they do. I did not experience any issues of this nature, and found the installation and activation straight forward. The game loaded fist time without hassles.
One has to commend Ubisoft for FarCry2. It's well built for the most part, looks and sounds great and runs well on midrange PCs. It has a decent storyline with some enjoyable characters. The gun fights are fun and there are many different ways one can choose to play. There are a wide range of weapons and a massive game map to explore with no loading times.
Unfortunately it loses points for playing it a bit safe. It sticks to too many tried and tested formulas where it could have really done something new. The frequency with which enemies respawn, and -constantly having to fight the same battles just to move through an area is what ultimately had me saving and exiting more than I would like.
Ultimately, a very good game that falls short of its incredible potential.