Far out: Far Cry 2

I recently completed Far Cry 2. It was, quite simply, the best FPS that I've played. Bar none.

OK, I suppose I had better say a bit more about it. The game takes place in a fictional African state, beset by civil war. Your goal is to find and kill 'The Jackal', a man who has been stoking the fires of war by supplying arms to both sides. You start, of course, with rubbish weapons, so your first task is to get yourself some decent kit. You achieve this primarily by doing missions to earn diamonds, the only acceptable currency, with which to buy all you need to become truly dangerous. The great thing about Far Cry 2 though, is that how you complete the missions is pretty much up to you. Do you sneak up on the faction base and take out their soldiers by sniper rifle? Do you go in all guns blazing? Or, maybe you start a fire upwind of the base and burn them out? The choice is up to you.


All of this takes place on two huge maps which I'm told are 50 km square. I believe it. To get around you can use your feet, a vehicle, a boat, a bus or even (occasionally) a hang glider. The scenery is beautifully rendered and includes weather, day/night cycles and various wild animals. Of course, to see all of this at high settings requires a pretty top-end PC, but I've seen the game run on slower machines with the detail reduced and still producing a decent effect. The scenery is so good, in fact, that you will often find yourself foregoing the action to admire the view.


The missions are pretty varied and include assassinations, destroying convoys and blowing up a bridge. There are main missions that you get from the two factions (one faction doesn't seem to mind if you have worked for the other faction previously) and that you have to complete in order to drive the storyline, but there are also easier side-missions that you get from buddies (who will help you out in a crisis) or from a doctor when you need to get some malaria pills. You are free to choose whenever you want to take on a mission but the game doesn't seem to let you take on anything you can't handle. Having said that, the missions don't generally seem to get that much more difficult as the game progresses. Some missions can be a bit repetitive, and fighting your way across the map to reach a target can be a little tedious.


In the end though, these minor gripes don't matter. The game is simply a blast to play from beginning to end. As you can tell from the screenshots, I was rather partial to the sniper rifle - using it to take out enemies from a distance is one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I can remember. I'm off for another go...

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