Far Cry 2 was released last week. I’ve played it non-stop on steam since installing. I am very impressed with this game. The graphics are on par with other modern games. The AI is slightly glitchy. The vehicles are necessary. And the gameplay is intriguing and fresh. That being said, WTF? It’s not developed by crytek. It’s not using the crytek engine. It uses a new engine called DunIa. It’s developed by Ubisoft Montreal. They generally have good games come out of that shop. I’m not saying Far Cry 2 isn’t good. It is. There are a few things I just can’t get past.
Why do all of your weapons break? Why are the vehicles so unpleasant to drive. Where are all the animals? You occasionally see a few birds. In certain areas you see a couple of gazelles and a few zebras. Why are there no hyenas at night? Why don’t hyenas come to attack you? Africa is a dangerous place and not just from men with guns. Where are the Lions? Elephants? Crocodiles? Giant fish? Swimming feels like the pool at your local YMCA. Couldn’t be more safe. The game despite its glaring awesomeness, is like a huge joke on the player. I imagine the Ubisoft developers sat around thinking of ways to make the game harder. Every AI npc gets working weapons except you. Everyone you pass tries to shoot you. Oh, and you have malaria. The first thing I don’t believe is that a merc being sent to africa wouldn’t get a large stash of quinine. They never thought of crocodiles or hyenas? How about heatstroke? Dehydration?
On top of that, personally, I feel that the whole setting is annoying. Though that probably leads to the desire to play. You don’t want to be there. You don’t want to drive around in those crappy little cars. You don’t want to use those cheap crappy weapons. You have to wonder where all the women and children went. You have to wonder why Africa sucks so much.
On a whole, the game is quite different from the original Far Cry, in that the story is different; the characters are different; the setting is different; the game engine is different; the developer is different. The only thing in common is they are both published by Ubisoft, who apparently jumped on the sequel train with new everything. If the game were called “Heart of Darkness”, it would still be fun to play and gorgeous to look at. Despite it’s nagging qualities, I still enjoy playing it. Though grudgingly. I enjoy not liking the setting and characters.
There were a lot of places the game could have taken you in terms of danger. I don’t think Ubisoft exploited that enough. There’s just not enough wildlife encounters. You don’t seem to ever need water in that scorching heat.
