Reflecting on Far Cry 2...

[Taustin Powers]

...since I just finished it last night! Yes, I have had it since day 1, if this is any indication how fast I run through my games! Also put 60 hours of playtime in it though, I thoroughly enjoyed it!


BUT! I can't help but scratch my head about the following:

- Why do you get to choose a character from so many different options in the beginning? Your character never talks, you only see the hands, it doesn't affect the story or...ANYTHING, really? What was the point? Halfway through the game I had forgotten which character I had picked!

- After that long of a game (okay, I stretched it out pretty good, but still), we get an ending sequence of, what, like 10 seconds? Then black screen and credits? Total letdown.

- The "choice" for the last mission was just...weird. What was the point of that? Both endings were equally anticlimactic.

- I wish they wouldn't just "end" the game once you complete the final mission. Fantastic open world, side missions to do, stuff to explore...just leave me in my sandbox to finish all that! If you're not careful with your safe games, the only way to go back and explore the rest is to start over. And if you didn't finish all the hitman missions in the northern map before the missions take you down south, you can't go back up and finish those either. You can go back, but the missions will not be there anymore. So much for getting that trophy.


All in all, it was one of my personal favorite PS3 games, I really could spend days getting lost in that world, sneaking around, exploring, sniping, setting fires, etc. Very curious to see what they do with FC3, it should be announced soon.

 

[MRU]

I enjoyed the original Far Cry a lot on PC
Well the last part was also anti-climatic and likewise it's ending, but I enjoyed it nether the less.

I also played through Far Cry Instincts one of the 360 earlier launch titles. And likewise I enjoyed that too even though it wasn't as good as the original PC title.





However with Far Cry 2 I just could not get into it. It should not have been called Far Cry as it had nothing to do with the original story wise, geographically or gameplay wise.

This is not saying it was a bad FPS clearly it was not, it's just wasn't 'far cry' for me.

Other than maybe little over 2 hours invested on two or three separate occasions as I gave it a chance twice, but neither time could it drive me on to really get into it.

 

[Taustin Powers]

I never played the first one, unfortunately.

In FC2, there were two minor, yet very important things I had to change in the settings to really get into it:

1) Turn the music OFF! It wasn't bad, but the shift in music would always tell you when you shot the last enemy. No surprises, the music gave a lot away. Turning it off increased the immersiveness tremendously! When all you hear is the wind, crickets chirping, water splashing, general nature noises, I can totally get sucked in and get lost in that world.

2) Turn the cross-hair OFF! This wasn't as crucial as the music, but the cross-hair always turns red when it hovers over an enemy. This is particularly annoying when you don't actually SEE the enemy, cause he's hiding behind a bush or something.

These two adjustments made the game harder, but so much more immersive and enjoyable to me!

 

[whooleytoo]

I never played the first one, unfortunately.

In FC2, there were two minor, yet very important things I had to change in the settings to really get into it:

1) Turn the music OFF! It wasn't bad, but the shift in music would always tell you when you shot the last enemy. No surprises, the music gave a lot away. Turning it off increased the immersiveness tremendously! When all you hear is the wind, crickets chirping, water splashing, general nature noises, I can totally get sucked in and get lost in that world.

2) Turn the cross-hair OFF! This wasn't as crucial as the music, but the cross-hair always turns red when it hovers over an enemy. This is particularly annoying when you don't actually SEE the enemy, cause he's hiding behind a bush or something.

These two adjustments made the game harder, but so much more immersive and enjoyable to me!

Good points, particularly the first one. Will have to try that (I'm playing through it again).

I love the immersive touches, like when you get a weapon out of a crate, you open it, pull out the weapon, replace it with yours and then shut it (rather than it just appearing in your arms); or when you look at the map while driving it's on your lap, you don't have to 'leave the game world' to do so.

The most annoying thing about this game is how often & quickly the checkpoints re-spawned. It would have been better, IMO, if you could 'claim' checkpoints which would periodically be attacked by the enemy. As opposed to anytime you run 100m from the checkpoint!