Short Game Review: Far Cry 2
Forming a review in my mind early into playing, I was tempted to call this “Grand Theft Rhino” and just leave it at that. That’s more than a little unfair. The comparison to Grand Theft Auto IV is obvious, as it’s squarely in the same gameplay and thematic genre of “open-world game of doing errands for horrifically evil people,” but Far Cry 2 is its own game. You play as a man sent to kill a notorious arms dealer, sidetracked by malaria and playing off two sides of a war in some unnamed African nation. Nearly everything you do is calculated to make you feel both exhilarated and guilty.
The graphics, physics, and attention to detail are simply incredible: watching plants bend over before you as you sneak through the jungle; seeing a zebra running alongside your jeep; standing stock still as a flaming canister spins past you, barely missing you before it explodes. It does certainly prioritize stories of the moment rather than an overarching narrative, though, which is good and bad. I did indeed find it affecting to have to anesthetize a dying man who had repeatedly dragged me out of gunfights to save my life. I rarely ever had any sense what the hell I was doing at any given time or why, though, other than “go to this place and kill some more guys.” The game is purposefully brutal, and I’m hoping they explore that sense of purpose a bit more in depth in the upcoming sequel.
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Far Cry 2 had the ability to be a masterpiece of video games, but I don’t believe it was that masterpiece. The game didn’t have enough tying it together other than the repetitive “Go here kill him” formula that /every single mission/ followed. The immersion was unparalleled for me, until I got tired of driving the same road for the ninety-second time and just killing.
I think the comparison to GTA IV is more correct than you think; both were stunning in their levels of immersions, until you realize that they sacrificed originality for temporary immersion. The missions in both games were the same thing, over and over. In FC2, you kill people in a big group and then you go help your buddy not die. Sometimes you can put out a little more effort still and get a gun dropped off at your safe house. But every mission was the same. Ironically enough, GTA IV’s missions were structured almost identical to FC2. It was lacking the creativity of the previous GTA games; where was the casino-running from San Andreas or the gang warfare? Both games I adored until I got tired of repeating myself for the umpteenth time by shooting the same guy in the same place once again.
By SBuercklin on 12.14.09 10:34 pm
Yeah, your criticisms (and noted parallel with GTA4) are spot-on; I just wanted to make sure I was giving FC2 all due props for bringing texture to parts of the game that GTA ignored. But then again, I suppose that’s largely a matter of personal preference. I’m more interested variety in weaponry than variety in vehicles, and in novelty of scenery (I’ve never been to Africa!) than in familiarity. FC2 felt more detailed in terms of the physics of objects, though GTA4 was probably better in terms of irrelevant NPCs’ behavior.
I guess, at the end of the day, I’d dispute that one game is a rip-off of the other … but I’d have to agree that “go from point A to point B to kill a guy” is common to both, and getting old.
By Jason on 12.15.09 8:10 pm
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