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Far Cry 2 aka Grand Theft Auto Somalia

I am currently playing Far Cry 2, bought to test my shiny new 1Gb HD4850 grapics card. I still amn't sure about the game. It feels more like a GTA game than a true sequel to Far Cry.

The only open ended sand box game that really sucked me in was Mafia. It had a compelling storyline set in a seductively beautiful entirely credible 1920's prohibition era city. GTA 3 was set in an ugly city and had a poor story, I hated it. Far Cry 2 is set in a lush jungle setting but it lacks the Tropical beauty of the original Far Cry. Even more importantly there are no civillians in this world. Every one you meet totes a gun and 99% of them try to kill you. I guess it is understandable that Crytek choose not to populate their game with the starving victims of conflict but the world feels much shallower for lack of ordinary people.

An engrossing storyline could save the game for me but so far I have seen no sign of it. I am only a few hours in however so things could improve yet.

Far Cry 2 has got pretty good reviews from the critics but player reaction has been mixed. PC gamers who were hoping for a true sequel to the 2004 classic seem to have been disappointed while console gamers who only got a poor knockoff of the original seem to be more pleased.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
I have this for the 360 but have only just made my wat out of town - am impressed so far but I have no previous background with the orignal or on other systems so can't comment.

I'll be covering it in my game diary in the New Year - Have a great one mbp!
2:35 pm
Anonymous said…
I think there's a good deal of story in this game - how many buddies have you found so far?
4:06 pm
mbp said…
Hi DM I have three buddies. A reporter lady I rescued in an early mission,a guy with a white mustache who I found in the bar I think who comes to rescue me when I get killed and a third guy I don't remember picking up, perhaps I did a mission for him.

I assume the main storyline is the missions for the two factions? If so I am not very far through. I keep getting distracted by side quests - gun shop missions, underground missions, reporter lady side missions and radio tower missions. Perhaps I should keep focused on the main quest line for a bit to get a sense of what is going on.
7:02 pm
Anonymous said…
I think the idea is to play both sides off against each other while you plan your take-down of the Jackal - think I only have 2 buddies but Fallout 3 has drawn me back in for the time being!
8:52 pm
mbp said…
I got through the first Chapter eventually and I realised that the freedom of who you do missions for is only an illusion. Eventually you are forced to work for both sides and to do some nasty stuff while you at it. I guess that is another of my objections - all of the alternatives are morally repugnant. There is no "good" quest line and you have to do (very)nasty stuff to progress. There may well be some kind of moral redemption on offer later but I didn't get that far.
4:11 pm
Ken said…
i was a huge fan of the original Farcry for the PC - lush jungle, tactical freedom, flanking AI .. and i'll have to admit that about 4-5 hours in to FC2, all the driving around and lame missions got really boring .. but you know what, the game is starting to grow on me now. not sure what it was - it may have been after the first riverboat trip i took, but i'm now seeing all the different travel options, or maybe i'm just not caught car-less as frequently as before. just the other day, i'm driving in a jeep along the train tracks, and a pair of zebras start running along side the car -- i guess little things like that keep me hooked. last night i had a firefight break out right next to a safehouse, stuff catches on fire, so i decide to go inside the safehouse thinking it would be safe -- nope, a huge ass car explosion from outside kills me while i'm in the safehouse.
7:49 pm
mbp said…
Hi Moocow,B I parked the game after I had finished the first chapter. I'll probably get back to it some time though. The "open world" freedom is superb aright particularly if you get off the beaten track - mind you there are still a lot of choke points you cannot bypass.

By the way nice summary of all the reasons I love the original Far Cry too.
8:11 pm
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