The original Far Cry premise was flogged across several years, consoles and forms, so Far Cry 2 looks to make a fresh start. You begin by picking one of nine characters, all of which have the one endearing purpose. That is, to get into the heart of Africa and take out an arms dealer known as “The Jackal”, who has been fuelling a civil war between two mercenary factions, the UFLL and APR. You’ll actually encounter all of the other eight characters within the game, and picking each one will provide a slightly different story.
Far Cry 2 promises a 50 square kilometre seamlessly streamed open world in a unique African setting. Players will be able to explore dense jungles, open savannahs and barren deserts, as well as other related environments. Animals will be freely roaming around as well. The environments were highly dynamic and very impressive. The trees and grass aren’t simple animations, they’re complex objects that move in the ever changing wind and can be used to your advantage. Furthermore, there will be an in-game 24 hour cycle, re: night and day.
I demand you stop!
As mentioned, your endearing objective is to hunt down the Jackal. While the game will often point in particular directions, often you’ve got a lot of freedom over how you find information on The Jackal’s location and just how you go after him. However, there are several opportunities to interact with civilians and other ‘allies’. Making friends with the right people can work in your favour. Given the size of the game, vehicles make a welcome return. We saw the hang glider, jeeps, buggies and boats. Travelling across rivers or through the air is faster, but it also leaves you exposed.
You have a dynamic map, which comes in three sizes: 1sq.km, 24sq.km and a tactical map. Each will be useful in different situations. For example, the tactical map focuses on the village/encampment/outpost closest to you. Handily, any time you spot something, either on your own or through your binocular (which also tells you the wind direction) it will appear on the map. This makes for some great tactical opportunities. Other points of interest on the map include buses for quick travel between points, safehouses for healing and sleeping and gunshops.
One situation summed up the game’s openness. During a demonstration, we happened to get a favourably strong wind. A Molotov was thrown into the near by grass, where it was fanned by the wind and engulfed an enemy outpost. Among the destruction and confusion, we commandeered an enemy vehicle as quietly as you like. If Far Cry 2 is able to consistently recreate such moments, we’re in for quite an experience.
Compensating much?
Far Cry 2 goes back to using a conventional health bar that is refilled with pain-killing injections. It’s an interesting design choice but a safe one. The weapons are fairly standard fare, but you’ve got some sweet inclusions, such as guided rockets and a machete. As mentioned earlier, you’ll be able to gather a number of allies who can become invaluable at times. For example, we asked a mercenary to back us up and he came to revive us when we died at a particular point. He was handy to have, but if he died, he would be gone from the game for good.
The portion of that game that we got to play through had us creating a distraction by destroying a water transporting pipe. From there, an encampment protecting a radio tower would be much easier to attack. Of course, the radio tower was your primary objective. As we watched people play through this sequence, we could see how the one situation could be dynamically approached from many angles and how the enemies reacted differently. We can’t wait see how the game plays at night, where the enemies are apparently in greater force but can’t you us too well. It’s a good sign for the game’s promised openness.
Even with the impressive openness, use of technology and attention to detail (e.g. an ammo box going off like Chinese fireworks after being shot), there are a couple of issues that we hope will be addressed before the final game. The enemy AI was aggressive and dynamic, but sometimes blind and open for rather obvious attacks. And while you can shoot through walls, wooden houses and huts aren’t as destructible as you would have expected. There are other minor gripes overall but these are ones that could be fixed before the final game.
Prepare to see a lot of this.
The console versions were a little worrying as well. The PC version was running and playing phenomenally, while the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions were somewhat behind in terms of visuals, as they seemed unoptimised and the PS3 version was dull. Furthermore, the controls were rather sluggish from what we played. On another note, the game played somewhat similarly to a Call of Duty game.
Visually, the game has an excellent scope to it, as well as some technically and artistically impressive sights. The unique setting certainly helps, and we’re not sure why it has taken game developers so long to use Africa as a setting. There seems like there are a few optimisation issues that need ironing out before the final product, but these could very well be fixed before the final game.
Far Cry 2 left us with a very positive impression. Despite some minor disappointing detractions, we’re confident that most will be resolved upon final release. Hopefully the console versions will be up to scratch as well, particularly for those that don’t have a gaming PC. The game looks like it could live up to the promise of true open-ended gameplay, but in the least, we know that it will provide a unique setting. Definitely a shooter in the crowd worth looking out for.
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