Far Cry 2 – Too Far?

This is why Gamefly rules. See, after the first Far Cry game was simply so… awesome, I’d expect them to get at least one of the subsequent sequels right. Whoops. Far Cry 2 looked cool enough. The graphics are outstanding. Considering you start the game with a 10 minute cinematic that involves driving your character into town, where you succumb to malaria, run into the guy you’re supposed to kill, and then get gunned down as you try to escape the hotel you’ve collapsed at…

What the hell were they thinking? I’m sitting there on my couch, trying in vain to skip this calamity, but I can’t. A couple of neat features? The ability to sleep through time (you get plenty of experience with this in the intro), repair your vehicles, and also perform some minor healing on yourself. Essentially what we’ve got here is a massive open sandbox style map, the absolute necessity to drive vehicles that can’t survive a single gunshot without breaking down, and an AI that plays peekaboo.

I cannot tell you how frustrating this game is without cursing, so I’ll cut this review short. There is no targeting system, and everything blends together. Many MANY times I found myself being shot at, and all I could do was blind fire until I was dead or they ran out into the open. Many MANY times I was being shot at while driving my machine gun mounted jeep, only to have my pursuers VANISH every time I stopped to shoot back. I ended up having to restart the game after landing myself far north of where I needed to be, out of health needles, and unable to get more than 40 feet without being attacked by numerous bad guys.

I get what they were trying to do, a FPS Sandbox in a world of TPS Sandboxes. They failed. Horrible implementation, annoying features, this game is great if you want to take a nap or toss your controller through the television. Other than that, I’m glad it was only a RENTAL.

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