Few animals are as distinctly African as the Zebra. Everything about it has that strange, alien quality of the dark continent. Watch the way it gallops across the Savannah, the sight of a herd in motion, the jerk of the head as it startles, the curious way it pokes at a ticking hand-grenade… Far Cry 2 highlights that, as much an evolutionary curiosity the Zebra is, it has thus far failed to achieve that most important of attributes; a fire-proof hide. Nor, indeed, legs that carry it faster than a Jeep.
Far Cry 2 is a gaming metaphor for Africa. War-torn, sprawling, it demands that you learn survival skills quick to keep yourself afloat. 50km2 of jungle and desert, with the odd pocket of civilization. The world is rich, cloying with humidity and unseen life. Your goal? Find and kill ‘The Jackal’, an arms dealer fueling a bloody war that’s left everyone feeling very, very angry.
The opening is standard first-person-shooter style; from the back of a jeep, a brief tour of the country shows you the soldiers, the corruption, the bribery, the fear, and just how much time Ubisoft spent on the engine. The attempts at authenticity then go as far as you passing out from Malaria. You take to find ‘Jackal’ standing at your bedside, at gunpoint. After a brief passage from Nietzsche’s ‘Beyond Good and Evil’, he hands over the gun while you pass out again. BGE and Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ are unnecessarily milked of quotes; like an interviewee desperate to impress a Philosophy tutor, if you like.
You’re first mission is randomly chosen by an equally random lieutenant. I got a youthful, sporty Korean, while you might get an grizzled Eastern European. Whoever it is, you have to rescue a buddy (yep, random) from captivity. Your buddy, whoever they might be, thanks you by offering demanding extra objectives to missions, as well as covering while you ‘heal’ in combat. This, amusingly, consists of using rusty pliers to pull shattered metal from your arms, before dosing yourself up on heroin in order to charge into combat. Oh, the mercenary lifestyle.
Such unorthodox medicine is for the lovers of gunplay. Several mechanics, centered around both aggressive and stealthy play styles makes either option fun and exciting. The AI patrol their camps independently, sometimes wandering from the camp for cigarettes and indiscreet public urination. You can take things all Jason-Voorhees (‘Friday the 13th’ franchise…keep up people) with a meaty machete. Or, try trusting your weapons. I say trust; as a weapon weathers through use, it begins to jam, requiring a gentle slap before settling down. Rather than irritating, it’s kind of charming; temperamental rocket launchers turn fights in something either from Die Hard or Platoon.
Does that make me seem less shallow? Good; because also, FC2 is crazy-beautiful. Little details make the world breathe softly around you. The trees are my favorite; they’re procedurally generated from algorithms based on the patterns in which actual trees grow. They sway gently in the wind, sunlight dapples through onto your map when standing in the shade…and they burn. Appropriately, the only thing ‘better’ than the trees, is the fire. One explosion can set fire to bushes, which spread to the grass, to the trees, and suddenly a flash blaze has appeared, to drive enemies into, or shelter (carefully) behind while you reload (and shoot-up). There are animals too, but they’re not as fun to burn. And hence less interesting.
It’s fun just exploring. See a base? Climb a rock face to find the perfect sniping nest. Use binoculars to point out every ammo nest and soldier, before methodically slaughtering the lot. Use the environment; my personal favorite is destroying an entire air base with one carefully aimed grenade rolled under some fuel tanks; no witnesses, no survivors. Satisfaction. Are you ‘Always outnumbered, never out gunned’? Try a shotgun then. A ‘Rambo’? You’re limited only by the number of grenades you can fit in your pockets.
Switching styles this way is a necessary part of keeping the experience fresh, because this is, undeniably, a shallow game. Murder and Mayhem are the basest of pleasures, quickly becoming tiresome without a driving reason. The ‘Jackal’ plot-line just isn’t compelling for much of the game, with the missions being helplessly formulaic. Go here, explode, kill; it never ends. It doesn’t matter if it’s a statement about the trauma of only being able to express yourself violently; it’s tiring.
This is why its best to set your own goals for missions. Decide; will this be stealth, will this be bloody or will this be fiery? Provided is no end of material to work with; but you have to form your own entertainment out of it. Which is, for some, slightly embittering. This isn’t a tightly scripted action film; if anything it’s the total opposite. You come out with stories to tell, but no focal point to share with others.
Far Cry 2 is not perfect. But it is an epic achievement, and a very, very entertaining game. I recommend it, not for what it asks you to do, but what you can do. Play it, see how far games have come, because its amazing. Best game of 2008, without question.
