Far Cry® 2

There has been a critical renaissance or reappraisal of this game that is very characteristic of Ubisoft titles. However, on this occasion I must disagree with the sentiment. The game does not become good, or a hidden gem, simply because time has elapsed. It was radically revamped for a reason - it simply is too barebone and too mechanically simple to justify its run time. And a lot of the friction which it has, e.g., the arduous traversal, the constantly respawning enemies, and the lack of friendly NPCs, simply struck me as incredibly lazy game design, or unsolved design problems. The immersion argument does not work: Yes, I can rationalise to make all these quirks make sense within the world. But why would I? When I was not having fun? Was a deeper significance gained at the expense of fun? Is this some commentary about video game violence which reoriented my relationship to first person shooters? No. And so it was all for nothing. The art direction would be neat but for the fact that I am a massive fan of the first Assassin's Creed game. Having played that game at launch and this game in 2026, I do not have the benefit of nostalgia. All I see is reused assets (colour grading, trees, foliage, icons) - a design language which appeared cheap to me now because I have seen and loved it elsewhere. Also given the similarity between how these games look, I cannot help but notice what FC2 lacks which AC1 has in abundance - good writing, compelling characters, philosophical depth which does not reduce to existential nihilism. At for the gunplay, it is simply not fun at the rate which enemy encounters are distributed. The survival mechanics are as deep as a puddle and you will not be making interesting choices in terms of which routes to take, what guns to keep, or what abilities to upgrade (because there is very little character progression). It is just waves after waves of shooting, the same sound effects, the same fires, the same environments, the same enemies. If monotony is the point, then I suppose that should be that then. A very disappointing entry for all the glowing praise I heard about it online.