The guards at the guardpost are happy .There’s not much traffic today and so they are joking and drinking hard liquor .Its a happy scene until the camera changes to the tall grass on the mountain opposite them .Concealed in the grass is a sniper rifle .Then a hand is seen and it loads up the sniper .Then we see a scope .Taking a deep breathe the sniper fires .The happy scene vanishes as the first guard explodes in an orgy of blood .But then the second guard receives the same fate ,and the third and the fourth until all that’s left are the vultures .
If you have seen the movie ‘Predator’ and want to feel what it feels like to be a predator then you must play Far cry 2 ,an open world first person shooter released by Ubisoft .
In Far cry 2 you play the role of a random mercenary sent to an unknown land in the middle of Africa ,war torn and dirty this nation is on the brink of civil war between two factions ,the APR headed by an ex military commander Oliver Tambossa and the UFLL headed by Eddie Mbatumbe .You have been sent to kill a mysterious arms dealer called the Jackal who is arming both sides with deadly modern weapons to keep the conflict alive .
The presentation of this game is brilliant .The game goes a long way to make the player feel they are in an unknown and hostile foreign land .The grungy shacks,the tigerskins,the smoke,shanty towns and armed youngsters all contribute to give an absolute brilliant OUT THERE feeling .But then there’s the nature. There are trees and zebras and the sand flying in your face and also fire .Fire is a big thing in this game .The game designers have achieved the most realistic simulation of fire .So everytime you throw that moltov cocktail watch out for the winds .The fire may fly in your face!
The AI is also absolutely good .They react in unique and un preplanned ways .If you attack them with a sniper on a dark night and they cant tell where the shots are coming from then they start to panic and take up positions .They don’t behave like killbots designed solely for the purpose of killing you .They give off a feeling that they too want to live .Even better if you had that silencer on your sniper rifle!Stealth is also realistic in this game .Like its sequels Far cry 2 doesn’t have blind enemies who cant see or feel your presence nearby .And if they know where you are hiding at ,then they will behave like a group and hunt you down .
Gameplay is good overall with some drawbacks .Far cry 2 has a breakdown machine or whatever you call it .The guns,cars and even your own body is vulnerable .Used guns start to wither out and eventually break or blast right in your hands .Similarily if driven for too long in a bad manner then cars will start smoking and you will have to repair them .Lets hope all this doesn’t happen in a gunbattle .Imagine you are in an intense gunfight and your gun jams!GAME OVER .Your character gets malaria right at the start of the game .Malaria attacks can happen anytime,even in the middle of a battle so the game can lead you to some pretty desperate moments .If you are injured then you will see these great animations of you removing the bullet from your hand and the blood spilling out .GORE .
The graphics as I said above are absolutely beautiful with the jungles and deserts and shanty towns of Africa .The music is cool too smelling of Africa and giving you that out there feel as I mentioned earlier .
This game does have some major drawbacks .To give you a feeling of desperation the game makers decided to make all enemies respawn after a couple of minutes of killing them .So after some time you feel like all you are doing is clearing one guard post after other and again the same on your way back .This makes the game repetitive and boring .Personally I also find the constant patrol cars finding and hunting you down to be tedious .They come right at you while you are fighting with a different set of enemies and try to mow you down .
All in all despite its drawbacks ,Far cry 2 is a brilliant old game that I definitely think you should try out for its uniqueness ,boldness,originality and sheer style.
I cant give any verdict points to this great game because those are a matter of taste .