Far Cry 2
Review
No Toto included
by Keaton Arksey
reviewed on PS3
Lots of ground to cover (cntd.)
Your options aren’t exactly restricted to walking or taking the bus either. Almost everywhere in the game you’ll find a vehicle that you can enter. Some have weapons, and some don’t, so running through an enemy encampment might not be the greatest idea with a car. You can also take a boat, which in many cases might be a better idea as there are significantly fewer enemy encampments near rivers, though you do sacrifice the ability to defend against attackers to your rear.
Far Cry 2 strives to place you into the world, and it does a good job at that. Instead of having a pop up map, the character actually brings up a map of the area with points of interest labeled on it, as well as a GPS that gives a more detailed readout of the more immediate area, as well as a built-in tracker for treasure. Also, if you get shot at enough to drop you to your last bar of health, your character can’t heal himself with a syringe, which is the usual quick healing method. Instead, you use a knife or pistol to extract bullets from your arms, legs, and wherever else you might find them. To add further realism, animals are lightly dispersed through out the world, with herds of gazelle, zebras, and water buffaloes found throughout the land, not to mention birds in the sky and farm animals such as goats and chickens. Sadly, no predatory animals like lions or alligators are around, so your only real threat is man.
Obstacles to overcome
During all of the game’s action, you still have malaria. While you get a mission early on that results in some medicine, from that point on it’s up to you to decide when you need to get more. Every 40 minutes real time, your character begins to feel the effects of Malaria, resulting in blurred vision. This can be remedied by taking pills, so it’s never a good idea to enter a battle without some medication.
You’re not the only mercenary in the area either. There are 12 “buddies” in the game, and they act as a sort of third faction in the war. When you take missions from the APR or UFLL, they will phone you up and give you an opportunity to mess with both sides. This usually results in a bit of extra work, but the main objective is usually made easier. Also, if you’re killed in battle, a buddy could come rescue you, picking you up and taking you away for temporary safety (you don’t leave the vicinity of where you are gunned down, just a little bit of breathing room to heal). Your buddies aren’t invincible either, and chances are at some point in time you’ll have to deal with the loss of one of them. If they are downed in battle, you can either choose to use one of your syringes to heal them, walk away, or finish them off. Of course, if you choose the last option, they won’t be coming back to help you.
Mercenary's pay and life
Since you are a mercenary, you can expect to get paid to do some jobs. Instead of cash though, the going currency is rough diamonds. These diamonds can be found in briefcases throughout the world (231 in total!), as well as received as payment for doing missions. These diamonds can be used at weapon supply stores, where you can buy new guns, upgrade your existing guns, or buy new things to increase how many syringes or ammo you can hold. Next to every weapon supply store is a warehouse where you can store your purchased your new goodies, which are constantly replenished free of charge. This is useful as weapons salvaged from enemies are often rusty, dirty and prone to jamming, sometimes even exploding during use.
9.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
