[h1][b]Neither here nor there:[/b] Far Cry 2[/h1]
With the critical and commercial success of the original Far Cry, it was only a matter of time before Ubisoft would roll up their sleeves and start working on a sequel. However, certain behind-the-scene changes involving Crytek meant that [b]Far Cry 2[/b] and all subsequent titles in the franchise would be developed in-house by Ubisoft Montreal.
This move to in-house development also brought a change in direction for the new games. Leaving behind tropical islands (at least for a bit), mutants, and other assorted sci-fi elements, Far Cry sequels would switch to a fully open-world gameplay while pivoting toward a more realistic and grounded style of storytelling.
Far Cry 2 is probably the strongest example of this new vision for the franchise. You play as one of the nine mercenaries sent to the Unnamed African Country (I'm not even kidding, it's literally referred to as the UAC in the [url=https://farcry.fandom.com/wiki/Unnamed_African_Country_(UAC)]game wiki[/url]). Your mission is simple - bring an end to the civil war that's ravaging the country by finding and killing the Jackal, the arms dealer supplying both sides of the conflict.
Of course, simple doesn't mean easy. The second you make it to the town you're supposed to start your search at, you pass out from a bout of malaria. When you come to, the Jackal is there to welcome you and let you know that, having failed to kill him on account of the whole malaria business, your mission is basically null and void. Now stuck in a war-torn country and suffering from a deadly disease, you have no choice but to pick up your gun, start working for the local factions, and try to make the best of the sh**ty hand you've been dealt.
While the story in Far Cry 2 offers an interesting break from the schlocky sci-fi action premise of the original, one thing that didn't improve that much is the quality of the writing. From the Jackal's high-school reading of Nietzsche as he waxes philosophically about the nature of power, to the amoral yet bland mercenaries and faction leaders you end up working with, to most of the story missions boiling down to "you do the thing you're asked to do, but then the quest giver betrays you, and also a bunch of civilians die", the writing simply isn't that satisfying.
And I get that the point is to showcase the brutality and hopelessness of an actual civil war, but if I want to get bummed out by awful things happening in the world, I'll just turn on the news. The faux redemption ending doesn't exactly do the game any favors, and it starts off the trend of (at least to me) extremely annoying endings that the writers probably thought were really clever and subversive (one that would culminate in part 5, but more on that in due time).
The presentation follows the same generally dour vibes. The environments of the UAC are rendered in a stunning array of colors, as long as those colors are brown and gray. Joking aside, the environments are pretty immersive, with the ambient sound doing a lot of the heavy lifting, considering there's hardly any music in the game. The voice acting is a touch better than in the original, but nowhere near what we would end up seeing in the sequels.
However, the move towards realism also created what is probably the most contentious aspect of Far Cry 2 - the gameplay.
Some of the elements, like the four weapon slots, are carried over from the original. Stealth is still highly optional: even if you're using a silenced weapon (of which there are now four!), the moment the first enemy drops, everyone else will be alerted anyway. And given the open-world nature of the game and how important vehicles are for traversal, the good news is the vehicle controls are vastly improved.
The flip side of this is that the map is littered with guard posts that are there just to impede progress and pad out the play time. And there's no way to skip these - regardless of your reputation with the factions, your involvement is there for plausible deniability, so any randos that see you from a guard post will still try to shoot you on sight. And given how much time you'll spend driving around, that's a bit of a problem.
A typical mission involves driving to the quest giver, stopping every couple of minutes to fight your way through a guard post, then driving all the way to the mission objective while doing the same, and back to the quest giver for the reward. In the end, you'll probably spend roughly 60-70% of your play time driving around while people shoot at you, which is not exactly an ideal ratio if you're looking for a fun experience.
The game also introduces new gameplay elements, which include degrading weapons (which might blow up in your face if you're not careful), the ability to set fires that will spread depending on the weather and nearby vegetation, a diegetic map and GPS system, and sudden malaria seizures that force you to take medication.
With all of the above in mind, I think Far Cry 2 presents a truly curious conundrum. If you'll allow me to be pretentious for a moment, I honestly believe that Far Cry 2 was the high point of the series when it comes to sheer artistry.
The developers knew exactly the themes and vibe they wanted to achieve. A country stuck in a brutal civil war. Our protagonist is a mercenary, someone who, by definition, is there to commit unspeakable acts for money. Nobody wants him there, not even the people he's working for, and least of all the locals. And all the while, he's expected to do the impossible and eliminate the Jackal by foreign powers that would just as soon leave him dead in a ditch somewhere as pay him.
It's clear that the developers are aiming for a feeling desperation, brutality, and hopelessness, and every single element of gameplay and presentation is in service of conveying this. The garbage weapons, the constant fighting, the unwieldy map, and the malaria seizures are there to remind you that this isn't a typical power fantasy, even if, eventually, that would be the shape the series takes.
And while I respect the hell out of Ubisoft for their clarity of vision and a refusal to compromise, it also makes the game incredibly tedious to play. Full disclosure - on this most recent playthrough, I dropped the game at around 10% because I was bored to tears of switching between the driving seat and the turret on my technical just so I can eventually get 5 minutes of actual gameplay.
Ultimately, getting through Far Cry 2 is like struggling your way through a really dense piece of classic literature. If you keep an open mind and think you can tough it out, I believe the overall takeaway is worth the effort to complete it. And if not, don't worry - the takeaway is mostly depression, and Far Cry 3 is much more fun and approachable.
