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

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 100 ratings)

Players

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

Mediocre shooter, set apart by its exotic locale

The Good
I’ll disclose this up front - I’m a bit biased. I married into an East African family, so there’s a special place in my heart for a game set in Africa. Although the story is set in a fictional central African nation, the scenery looks very East African (and the development team went to Kenya for research).

And when I say “looks”, I mean it “looks fantastic”. The graphics are just gorgeous. Big, open plains. Exotic vegetation. Grass slowly moving in the wind. Zebras and other animals roaming freely. And a dynamic time-of-day and weather system. You’ll find yourself on a river, gazing at the early morning fog tinting everything in yellow.

So let’s get into the story - you’re a mercenary, sent to said country to assassinate an infamous arms dealer, the Jackal, who is selling weapons to two big warring factions. However, you've barely even landed and immediately contract Malaria (wow, that was quick?!) and pass out, waking up to see the Jackal mock you. With your mission now basically failed, you spend your time doing random jobs for the two major warring factions.

Those jobs are pretty similar - go somewhere, kill someone or destroy something. As you play, you’ll meet random NPCs who can become your buddies. Those serve several purposes: For one, they serve as a “get out of jail free” card - if you’re about to die in a firefight, a buddy will appear and save you. That works once every day or so. (The silly part is that a buddy will save you whenever you would have normally died, even if that was because you fell hundreds of feet. How does the buddy save you? Scrape you up off the ground and put you back together?!)

The other purpose of a buddy is to provide an alternate solution to a mission. Once you receive your assignment, your buddy will call you and offer you a different way, which usually includes additional waypoints, but results in an overall easier job.

I have to say that the buddy system actually works quite well. You always have one primary buddy, and you almost feel something like an emotional bond to them. They can actually die - you can save their lives, but only so many times. At some point, they’re mortally wounded on the ground, and the medication that used to immediately heal them stops working. That leaves you with the option to put them to rest by over-medicating them, abandoning them, or shooting them in the head, which allows them a final line like “I’m sorry, mama”. I was impressed how effective this is when you experience this scene for the first time.

There are side-missions as well, but there’s not much to them. You can receive assassination missions (go to position X, kill person), or jobs to destroy convoys (which conveniently drive in a circle, waiting for you to ambush them).

How you go about a mission is up to you. The map is open, so you can approach from different directions. You can be stealthy. Or just blow everything up. Engage in lengthy firefights or try to rush through the opposition.

The Bad
This game is repetitive! There are so many missions that feel identical: Go to contact person. Receive mission. Get call from buddy about alternate route. Go to waypoint A. Firefight. Go to waypoint B. Firefight. Rinse. Repeat.

What’s really annoying is that enemies always appear at the same location, even outside missions. Every major intersection and every checkpoint has a bunch of people out to get you. You can kill them all, but drive for a while and come back, and there’ll be another set of people waiting for you just where you killed (or ignored) the last bunch.

Really, it seems like you’re the most hated person in this country. Everybody is out to get you! Whenever you see someone, you can be sure that they’re about to take shots at you. There are no civilians in the game. Sure, it makes it easier to identify friends and foes, but it feels a bit weird.

The only mission that really stands out is the last one. It seems like all of a sudden, the level designers woke up. Why couldn't more missions be like that? Really, so many great things happen during the final 30 minutes of the game.

The enemy AI is a mixed bag. It’s touted as being super smart, and they sometimes appear to be tactical - they flank you, hide behind obstacles, etc. At the same time, they just look completely lost sometimes. There've been many occasions where I saw somebody in plain view, looking roughly in my general direction but not doing anything in particular. After staring that person in the eye for a few seconds, I wondered - was that an NPC? A civilian? Do those exist after all? So I walk a bit closer, almost touch him when he finally springs to life and shoots at me. So it was an enemy after all, just a stupid one.

As for the story, there are several problems: First of all, there’s the old problem of the silent protagonist. The entire game is played in first-person perspective. Even during “cutscenes” (i.e. people talking you, the camera never ever leaves the first person perspective), you’re fully in control of the player. You never say a word. It just feels weird.

Next, all the characters are completely and entirely interchangeable. I completely lost track of who is who. None of the characters have any distinguishing features or characteristics. Later on, you can somewhat side with one faction or another. But which one do you pick? I don’t know! They’re all the same!

Same with the buddies - they look different, but that’s the extent of it. If one dies, another one takes their place, but it doesn't seem to make a shred of a difference to the actual gameplay. You also have this reputation system, but it doesn't seem to serve a purpose. It seems like the developers initially planned a lot more depth but ended up cutting a lot.

At the same time, parts of the writing is actually nice - and the best parts are even kind of hidden. A little side quest is to find audio tapes of an interview with the Jackal, and those are great! But those tapes have no bearing on the rest of the game, so players are unlikely to find many of them. And it’s a shame, that’s where the writing really shines. It often feels like Far Cry 2 paired a great writer and a bunch of not so great level designers.

The map is big, which is nice. You can travel using jeeps or boats. The problem is that both are destructible, and there’ll often be random patrols on vehicles just chasing you and trying to take you down. It’s a matter of time until your car breaks down. You can either fix it if it’s not beyond repair, or you commandeer the vehicle of said patrol after you eliminate the owners, but sooner or later, you’ll be stranded without a car, forcing you to walk, run (which makes you dizzy after a few seconds due to Malaria), and eventually find a car. This can take a while.

This problem was solved in Red Dead Redemption with the ability to whistle, where a horse would appear within seconds. Grand Theft Auto avoided the issue by being set in a city where you are surrounded by cars (and starting in GTA IV, you could call for a cab on your cell phone). But here, in the big open plains, you’re forced to just walk for ages, in a huge open area with nothing but plants and a few animals for miles.

And for all the boasting about the game being so open and free, it usually ends up being pretty linear in the end. You go through the main missions one by one. In the end, there aren't that many different solutions to the core parts of a mission, and the game doesn't really handle you trying to outsmart it very well. In one mission, I was supposed to assassinate somebody with a sniper rifle from the building across. Instead, I managed to make my way into the building of the target itself... who simply stared at me, not saying anything, even after I started hurting him.

The Bottom Line
Again, I must remind you of my bias - I couldn't dislike this game. It does such a great job conveying the flora and fauna of sub-saharan Africa that I enjoyed just walking around and taking the scenery in. And the graphics are great.

The game itself isn't bad - lots of interesting guns, reasonable shooting mechanics, lots of driving and firefights. It just feels repetitive and unspectacular sometimes. The story barely moves at all (and the lack of cutscenes and the completely silent protagonist really don’t help here), and the characters are so flat that you couldn't possibly care about any of them.

And - don’t worry, this is not a spoiler - a word about the ending. A quick Google search reveals that it is universally hated. I personally loved it. It’s different and brings a nice touch to the whole storyline. But that may again be due to my attachment to Africa. People who don’t care much about the continent might not appreciate the ending.

Xbox 360 · by EboMike (3094) · 2012

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

Good idea, awful implementation

The Good
I liked the idea behind the game. Unfortunately...

The Bad
... it just doesn't work.

From the absolutely horrible and most annoying rapidly re-spawning enemy AI ever to feature in a video game, the immersion breaking "town" which contains six mercenaries and a priest, the maze-like map and right down to stupid details like road signs coloring to indicate which path to take (as if the ever-present GPS and a detailed interactive map weren't enough). It just doesn't work.

The Bottom Line
Here's some selective commentary on the typical Far Cry 2 session.

You arrive back into the "town" and check the map for a triangle with an exclamation point (indicating quest givers). This will invariably be one of the two faction HQ's for the main missions. You arrive at the door and all your weapons are removed by the guard to prevent you from ending the game early, upon which you ascend the stairs and listen to the mission details. You then either accept or refuse, although you have to accept to progress in the game, making the choice rather pointless. The faction leader then gives you twenty diamonds and tells you that it's a super secret cover ops mission, so don't expect any helps from his troops. In fact, he says, they will actively engage you. This is in a way convenient since there's no way to distinguish, visually or otherwise, between the two sides anyway. There are no civilians whatsoever anyway.

You hoof it back to your vehicle or take a conveniently placed re-spawning town vehicle and immediately get a call from your best buddy to meet him in some safe house or another. You check the map. Oh great, your friend is on one side of the map, and the mission objective on the other? Oh well, lets go. Wow, this car sure feels like a spaceship. Is that a shack I see at the end of the bridge? Suddenly, machine gun fire everywhere. A second after you pass the checkpoint you're being pursued by an amazingly fast accelerating assault truck that's carrying a gunner who hits you with sniper-like accuracy with a heavy machine gun, all while speeding down Africa's dirt roads at 90 mph. The inhuman assault truck never ever gives up.

Okay, you made it to your friend's safe house at the other side of the map either by destroying five assault trucks or stalking through Africa walking or swimming. Your friend tells you how she would like you to alter your mission to suit her. Why exactly couldn't you have told me this over the phone?

Ten assault trucks later, you arrive at your mission objective. You snipe (sniping is easy, no bullet drop, perfect aim, always a kill) a few stupid enemies, throw a couple of grenades and it's over in a minute. After this pseudo-climax, you feel very empty and alone.

But wait, your friend calls you. She's in trouble just a bit off the objective. You rush to help her, kill a couple more stupid AIs and you're presented with a menu option "press X to medicate your best buddy" and "press Q to mercy kill your best buddy".

You press escape, click on Quit, click Quit in the main menu, confirm that yes, you do want to Quit and are thrown onto the desktop. You bask in the ineffable complexity of situations which bothered to publish this trash.

Windows · by dorian grey (243) · 2008

[ 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.