zoober.net

I picked up Far Cry 2 on PC last week and to be honest, I am having a hard time playing past the 50% completion mark. What I see here is a game with a lot of promise, amazing tech and art backing it, but the final product falls flat due to odd design choices.



First off is the total lack of persistence in the game world. A lot of time and money was put into the fire simulation in this game. If I toss a molotov into a bush near a guard post, the fire will spread through the grass and tree's and if it can find a path, eventually burn down most of the guard. Ammunition caches will explode like fireworks and vehicles get destroyed. It's a lot of fun. Problem I have with it is, I can burn a guard post to the ground and then come back 5 minutes later and it has completely reset to default with guards waiting to take pot shots at me as I pass by.

There is a system in place that remembers which guard posts I have explored, why can't it set a flag to keep these posts in disarray? Fallout 3 did a great job of this, you could pass through area's of the game that you hadn't seen in hours or days and there would still be destroyed vehicles, buildings and bodies left over from your rampage through. Made the world feel much more immersing.

This lack of persistence also takes a toll on any attempts to siege the large towns that harbour the main warring factions of the game. Buildings just won't catch fire and enemies never cease spawning. I understand that they don't want you to be able to break off quest lines by completely annihilating these warring factions at their home bases, but it ends up making your character feel utterly powerless.



I also have some major issues with weapon handling and combat. For a game that is striving for this level of hyper-realism, there is a real disconnect when shooting enemies. Enemy soldiers can take a lot of bullets. Having to put 4 or 5 shots into an enemies torso when firing an AK47 really makes you feel like you're using a cheap energy weapon from a run of the mill space-marine FPS. Unless you're using a rocket launcher or sniper rifle, the weapons in this game feel gutless and as a result, aren't that much fun to use.


I also have to wonder about the lack of "Gibs" and damage effects in the game. Why take the time to implement the ability to shoot the leaves off of trees but have no interactions of that sort when firing on enemies?

Having a damage system should be a requirement these days. It's an immensely powerful tool for giving players a response to their actions. See Left 4 Dead or Gears of War for some great examples of what I mean.

My last points of contention are with the general flow and pacing of the game.

I am at the point now where I don't have the motivation to load this game up and to keep playing because I have just finished a mission in the far corner of the map and have a good 5-10 minute drive back to town where I can continue the games storyline. Does this make the game world more realistic and immersing? Perhaps more realistic, but the immersion factor isn't working for me seeing as I don't even really want to play now. The game has a transit system with 5 or so bus stations on each massive chunk of map that allows you to basically teleport between the corners of the levels or back to the center where the main "cease fire" town is located. Why not extend this transit system to the safe houses that players unlock? I don't quite see the point of having a safe house every couple miles if it's just for saving your game (which i can do at any time through the menu) or 'sleeping' in order to change the day/night cycle. Allowing me to travel between safe houses would streamline missions and actually give me some motivation to 'unlock' these shacks in the backwoods.

Interacting with NPC's is also a painful experience. Whenever I pick up a new mission, there are long lag times between the NPC talking to me and when I can interact with them again to accept the mission. I also have to press the interact button several times to both trigger the mission briefing and accept it. This makes it a chore to continue the storyline and turns the gameplay into: 5 minutes listening to NPC's spout their rushed dialogue, 10-15 minutes of travel time, 5-10 minutes of combat and exploration followed by another 10-15 minutes of travel time to start all over with a new mission briefing.

There are also your sidekicks/teammates/buddies that show up on missions or when you're dying to help you out. A few times these NPC's have been injured and I've made the mistake of trying to revive them. This locks me into a horrible sequence where I must either give them medicine or drag them to safety. While I'm bent over dealing with them, I am completely helpless and cannot break away from the act of helping them in order to defend myself. After mashing buttons to try and survive these frustrating interactions a few times I just decided to give up on ever helping downed teammates.



In closing.... Gorgeous looking game with some amazing tech behind it. Unfortunately the victim of some design choices that really sucked the enjoyment out of the game for myself.

These are all my personal opinions and may not reflect your own experiences playing the game. I have several friends that love the open world exploration aspect, which I can understand. I just cannot get around the chores that I am forced to do which end up being 70 or 80% of the gameplay.