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
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Production Coordinator
Production Manager
Lead Game Designer
Multiplayer Game Design
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[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 100 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 111 ratings with 10 reviews)

I Dreamed Of Africa..."

The Good
The sequel to 2004’s PC smash hit Far Cry. Far Cry 2, is a different beast. It has little to nothing to do with the original game. And it is a freeform game, or sandbox game if you prefer. But will such a system work for a FPS?

Heart Of Darkness

In Far Cry 2, you play as a mercenary. Whom you get to choose. I picked this badass looking Indian dude. You are sent to a war torn and unnamed area of Africa. And not unlike the protagonist in Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness, you mission is to kill an arms dealer, no, not Col. Kurtz, your target is known only as The Jackal.

You take jobs from either the APR of the UFLL. Two faction vying for control of the region. You can also take work from both. Along the way you meet many people all who seek to use you. But that’s cool as you only goal is to kill the Jackal. Not everyone is Far Cry 2, is out to use you. You will meet others, mercs like yourself. They will be your buddies. And serve a multitude of functions. They can come to your aid when you are in trouble. They can also help you on a job. If they get into trouble, you can help them. Or if they have wounds to severe, you can put them out of their misery. Or you can be a dick and abandon them.

There are also, special “buddy-missions”. In these scenarios, you go and do a job for a buddy. Which increases your reputation, in the game world. And it increases your buddies view of you.

There is a lot to do in Far Cry 2. Aside from the main missions. You can work for the weapons dealer. And destroy convoys. Thus unlocking new weapons to purchase. And there are lots of real, weapons. Which you even must keep in good shape, or they will jam, and possibly explode. You can also take assassination jobs. Upon finding satellite towers, you receive a phone call, from a creepy sounding guy, giving you the coordinates of your target. The job pays diamonds upon completion of the job.(The currency of choice in Far Cry 2.-MM-) These are the most fun side-jobs in the game. In one such scenario, I had to sneak into town and kill my target. Of course towns and villages are cease-fire zones. So, I snuck up into a bell-tower. And pulled out my Dragnov. And making like Chow Yun Fat, I killed the target. And then had to escape. As the entire militia was after me. Not all of the hit man jobs are this dramatic. In some cases you just have to kill your target in a secluded area, or blow up his vehicle.

Not all the danger in Far Cry 2, comes from enemies. As earlier upon your arrival, you contract malaria. You are given pills to keep your symptoms in check. When you are running low, you can take jobs for the underground. In these you must deliver, travel papers, in exchange for medicine. Thus you get to continue living, and you also get to save some poor refugees. It’s a win-win situation.

“I bless the rains down in Africa, Gonna take the time to do the things we never had…”-Toto, Africa

Aside from all the missions, you can spend and probably will, spend a lot of time just exploring. While exploring, you can find diamonds, your GPS, will lead you to them, as it blinks more fiercely the closer you get. You can also find recordings of the Jackal. Which can be given to a reporter. You can also unlock safe-houses. Here you can rest, save, and replenish your supplies. The area you explore is huge, so going on foot would take too long. Luckily, there are many vehicles, to be used. Cars, SUV’s Jeeps with gun turrets, go-karts, and many boats as well. Unfortunately there are no flying vehicles. You can also scout out all guard posts. This will let you know what kind of things can be found there. There are many different regions to see. From deserts, to swaps and jungles. This game actually reminds me of Oblivion. Even more than Fallout 3 did. It is also very long. Consider that most first person shooters only take 10-20 hours to complete. Far Cry 2, took me some 47 hours. Of course, I did just about all the missions, and explored most if not all of Africa.

The graphics are very good. All the people, places, and things look great in Far Cry 2. As one would expect. The lighting effects are amazing. And the attention to detail is outstanding. Say, for example, that you have a flamethrower. As you burn down your foes, you are bound to catch the trees and grass on fire. When you do it burns, and chars. The combat is visceral. Partially when dressing wounds. When you have a serious wound, you can bleed to death if not treated. When, you heal, your avatar will either bandage his wounds, or pull out the bullet with pliers. Or in some cases rip it out with his teeth.

There is also wild life to be seen in Far Cry 2. No lions, or anything like that. But you will see gazelles, water buffalo, and zebra. The game is just gorgeous. From the days, to the moon-lit nights. Either on standard of high definition, both look great.

The music and sound are good also. From, the African music, to the sounds of fire-arms, and wild-life. And how could I forget the great voice acting? All the characters sound great. And have accents from were ever they are from. For example, my Chinese, buddy had a think mandarin accent. The chatter of enemies if interesting as well. While I was attacking I heard them say, “How many are there?” “I think it’s just one man..” Great stuff.

The Bad
Far Cry 2, is far from a perfect game.(You could say it’s a Far Cry!-MM-) First off all. You fight way too much. This may seem, strange, considering that this is a FPS. But I felt that it was excessive. When you are going to a mission all these jack offs keep attacking you on the road. Even if your reputation is high. Now tell me, why would they attack you if they were afraid of you?

What is worse, is that say, you just clear out a guard-post. Then you come back, a short time later. And already it is fully staffed. WTF? There would not be that many people. Every time you got to a mission it is crawling with enemies. Why would all these places have so many guards?

The A.I. is also often cheap. One dumbass, will have mortar, or and RPG. To take out one man…right.

What is the point of these so called, sandbox games, that have a reputation system, if it rarely effects the game. It would have been so easy to implement. Just get attacked less, as you reputation grows. How hard is that?

The game has some minor bugs and glitches. That can get very annoying. If with the updates.

This game can be very tedious. As it follows the same basic patterns per mission. Say that you let your buddy help you out. At the end of the mission, you always have to bail them out of trouble. Every single time. Which makes the game to repetitive.



The Bottom Line
Overall, Far Cry 2, is a step in the right direction. For the genre. But there is lots of room for improvement. Of course I don’t think that this style of style of FPS will replace the tried and true type. Hell, they still make games like Painkiller and Serious Sam, to this day, and that is the very first type of FPS. If you are an FPS junkie like myself, you should at least give Far Cry 2 a go.

Xbox 360 · by MasterMegid (723) · 2009

Far Cry 2 may be a sequel only in name, but it is still a fun action game.

The Good
Far Cry 2 has nothing to do with Far Cry 1. This alone is a bit of a disappointment, but if you can ignore that and call it something else, like "Blood Diamond: The Game" or "Burn Down Africa," or if you really want to be simple "Jackal hunt," you'll find a compelling action game.

The first thing you'll notice once FC2 starts up are the amazing visuals. The game looks absolutely incredible, better than anything currently on the PC. Plus it helps that the engine here is 10,000 times better coded than CrySis (Before you flame me: CrySis is a great game, but the engine is terribly programmed with no optimization) so that my 5 year old computer can run it on a high quality with a great frame rate. Everything from the shadows to treetop canopies and of course flames licking every square inch of burnable terrain.

The game itself is sort of like a mixture of Grand Theft Auto minus the large immersive city, and Fallout 3 minus the role playing. It is a sandbox first person shooter with great car controls, and an immersive jungle environment. It can be a little monotonous sometimes, but at others, it is great fun to explore the jungle. Firefights are intense and fun. The missions are good, but they can be repetitive, and side missions aren't that fun.

The AI is surprisingly smart for a game like this. Many firefights play out like cat and mouse chases.

The multiplayer, while standard for the genre, is extremely well executed and fun.



The Bad
Although the guns sound alright, the music is somewhat droning and the voice acting is awful.

Repetition is relatively common in this game, while it can be fun in short bursts I wouldn't recommend long periods of time.

The bus system isn't too helpful, it only takes you to the four corners of the map. It would've been nicer to have more bus stops so that if you are trying to get to a target in a hurry that isn't right next to the corner you go to you wouldn't have to walk so far.

The story is confusing, muddled, and meaningless. It had a lot of potential, but the game didn't tap into it.

The gun jamming happens too easily, which makes it annoying. Although sometimes it can help the immersion and make firefights more intense, more often than not its frustrating if anything.

The Bottom Line
FC2 is a fun sandbox shooter. Its not for everyone, and some may be off put by the fact that it is not a true sequel to the first and best game in the series. While it can be repetitive, it can also be very fun, and it is very easy on the eyes, and blowing stuff up and shooting the guns is fun. The immersive world is great as well.

Windows · by Kaddy B. (777) · 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

[ View all 10 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.