Why I think Far Cry 2 is one of the most underrated games ever made.

[Akoomsh]

Far Cry 2 has received an overall negative review by a lot of the community online. Occasionally, there's someone who defends it, or even supports it, but for the most part, it seems most people don't even bother finishing it. There are accusations of clunky controls, AI being able to see you from a mile away, chase you across the map, and shoot you accurately at any distance. Enemies respawn in camps you cleared minutes ago, the huge map takes forever to transverse, and you can hardly shoot all the bullets from your gun without having it jam. The story is lacking and repetitive when present, and the ending is unsatisfying.

Some of the good things being said are that the scenery is gorgeous and fits the setting, the realism (using syrettes to heal, having to take pills for malaria, and not being able to use long the guns dropped by enemies due to poor conditions) creates a unique and incredibly memorable gameplay, and missions can be completed in any way you like. Your only instruction is who to kill. Not how, or when, just who.

But despite any of that, no one seems to address the theme. The message of the game. The part that made it better than any other game I have ever played. It seems to have gone completely over everyone's head, despite being literally what the game is about. Due to this being, naturally, loaded with spoilers, I'll explain more at the end. For now, I'll go into detail with the main cons of the game.

One of the things that annoys people most about the game is that enemies respawn so quickly. Clear out an area and leave for a minute chasing a hidden diamond - in game currency - and you can come back minutes later under a hail of bullets from people who have seemingly been camped out there for hours, without any trace of the explosions, wildfires, and general carnage you just caused. I don't think this is a bad thing at all. Naturally reinforcements would have arrrived, and without even justifying it in-game, it helps. It makes it difficult. You can play as long as you want to, you'll never not have enemies around the corner. It gives it the feeling of being hundreds of times larger, somewhere you could lose yourself even with your map and compass. Not to mention it has saved me numerous times from bugs. I remember one specific time I was doing a mission to get more malaria pills. As any player knows, if you've resorted to having to search for more pills, you have minutes left before the disease gets you. I show up at the building, and as usual it's being guarded by 6 or so enemies. I wreck the area with my vehicle-mounted gun, but I can't open the door. I run around desperately, looking for the last guy who I'd have to kill to enter the room, but it appears the game just encountered a bug. I leave the area, drive off a few hundred feet, and when I return I run over the newly spawned enemies and find myself inside the room seconds later. The game had reset the area, and I was able to "retry" without having to worry about losing progress.

A second thing people hate is the AI. Fire half a magazine into one of them and they may not drop dead. If you don't kill them all immediately, one shot and they all know exactly where you are, and have their guns firing before they've even aimed. Not that they need to aim, they rarely miss, from any distance. Run away and they'll grab a truck and chase you until the world ends. Stealth is hard to master, even killing with the machete attracts more attention than it should. You don't notice this, however, as long as you play the game right. I've spent over 60 hours playing, and am currently on my second time through on the hardest difficulty. I have never bought an automatic weapon. Truthfully, they're crap. I spend the game running around with pistols, or a sniper at best. Those and shotguns are the only ones worth the noise. If you have a pistol, you have all you need to beat the game on any difficulty. It's not about the weapon, it's about how you use it. To clear a camp, I hide behind bushes and trees, sneaking closer, until I finally pop up and fire my pistol. 3 shots, one in each head, and I'm not even scratched. Headshots are the only sure way to kill anyone here, and pistols and snipers are the only weapons with enough accuracy to do it. I don't care how many guns and bows are in Far Cry 3, nothing is more satisfying than clearing out a camp with a pistol shot to each head like a trained assassin. If you do need to get away, turn off the road and navigate between bushes. No wonder you're found so easily, the roads are few and if you just put a good tree between you and them, the AI will be stuck long enough for you to be out of there.

I know most of the weapons in the game are automatic, but Far Cry 2 isn't a standard shoot-em-up FPS. You're not an action hero. You're not a movie star with a stunt double. This is where Far Cry 2 excels in realism; in the idea.

One of the best things about Far Cry 2 is that it is a FPS that stands against everything a FPS is. There are shallow things; aiming is laborous and weapons degrade, you need syrettes to heal as you can't just "recover health." Then there are the deep themes. The game starts, and it looks like a standard game of its genre. You're a mercenary, you're in hell, and your sole mission is to kill the Jackal, a standard hollywood black and white bad guy. However, literally before you get to take a step as your character, you get malaria. You pass out and reawaken in a bed. There, across the room, is the Jackal. He's there. The end of the game is in your sights. He walks over to you, machete in hand. He knows who you are. Pulls back his arm, and slams the machete into the wall behind you. He doesn't kill you. You're a mercenary, he says, and you failed. You kill for money, but you failed to kill, and you'll never get your paycheck because of it. Now that you don't have that incentive you're no threat. (the actual dialogue is much better, I'm summarizing.) So he leaves. An explosion goes off, and you look around. He left you his machete, and a pistol. The man you're trying to kill. And he spared you. Why? You assume you're being mocked, and I think you decide to go after him and kill him anyway, out of hurt pride more than anything else. That's not typical. All the while, you're plagued by this disease. You take drugs to heal, and when things get rough you have to hide behind trees and use your teeth to pull a bullet out of your arm, or a foot long iron bar out of your stomach. You aren't an action hero, and this isn't a game. Those are your first hints this is something special. Action heros don't get diseased like that. No one in call of duty had to take actual painkillers to heal in battle. This was the first sign that this was more than a standard FPS game. You get mixed up with the local factions. You want to kill the Jackal, because he is making money by making war, and most of all because he humiliated you. So you do jobs for both sides of the factions. Take out an important leader in one, to get diamonds from the other, which you use to buy guns to kill your former employers, for diamonds from the other side. You don't discriminate. You kill, to get paid, so you can find the man who is killing to get paid, and kill him. Because he is evil. Starting to see a problem? Throughout the game, numerous times, you're approached by the Jackal. He comes to you and belittles you, taunting, and worst of all, reasoning with you. He points out, you came after him, because he makes money from perpetuating war, but to get there, you're perpetuating war yourself. You're no better than him. You ARE him. You are exactly what he is. Killing for money. And you start to believe him. There's a buddy system in-game, where you have a number of other mercenaries who help you out. They offer missions, help with missions, and even revive you and fight with you when you're wounded. At one point, you have to make a decision. You can head to the town and rescue all the refugees being slaughtered by the factions, or head to the hangout place and rescue your buddies, also under attack. I chose to help my buddies. I was knocked unconscious, and fell off a truck later. I nearly died to save these people, as they've nearly died to save me in the past. It felt so genuine. Near the end of the game, you confront your best buddy. They and all the others have turned against you. After they had been offered a few diamonds, they all jump you, and you're trapped in a ring with all of them gunning for you at once. You either die, or you put down one by one the only people you ever trusted in the game. It's horrible. It's stupid. And that's why it works. When it comes down to it, you were all mercenaries. It was just another job for them. No matter how many times you save their lives, people who kill for money are always going to consider killing for money. You leave with all your friends dead, and no one left to trust.

And now, for the magnificent ending.

you wander to a little hut. You have no allies. You have no one to help you. Upon entering the hut, you're confronted by the Jackal. Usually you'd expect, in a game like this, an awesome shootout, or a final scene like in Goldeneye where you fire a bullet and win the game. But he treats you like a friend. He talks to you. He's the only thing you have left, so you stand across from your oldest enemy, and listen. He talks of the war. Of how evil it is, how men are damned to partake. He talks of bad things he's committed, and how you've done the same. And he's right. You realize this fully. This wasn't a game full of good guys who help you, and bad guys who deserve to die. This was a game of people, people who turn on you for money, who give you money to turn on others, and people who make money off of killing. That's what you both are. He's a weapons dealer, you're a merc turned vigilante, but when it comes down to it, you're both a guy stuck in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who decided to find a goal and were willing to kill to complete it. It felt so right until now. You think back on how many people you killed, and it applies to all games. Yeah, you shot up the enemy in Call of Duty to save some lives, but do you deserve to live, killing people on such a subjective matter? I think one of the most iconic lines of this scene is when The Jackal says that neither of you deserve to survive this. You're on equal planes, and neither of you have any right to walk out of there and live for it. This is what I love about Far Cry 2. The Jackal tells you, there is only one good thing left you two can do, and that's to save the refugees. He gives you a choice. You can take a bomb, or a briefcase full of diamonds and a gun. You choose which you want. You can take the bomb, climb a mountain, and blow yourself up, collapsing rubble and blocking off the factions from the innocent refugees, or take the diamonds, bribe the border guards into saving the refugees, and then go home and shoot yourself in the head with the pistol. You confront the only real objective in the game, the only assured bad guy, and you make a death pact. You're no hero. You got a disease. You had to kill your only friends. You never even complete the one objective of the whole game.

You're just an average person in an above average game, not a story about a hero, a story about a man in a hero's situation, who ends up paying for trying to be a hero. It's an anti-FPS. You're not running around with a gun shooting people. You're making choices the player even rationalized, and paying for it in such a realistic and harsh way, it becomes more of a lesson than a game. You pick one option, and he picks the other. You don't "win" the game. You chose to "chase after the bad guy," but when you realize you're not the good guy, it hits you like nothing you've ever seen. You deserve to die, and you do. It's a shooter about how shooting is bad, a game about morality and life, and definitely the most thought-out and moving game I have ever played.

And that's why I think Far Cry 2 is one of the most original, genre-defying First Person Shooters in existence. I just don't think many other people saw that through the 2008 graphics and repetitive missions.

That really saddens me.

[mike.gp]

Nice one Akoomsh, it's a great thread thanks for starting it.

I couldn't call Far cry2 my favourite game, but it is definately right up there as a one of a kind gaming experience. I bought the retail copy in 2008 when it came out played through it 2 or 3 times at least. My steam version only has a few hours on it. I would play it again but too many other games to play only so much time....

[Akoomsh]

Publicado originalmente por skyhigh:

I would play it again but too many other games to play only so much time....

Sometimes I'll buy several games on sale and not even start them for months, so I understand this really well. Haha.

[Varg]

First off; Let me add my voice in congratulating you on this text. Really, really well-written. And great use of those spoiler-sections. More people should learn how to use them properly.

This is actually the one game that repeatedly gives me the biggest feeling of "damn, I really miss that game".

I love it how you're left to take on the story your own way. But the thing that really sticks to my memory is all the guerilla tactics. I don't know how many times I would go to a safe house, enjoy the sweet scene when seeing the time lapse and from there plan a nice little ambush on a guard post.

One of my fondest gaming memories ever is from such a moment. I had planted some explosives on the road right next to the guardpost, and waited for a patrol to drive by. So I was lying in the grass, spying with my sniper scope. Then the patrol arrived. I clicked the remote, and it was a beautiful hit. The car flew forward while doing a somersault. From where it landed a fire spread out that crawled toward the guard post. It went up in flames and hit an ammo deposit that started popping. People were running around like crazy and still didn't know where I was.
From my little hideout in the bushes I watched the chaos, and then I found a nice target for my sniper. Boom. Headshot. 2 enemies to go. Shot one of them in the leg. The last man took cover... then he went to help his friend. I waited 'til he got over to him. Boom. Headshot.
One man left, and he's lying on the ground with a busted leg. Executed him.
The fire was still going on when it was all over. It all felt so incredibly vivid.

1 bomb. 5 people killed. 4 were sitting in the jeep. 1 from the ammo box that detonated.
3 shots. 3 kills.
8 people down in sweet carnage, and no one ever saw it coming. No enemy had the time to fire a shot.

Planning and executing your attacks has never been so satisfying as in Far Cry 2.

Not to mention the other details. Driving around from place to place. Getting malaria. Getting betrayed by the people you saved.
And the story! Oh man.

Sure it can be repetitive. Sure it has it's issues. It's not a perfect game.
But, it's one of the special few games that left one hell of an impression and a feeling of wanting more. I'd love a follow up since Far Cry 3 did not match Far Cry 2 by a long shot.
Don't take me wrong. FC3 is a great game. But FC2 has a very unique feel to it that I long to see in more games.

...I need to reinstall it.

[skydancer]

I'm near the end of this game and after the initial good feeling, the further i go on the game become more and more boring. Always the same mission, a very bad story and generally a repetitive game play.

this game is a good game but it's something i would never play again in my life.

[Malak]

It's an open world, play it as you like. Why are people always so hung-up on the main missions and story? Who cares. Kill everyone! Muahaha.

[Plaid]

Publicado originalmente por Malak:

Why are people always so hung-up on the main missions and story? Who cares.

I know! The missions are a kick in the pants but completing them just makes the game end quicker! :(

No modding and no big expansions for this game makes me sad.

[Malak]

Publicado originalmente por Plaid:

Publicado originalmente por Malak:

Why are people always so hung-up on the main missions and story? Who cares.

I know! The missions are a kick in the pants but completing them just makes the game end quicker! :(

No modding and no big expansions for this game makes me sad.

All you have to do is to never go thru the prison exit and play forever. I do!

[Ozric]

Publicado originalmente por Akoomsh:

Publicado originalmente por skyhigh:

I would play it again but too many other games to play only so much time....

Sometimes I'll buy several games on sale and not even start them for months, so I understand this really well. Haha.

Same here. I've got 19 games waiting in my library, all bought during un-missable sales. I'm about to hit level 100 on Skyrim, and coming to the end of every story I can get involved in. I may just re-install FC2 though. All this sword and sorcery (as wonderful as it is), has me missing the addictive gameplay of FC2 : )

[mike.gp]

Publicado originalmente por skydancer:

I'm near the end of this game and after the initial good feeling, the further i go on the game become more and more boring. Always the same mission, a very bad story and generally a repetitive game play.
this game is a good game but it's something i would never play again in my life.

Really? take a look at this for some inspiration, download the Permadeath Pdf , have a look and read. Try it yourself. http://drgamelove.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/Far%20Cry%202

[The Coal Man]

Publicado originalmente por Karma:

if i could give out reputation points....i would give you a bazillion. Thank you very much for writing this, as i read every word....and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ loved it. I completely agree with you on this notion, and have fought hard to get people to see THIS side of the game. I just believe the majority of the people who played this game were tooo narrow minded, and didnt realize that this situation that you're put into is actually a pretty realistic situation to what goes on in some countries around the world.

What i personally loved about the ending was how, even though you deserved to die, you fought all this way to save 2 million people. While the story may not be very heroic, you still die feeling like your sins were washed away by sacrificing yourself to save 2 million people.

On the old steam forums, we actually had a discussion about the possibility of you BEING the jackal. As if to say that "the jackal" was just a character created sub-consciously to show you who you've become, because in the end, you're basically on equally ground with the jackal anyway.

Jesus H Christ, i'm really motivated by this, and i just may have to play thru again. Amazing writing dude...very inspiring.

great, a thread recommending this game starts with a spoiler. Back to farcry 3 it is, where I dont have 3 gamebreaking bugs in 5 minutes

[mike.gp]

The how it happened is more important than the what happened anyway isn't it? The thread is great with a lot of interesting discussion.

I recall Farcry 2 being pretty much bug free to.

[B✪✪tsy]

Well it not has really bugs, but it does misses some little tweaks (like poor jumping) and some suitcases that were idiotic placed and are unreachable. But thats just minor stuff of course.

[Ozric]

Publicado originalmente por B00tsy:

Well it not has really bugs, but it does misses some little tweaks (like poor jumping) and some suitcases that were idiotic placed and are unreachable. But thats just minor stuff of course.

Some of the suitcases are a real challenge, yes. Some I thought were unreachable, but there's often a hanglider nearby ;-)

[Malak]

Publicado originalmente por B00tsy:

Well it not has really bugs, but it does misses some little tweaks (like poor jumping) and some suitcases that were idiotic placed and are unreachable. But thats just minor stuff of course.

You have to use a hanglider for some.

[SilverWolf]

Akoomsh you are to be congratulated for you elocution. You are obviously a person of depth and intelligence. Unfortunately though what you say is a very well expounded look at the game from one direction, I found that along wtih Far Cry 3, there is nothing worse then having people stop midaction to find diamonds or sew skins together.

Remember why we loved the first FAR CRY. Your enemies were pretty crafty, The gave no quarter and you didnt have to stop on the Island ot find objects. If you needed to raid a camp, thats what you did. Sneaking thru the brush, taking ou thte sentries and creating mayhem before departing posthaste in a armed Jeep. The thing is, that you could go back and along the way patrols would try to ambush you, and when you returned to the camp survivors came at you with a vengeance.
You are given a mission and you were left to your own devices to figure it out. Run and Gun or sneak past the mercenaries. This scavenger hunts in later games are ridiculous. Why must yoiu keep traveling long distances and then going back just to report to someone? Its a game stopper. Basically filler. Laziness.

If the next Far Cry is to get my business then it will have to return to its roots, dispense with all the baggage of helpers and safehoiuses and just go back to being what you may call a Seal team member gone solo.