Far Cry 2

aka: FC2
Moby ID: 37038
Xbox 360 Specs
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Description official descriptions

The government in an unnamed African country has collapsed and the whole land has plummeted into a civil war with the two central factions UFLL (United Front for Liberation and Labour) and the APR (Alliance for Popular Resistance) at the front. Those who were not able to leave the land now hide in their homes while in the streets death reigns the day. But as bad as it has been, now it is even worse with shipments of modern weapons entering the land despite a weapons embargo. The player is sent into the country to find and eliminate the person responsible for it. Known only as "The Jackal", he has been successfully hiding from the federal agencies for years. Sadly, after the player enters the country he immediately infects himself with malaria. Now he has to fight two enemies at the same time.

The game puts the player in a 50 square kilometers big area in which he can do what he wants with only the goal to find and kill "The Jackal" and survive the disease. But to do so he needs weapons, vehicles and, most importantly, pills to hold the malaria in check. To get all that he gets missions like escort a weapons shipment or kill the head of police from the various factions and NPCs in the world which increase his reputation (access to better gear and missions) and gain the only currency in the game: diamonds. The world can be freely explored, but taking out certain enemies or visiting specific locations often only becomes relevant when the right quest has been triggered.

Weapons can be picked up from dead enemies but those are not in the best condition and may jam when the player least suspects it. If the weapon is too badly damaged, it will be destroyed. The player can only carry one of each of the four weapons categories. Vehicles take damage and stop working after a while but can be repaired anytime by the player. If there is no vehicle available to get across the land, the player can also just go to one of the many bus stops in the world to get through the country without being attacked.

The player is not alone on his shooting spree through the country. Other mercenaries roam the bars and lands and if the player does something for them, they will help him in his missions. Either by giving him tips for the current mission, coming with him and fight side-by-side or by expanding the scope of the current mission to increase the award at the end. These buddies always wait in one of the many safe-houses which can be unlocked by clearing them from enemies. They are also used for ammo storage, saving the game and to fast-forward time to a certain time of day.

Besides the single player campaign, the game also features a multiplayer-mode for up to 16 players in Deathmatch, Team-Deathmatch, Capture the Diamond (a Capture the Flag-variant) and Insurgence. In Insurgence two teams fight over capture points on the map. Once a team has control over all points, the enemy captain can be killed in order to win the round. Each of the game modes also uses a class-based system with six classes like sharp-shooter or rebel (uses weapons like the flamethrower) and different weapon load-outs for each class.

The different versions are identical, including the editor, except for the save system. In the Windows version the game can be saved at any point, while the console versions prompt to save at checkpoints.

Spellings

  • 孤岛惊魂2 - Chinese (simplified) spelling
  • 極地戰嚎 2 - Chinese (traditional) spelling

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Credits (Xbox 360 version)

750 People (734 developers, 16 thanks) · View all

Senior Producer
Producer
Multiplayer Producer
Creative Director
Story Designer
Associate Producers
Production Coordinator
Production Manager
Lead Game Designer
Multiplayer Game Design
Multiplayer Creative Consultant
Script Writers
Multiplayer Dialogues
Technical Director
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Other Platform Lead Programmers
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 100 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 110 ratings with 9 reviews)

Smile, show my your teeth, then I'll shoot em into splinters!

The Good
I loved the fact that it was set in Africa, and had a real African flavour. Thanks to the makers for consulting with Afrikaners and Zulus and using authentic voice overs.

Understanding the languages makes the speech so much more funny and interesting, and often I'd get shot up cos I couldn't stop laughing at the comments coming from the mercs!!

The sniper rifles were awesome and the being able to burn veld fires to chase and burn the peasants at road blocks was cool...

Graphics are beautiful and cover different ecosystems, that is forest, desert, lakes, Savannah.

Weapons are authentic (The AK47's shouldn't jam though) I enjoyed the fact that there was FAL Paratroop rifle (South African touch there) although a Paratroop rifle should have a shortened barrel and folding stock.

The Bad
The game gets a bit much having to drive endless km's shooting re spawning mercs at road blocks and often having to runaway by foot after your vehicle is destroyed!.

Missions that are kilometers away from the starting point are irritating, especially if it takes a few seconds to complete them and then in some cases having to return to the starting point, dodging shooting and driving over mercs in the process. Its get a bit much after a few missions.

The treasure hunt for cases is stupid and pointless, you climb mountains swim lakes etc.. to get a suitcase with just 1 diamond in it! you can't even buy a 9mm with that.

Came across some African Buffalo in the game, pity they didn't attack, you can walk up to them and literally pet them, i challenge anyone to do that in real life. Should have been able to exploit the wild game in the game, that is shoot Zebra, Wildebeest and Springbok for skins, for diamonds.. Earn diamonds from this. Why not! in war in Africa everything gets exploited especially the wildlife!, No elephants though, probably already been shot out by the waring clans.

The Bottom Line
Very original, fun to play, although it can become monotonous and boring at some stages with all the driving, running and swimming, it's simple, save the game and do something else and within a few hours you will be itching to put your hands on the Machine gun mounted on the jeep and shooting the #%#$^ out of another check point.

Windows · by Thekwane Black (30) · 2009

Great idea. Not so well used.

The Good
The graphics are very good and quite extensive and the maps are realistic. The spread of fire and explosions are among the best seen. We have total freedom of movement and exploration. The system of healing is new and very creative. In addition to highly diverse.

The Bad
Problems. Being in Africa, where are the animals? Why not have the same system as Oblivion, where they were attacked by animals when they were in the middle of the woods? The missions are quite diverse, but very repetitive. It is almost always the same thing. These factors fatigue and quickly bore you.

The enemies are very weak and stupid. But it has excellent sight, as you hit over long distances, even with short arms.

The Bottom Line
Despite all the innovations and themes, I consider the game as disappointing. The absence of animals is very frustrating. And it's the first thing I remember, when thinking about the Africa region.

But I believe the most frustrating thing is that the missions are repetitive. There is no variety. They are basically the same thing, only varying the region.

Finally, after much expectation, I am saying that Far Cry 2 is one of the great disappointments of the year. Unless you are impressed only by graphics.

Windows · by J.Augusto F (1) · 2008

Game that makes you Far Cry

The Good
This open world game really has a believable environment with its enriched graphic detail, be it jungle, savannah or dessert. Interesting details like roaming wild animals make the locations you're in very lively. Efforts were also made to make the buildings you enter look like habitable or serviceable places. Music and realistic sound effects add to the atmosphere. If VR could be implemented, this game would go to the next level.

The plot in this game is very elaborate. Even for a villain, the Jackal is a very likable character for his experience, his wisdom, his resourcefulness and the choices he makes. The more you listen to the tapes, the more you want to meet him. Even the buddies' missions have interesting motives for carrying them out.

Weapons in the game are well-balanced. The machete works properly and deals effectively killing blows, something it didn't do in the game before. It's fun to earn better weapons and upgrades, giving the game a sort of pseudo-RPG mechanic. The jamming mechanic is an interesting, but sometimes inconvenient way to add a survival element to the game.

The Bad
The game breaks away many of the most important elements from the first game. There's no radar to indicate where enemies are currently positioned, so expect to be ambushed all the time. Your buddies are one time savers, but they don't really do anything to help you like Valerie Constantine did in the prequel. You can no longer push vehicles effectively and certainly not push boats, forcing you to get a new one every moment or so with a lot of walking, running and catching your breath all the while. Also there's no body armour to protect you, just your own body as a meat shield. And don't even think about hiding underwater, because the system eats your health bars very quickly.

Stealth is rare in this game and not easy to utilise. You'll need the camo suit and all the silent weapons you can stock up as soon as possible. You cannot throw stones to distract your enemy, forcing you to improvise. The game really could have done with gas grenades to stealthily take out a group of enemies. The monocular is useless, only good for tagging guard posts, but it obscures your vision so you can hardly spot enemies. Far Cry 1's binoculars was so much better. It can also be difficult to traverse with scree and trees almost everywhere. Sometimes there are cliffs and mountains that have invisible barriers that stop you. Why make it look like you can ascend when you can't? And there's also trees that have thicker boundaries than shown so you end up messing up a sniper shootout before you know it.

The enemy AI completely breaks the scale, you'll have a hard time trying to match it. Perfect marksmanship for headshots is a must, otherwise enemies are going to take entire clips to kill. Even when you're careful, enemies seem to know where you are and nail you down in your hiding place. And switching a weapon is sluggish, even more so when reloading or cocking the current one, it's like an unfair rail shooter. Half the time you'll get killed before you can press the heal button, you'll be wishing you could auto-heal. One of your greatest enemies will be falling damage, especially from falling off edges that don't let you jump on walkable terrain. And there's the malaria, which requires the tedious process of taking pills.

The Bottom Line
Everything will punish and frustrate you, even if you're a brilliant FPS player. This is not a game you can go full rampage without dying repeatedly. Avoid playing the highest difficulty, this is for masochists. It's a great shame that the player character does not do sensible things like don a disguise or turn vehicles into VBIEDs, but instead choose to take the full plunge in the face of danger. There's so much missing from what you expect from any good fashioned FPS from a radar indicator to auto-saving.

I really wanted to give this game a merit, even a distinction, but its sadistic difficulty level and,abundance of flaws drive it away from being the perfect time spender. This title is in dire need of remaking and improvement and nice array of achievements to give the feel of accomplishment. If you decide to play this, take it easy and do your best to master its mechanics if you want to get far, otherwise just cry.

Windows · by Kayburt (30392) · 2021

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Who are you? xroox (3895) Jan 8, 2009
Is Really a Sequel? retinadesgastada (304) Nov 4, 2008

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Far Cry 2 appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Marketing

As part of the marketing for this game, the blog "War Unlimited: My journey through a warzone" was created at http://reubenblog.typepad.com/ . It was ostensibly created by a journalist called Reuben Oluwagembi, a fictional character you meet in the game. It contains a lot of background information for the game and some photos edited to look like they were taken of APR and UFLL militia. The 'Jackal Tapes' - a collectible item in Far Cry 2 enhancing the story by detailing the Jackal's history and motivation - are available on the site, all seventeen of them.

References

  • In the second part of the game you will find a small region named "Heart Of Darkness". This is a clear reference to the homonym short novel by Joseph Conrad, published in 1899 and set in Africa.
  • When you meet Frank Bilders, one of the NPCs helping you when you're in serious health troubles, at the end of the first conversation he will say: "A bit of ultra-violence!". This is a reference to the movie A Clockwork Orange and the novel it was based on.

References to the game

Far Cry 2 was parodied in an episode of "Die Redaktion" (The Editorial Team), a monthly comedy video produced by the German gaming magazine GameStar. It was published on the DVD of issue 01/2009.

Awards

  • GamePro (Germany)
    • February 26, 2009 - Best Console First Person Shooter in 2008 (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by re fold

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Sicarius.

Additional contributors: Sciere, Niccolò Mineo, Patrick Bregger, sgtcook, Starbuck the Third, Lain Crowley, Victor Vance, FatherJack, 一旁冷笑.

Game added October 26, 2008. Last modified March 7, 2024.