Far Cry 2
Far Cry 2 is a 2008 first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the second installment of the main Far Cry series, preceded by 2004's Far Cry and followed by 2012's Far Cry 3.
Ubisoft has marketed Far Cry 2 as the true sequel to Far Cry, however the sequel has very few noticeable similarities to the original game. Instead, it features completely new characters and setting, as well as a new style of gameplay that allows the player greater freedom to explore different African landscapes such as deserts, jungles, and savannas. The game takes place in a modern-day Central African nation during civil war. The player takes control of a mercenary on a lengthy journey to locate and assassinate "The Jackal", a notorious arms dealer. Far Cry 2 was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in October 2008. It is backwards compatible with the Xbox One.
Far Cry 2 was met with positive reception upon its release, with critics praising the game's setting, open-ended gameplay, visuals and AI, while criticism was directed at glitches, design choices and the writing. By January 2009, the game had sold nearly three million copies.
Gameplay
Far Cry 2 is a sequel to the original Far Cry. The game features an open-ended experience. Players are able to ally with one or multiple factions, and to progress through the game world and missions as they see fit, resulting in a nonlinear style of gameplay commonly referred to as sandbox mode that allows the story to progress at their speed and in the order they choose. Players can use a range of vehicles, including cars, trucks, boats and hang gliders, to travel within the gameplay area. The playing styles range from head-on assaults to stealthy infiltrations and assassinations. The game takes place in a sprawling African landscape, with terrain ranging from desert to savannah to jungle.Various factions and vehicles are featured; enemies include human mercenaries. There is a dynamic weather system that has a day-night cycle and different weather conditions such as storms and strong winds. The time of day also affects the behavior of AI, in terms of enemy alertness and aggressiveness; for example, an enemy might have a slightly heightened awareness at night, but be unable to see the player in hiding, while during the hot part of the day the enemies might be sitting in the shade in groups but easily spot the player from a distance.
The health bar represents the health of the protagonist that is divided into five segments, each of which automatically refills if it is not fully depleted and the player avoids taking damage for a few seconds. Players carry a limited supply of syrettes which can be used at any time to fully replenish the health bar, and are obtainable from first aid boxes located throughout the game world, specifically at guard posts. When nearing death, the character must perform first aid on himself, for example removing bullets with pliers, or snapping twisted or broken fingers into position.
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Weapons
The player has access to a large arsenal of real world weapons, including machine pistols, battle rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, handguns, light machine guns, mortars, and IEDs. The game breaks these weapons down into three inventory slots, each with a specific list of weapons assigned to it.In addition to the three selectable types of weapons, a machete is carried at all times, which can be used to execute enemies and the player can carry a number of hand grenades and molotov cocktails. All weapons in the game are "mirrored", with ejection ports, charging handles and other user-operated parts on the left side; the exception being the belt-fed machine guns which eject to the right. Further changes are made to some, such as the Ithaca 37 having a side ejection port.
A major gameplay feature is that these weapons degrade over time. Weapons in poor shape have a chance of jamming, requiring several seconds to clear, and weapons in a severe state of decay can break during usage, rendering the weapon unusable. The player can purchase weapons at various gun shops, which provide an unlimited supply of the weapon in serviceable condition, along with manuals to upgrade weapon's reliability and accuracy. More weapons can be unlocked at the gun shop by completing missions involving the destruction of competitors' arms convoys for the gun shop owner. Weapons can also be picked up off of fallen enemies, but they are always in their most degraded condition and can only be used for a short period of time before jamming and ultimately breaking down completely.
Realism
The game has realistic features such as weapon degradation and the dynamic weather system. The player needs to hold a physical map and use a handheld navigation system to get around, but they are automatically updated as the player travels through the environment. The player is able to tag certain objects and locations such as cars, sniper towers, ammo pickups and buildings, so that they are able to monitor them on their map. When vehicles are damaged the player must perform a short repair animation, involving the tightening of one of the bolts on the radiator, headers or other interior part with a ratchet. The player must also deal with different levels of malaria. Every 30 to 40 minutes in real time, the player must take a pill in order to combat the blinding and potentially deadly effects of the illness.The Dunia Engine allows complex sequences and run-events during gameplay; the game features a day-and-night cycle, as well as tree and vegetation regeneration. A unique fire propagation mechanism, which allows a small fire to spread and eventually cause large brush fires, may be used either to the player's advantage during combat or against the player. The behavior of fire is dependent on factors such as wind speed, wind direction, rain, and vegetation type. For example, a fire may not spread as easily in a lush, moist jungle environment compared to dry, grassy plains and savannahs.
Several species of animals can be encountered in the game, and are able to distract the enemy as well as make them aware of the player's presence. All the large animals in the game are grazing herbivores, such as zebras, wildebeest, gazelle, buffalo, impala, and gemsbok. Also domestic animals such as goats and chickens can be found. None of the wildlife found in the game pose any direct threat to the player. Enemies encountered speak four native African languages, namely Afrikaans, Pulaar, Sotho, and Zulu.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer in Far Cry 2 attempts to include the dynamic elements of the single-player game and to provide as accessible gameplay as possible so that it is available to all skill levels and so that players have specific gameplay aspects to keep in mind when designing their own maps in the map editor. It also includes a vast number of vehicles.Online matches can be held for a maximum of 16 players. Four modes are available with the shipping of the game, consisting of Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Diamond, and Uprising. The Uprising mode provides a twist on a node-capture match by including a captain for each team. Only captains can capture the designated points across the map, and a team must assassinate the enemy captain after capturing all the points to win the round.
Multiplayer gameplay is class based, with six classes available. The Commando is the standard grunt class, with an assault rifle; the Sharpshooter specializes in long range with conventional sniper rifles; the Guerrilla excels in close combat and ambush with shotguns; the Rebel uses explosives and fire with flamethrowers and rocket launchers; the Gunner provides heavy firepower with light machine guns and rocket launchers; and the Saboteur uses stealth and silenced weapons. Each class can choose an appropriate primary weapon and a side arm, as well as explosives such as frag grenades or Molotov cocktails. Players are able to unlock more powerful weapons within each class by spending up to three "blood diamonds" on a class; the diamonds are earned through the experience points from killing other players and completing objectives. Potential upgrades for individual weapons within a class include operation manuals, maintenance manuals, and bandoliers.
The Multiplayer has a ranking system which awards points for killing enemy players, reviving friendly players, capturing control points, and capturing diamonds.
Synopsis
Setting
Far Cry 2 takes place in late 2008 in a small, failed Central African state, currently embroiled in a horrible civil war. The government has recently collapsed, leaving two factions vying for control. At war are the United Front for Liberation and Labour and the Alliance for Popular Resistance. Both factions have claimed to have the people's interests at heart, but both have shown ruthlessness, warmongering, greed, and a general disregard for the well-being of the people. Both sides have hired many foreign mercenaries to bolster their strength over the course of the conflict. The recent exhaustion of the nation's diamond mines has thrown the nation into further turmoil, leaving many foreign mercenaries without payment and no way out.The goal of the player's character is to find and assassinate the Jackal, an arms dealer who has been selling weapons to both sides of the conflict. The player must accomplish this goal by whatever means necessary, even if he has to succumb to the immorality of the warring factions and the Jackal himself.
Characters
The playable characters include Warren Clyde, Quarbani Singh, Paul Ferenc, Xianyong Bai, Marty Alencar, Frank Bilders, Josip Idromeno, Hakim Echebbi and Andre Hyppolite. The non-playable characters include Flora Guillen, Nasreen Davar, and Michele Dachss.The main enemy of the game is a sadistic but intelligent arms-dealer known as the Jackal, whose guns are fueling the violence in the country. He is notorious for selling his impressive-quality weapons at very cheap prices and being fearless. He affirms his knowledge of will to power by quoting Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil at the beginning of the game and having little to no remorse for all the death he has caused. Various tape recordings throughout the game reveal his thoughts and beliefs, in one of the tapes he reveals he is a humanist. It is rumored that the Jackal has cancer, and does not have very long to live. Despite all of the chances he has, the Jackal never tries killing the protagonist, and simply uses him as a tool to cause more chaos as the protagonist hunts for him. In the end, it is revealed that the Jackal is seeking redemption from his life as an arms-dealer, and wishes to cleanse the country of its war.
The two factions each have a leader and second in command. The UFLL's leader is Addi Mbantuwe and his subordinate's name is Leon Gakumba. The UFLL's lieutenants are Hector Voorhees, Anto Kankaras, and Joaquin Carbonell. The APR's leader is Major Oliver Tambossa and his subordinate's name is Prosper Kouassi. The APR's lieutenants are Nick Greaves, Walton Purefoy, and Arturo Quiepo.
Buddies
All of the playable characters are different types of mercenaries. The playable characters the player does not choose to play as become non-player characters who are friends of the player's character and who can be found in bars around the in-game nation. These friends are called Buddies and they can serve various roles in the game. All of the buddies offer side missions to the player, completion of which increases that buddy's standing with the player. Additionally there are a few "extra" buddies that can be found. In any playthrough the buddies that can be met is random and not all buddies will appear. The player's "Best Buddy" and "Second Best Buddy" can play additional roles.The player's "Best Buddy" can provide the player alternate, or "subverted" ways to complete most of the main story missions. These subverted missions always require more steps than the standard mission, but they often make the final objective easier: bringing a canister of napalm to a buddy who has a plane allows them to firebomb an area players are supposed to attack, reducing the odds against them, or, if a player has to assault an enemy barge, they can either assault the barge while it is in motion, or, a buddy can direct the player to retrieve components for a bomb to blow up a bridge, simply crushing the barge beneath it. Completing subverted missions also increases the player's standing with the best buddy and adds "upgrades" to every safe house in the region, such as vehicles parked outside, medical pickups and ammo pickups. However, the inevitable final objective of a subverted mission will always be that the player must rescue their buddy, who, by the end of the mission, will have become heavily outnumbered. The player must choose to either take on a shorter, more difficult mission, or a longer but easier mission.
The player's "Second Best Buddy" can come to the player's aid when they fall in battle if they are "rescue ready". The buddy will move them to a safer location, then revive them and help fight off the remaining enemies. The buddy then needs to recuperate and will be ready to save the player again once they are visited at a safehouse.
Buddies can be wounded or killed in battle during subverted missions, buddy rescues, and other circumstances. When a buddy dies, their death is permanent, and they will not be replaced. When all of the player's buddies are dead, subverted missions and buddy rescues are no longer available. When buddies are wounded in battle, they will mark their position with a smoke grenade and cry out for help. The player can choose to render aid, or simply leave the buddy to die. If the buddy's wounds are minor enough, the player can inject them with a syrette to fully heal them. However, if the buddy's injuries are too severe, the player's only option is to euthanize them by either overdosing them with syrettes or looking away and shooting them in the head. Buddies usually have three "lives" where if they're shot down a third time, the player will not be able to save them. Their last words before death are usually "thank you."
Plot
The game begins with the player's character given a mission to kill an infamous arms dealer known as "The Jackal". The player lands in the northern territory of Leboa-Sako and is introduced to the harsh reality of life in the country. En route to the town of Pala, the player begins to suffer from malaria and passes out. They wake up with the Jackal standing over them, who briefly offers the player some insight into his philosophy by quoting from Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil about the will to power. He threatens to kill the player but chooses to spare him.Meanwhile, the ceasefire in Pala has collapsed and the APR and UFLL are at war. The player either passes out with malaria after managing to escape or is severely wounded before he can escape. The player is revived by a lieutenant of one of the factions and is forced to conduct errands in exchange. After helping a journalist named Reuben Oluwagembi regarding the conflict and the Jackal's part in it, the player acquires malaria medicine from a priest defending civilians. They are then forced to work with both the APR and UFLL in Leboa-Sako, each using the player as a deniable agent to avoid a full-scale war. In addition to hunting down the Jackal, the player can provide the Underground with stamped travel documents for refugees in exchange for anti-malarial drugs, ambush convoys of weapon shipments to gain access to a greater variety of weapons and equipment from arms dealers, and assassinate targets acquired by intercepting signals from various cell-phone towers in the area for extra diamond payments.
After several successful missions, a faction captain contracts the player to assassinate the other faction's captain: however, the player is subsequently betrayed and ambushed by the contractor and his troops. The player escapes, but is forced to choose in the chaos to either to defend the priest and the civilians or aid fellow mercenaries. The player eventually falls in combat and awakes in the back of a truck filled with bodies, but escapes into the desert only to finally collapse in the following sandstorm. The Jackal appears and takes the unconscious player to safety, but is then forced to flee when retreating troops of the faction whose captain the player killed arrive; their lieutenant allows the player to redeem himself by assassinating the captain who betrayed them. The player succeeds and escapes south to the province of Bowa-Seko.
There, the player and a Buddy destabilize the area and reignite the conflict by conducting a false flag operation in Port Selao. This spreads the war further and opens up work on both sides. Eventually, the player is hired by one of the faction leaders to deliver diamonds to the opposite faction for a peace settlement between the factions. However, the player arrives to find that the area has been devastated and the faction leader killed: the Jackal appears and explains that he wishes for the conflict to continue, since the warlords seek peace only to secretly continue their crimes. He steals the diamonds and knocks the player unconscious. The player wakes imprisoned in an old slave outpost and discovers that he has been scapegoated for murdering a faction leader and disrupting the peace settlement; the player escapes from the prison to find that the conflict has deteriorated into anarchy, with the surviving faction leader and the various faction lieutenants paying the player in turn to assassinate each other.
After helping Reuben rescue journalists at risk of exile or execution, the player tracks down the Jackal with Reuben's help. The Jackal reveals his intentions to help the civilian population escape the war-torn country. Despite being tasked to kill the Jackal, the player agrees to help. The Jackal's plan is for the player to assassinate the two remaining faction lieutenants and take a case of diamonds to bribe the border guards: however, the player must now fight his fellow mercenaries and friends in the process, who also seek the diamonds to escape the country. With both faction lieutenants dead and the diamonds in hand, the player returns to the Jackal. The Jackal reveals he has planted dynamite across the border to prevent the militia from following the evacuating civilians but the detonating cord has malfunctioned and the explosives must be short-circuited on-site with a car battery, leading to the detonator's certain death. The Jackal allows the player to choose whether to bribe the guards with the diamonds and then execute himself to avoid arrest or detonate the explosives, with the Jackal taking the other task.
The game ends with Reuben witnessing the explosion, then turning to take a picture of the crowd of refugees crossing the border. One of the guards is seen examining the case of diamonds. The APR and UFLL have attempted to end hostilities and establish a government, but the violence continues. Reuben's story was ignored by the international press and he is supposedly publishing it on his personal blog. The civilian population largely escaped and NGOs credit the low casualty rate to the work of the country's Underground. The fates of both the player and the Jackal are left unknown.
Development
The unveiling of Far Cry 2 took place on July 19, 2007 in Paris, France, by head company Ubisoft. Ubisoft stated that the game had been in development by the Ubisoft Montreal team, and would be released on October 23, 2008.The protagonist of previous Far Cry games Jack Carver is not featured in this game. According to Clint Hocking, when Ubisoft interviewed players about the original Far Cry in their research for this game and asked about Jack, they found players "didn't know who he was didn't care", and thus felt no need to bring the character back. As a result, in the sequel the player chooses from nine different characters to play, each with a unique look and back story.
The game's producer, Louis-Pierre Pharand, said that the single-player game will "potentially have close to 50 hours of game play." Lead designer Clint Hocking stated that at least 100 hours are needed to experience all of the game's content.
One of the notable mechanics of Far Cry 2 is its death mechanic; if the player-character's health drops to zero, or if the player-character falls to malaria, they will be shortly rescued by one of the game's other mercenaries, who will revive the character on the field. This can put the mercenary at risk of being killed, rendering them unusable for the rest of the game. Hocking had previously been a level developer on the stealth game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell where he had fought to try to have the gameplay mechanics allow the player to react to being detected on a mission, but the leaders on the team did not want to implement this, and instead on detection immediately ended the game to have the player retry. For Far Cry 2, Hocking wants a less-penalizing system for the case when the player fails, and came upon this system, as it gave the player opportunities to make mistakes and recover from those, but still introduced risks if the player was not careful about how they found in battle.
A pre-alpha video of the game, showcasing the visuals and 13 minutes of gameplay with developer commentary, was presented in Leipzig in August 2007. The demonstration showed off the gameplay involving gunfights and driving sequences, and unique features such as first aid and physical maps were also shown. It also showcased several graphical features tying in directly with the gameplay, such as procedural breakage of vegetation and its regeneration over time, dynamic propagation of fire, and volumetric wind effects capable of breaking vegetation and spreading fire. Man-made structures were also shown to be highly destructible.
Research
In July 2007, Ubisoft sent a team of the game's developers to Africa to carry out research for the game. They reportedly spent two weeks traveling around Kenya and camping out on the savannah. The game's producer, Louis-Pierre Pharand said that following the trip they realized they had gotten the design of the game "so wrong" and made several changes to "make the game feel like you were really there". Some African wildlife are featured in the game world, but herbivores only; according to the developers, predators without careful control would have eaten all the herbivores and starved to death.Map editor
Far Cry 2s map editor has been designed specifically for ease of use. It includes features such as easily raising/lowering terrain and applying textures. A video was shown showcasing the editor, including an Eiffel Tower made completely from in-game pieces.The map editor features hundreds of objects found in the single player game including vehicles, buildings, bridges and more. Fan mods for the map editor can unlock more objects. However, weapons cannot be placed on maps to support the game's class-based gameplay. Nor can people or wild animals. And you can not edit real map of the game.
The objects in the player made maps, such as buildings and structures are all just links to the objects in the game's install directories, making the map files smaller. This means that uploading and downloading maps is quick and easy. It was announced at the GC 2008 that there will be a memory space limit for each map.
The map editor uses a real-time rendered freecam view, without a heads-up display or other screen elements such as a hand-gun combination. Time-of-day can be freely chosen in the editor. Trees and grass animate in the real-time preview.
Engine
Ubisoft has developed a new engine specifically for Far Cry 2, called Dunia, meaning "world" in Arabic.The Dunia engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers realistic semi-destructible environments, special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system and non-scripted enemy A.I actions.
The engine takes advantage of multi-core processors as well as multiple processors and supports DirectX 9 as well as DirectX 10. Only 2 or 3 percent of the original CryEngine code is re-used, according to Michiel Verheijdt, Senior Product Manager for Ubisoft Netherlands. Additionally, the engine is less hardware-demanding than CryEngine 2, the engine used in Crysis.
Marketing and release
Ubidays 2008
During Ubisoft's Ubidays, held in Paris on May 28–29, 2008, Ubisoft revealed brand new video footage for Far Cry 2. Along with the new footage, Ubisoft displayed in-game screenshots showing off the visuals rendered by Ubisoft's Dunia Engine. A video of Ubisoft Montreal's developers talking about the upcoming game's features can be seen on G4's website.Additional content is available to those who pre-order it at GameStop. Dubbed the GameStop Exclusive Pre-Order Edition, the package sells at the same price point as the regular SKU, and includes bonus missions, a fold out map and different packaging.
Retail versions
To celebrate the release of Far Cry 2, Ubisoft unveiled the Far Cry 2 Collectors' Edition, available in certain territories outside the U.S., which included real-life content such as a making-of DVD, a T-shirt, and an art book.The United States receives a separate Limited Edition package, available exclusively for those who pre-order it at GameStop. Dubbed the GameStop Exclusive Pre-Order Edition, the package sells at the same price point as the regular SKU, and includes the following:
- Six Bonus Missions with about three extra hours of gameplay;
- A fold out map of the open world of Far Cry 2;
- Exclusive game packaging.
Novels
Around the time of the game's release, the second of two Far Cry novels were published in Germany, authored by Michael Bhatty. The first novel primarily tells the story of the first game, and also features the sequel's Marty Alencar as a character, as well as including a flashback scene taking place in Far Cry 2s African setting. The second novel acts as a prequel of sorts to the game, with the plot focusing on Paula, a war veteran-turned-mercenary, and her struggle in the diamond conflicts and civil war which are the focus of Far Cry 2. Both of these novels feature a character not seen in either game called Zaman, an Asian former CIA agent who acts as a trainer and mentor to both Paula and Jack Carver. Like the game engine, Zaman's name is of Arab origin, which means 'Time' or 'Era' in Arabic.Downloadable content
On November 21, 2008, Ubisoft announced "Fortune's Pack" which includes three new weapons, an Exploding Crossbow, Ceremonial Shotgun, and Silenced Shotgun; vehicles, including a utility truck and ATV; and five new multiplayer maps. The Fortune's Pack is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Network although, it has also been released on PC but is no longer available on its own. It is only available with purchase of the full game.On February 9, 2009, Ubisoft announced "Hardcore" mode would be coming to Far Cry 2. A new damage model is applied with increased damage for all weapons.
PlayStation Home
Ubisoft released two spaces for Far Cry 2 for the PlayStation 3's now-discontinued online community-based service, PlayStation Home. These two spaces were the "Train Station" and "Reuben's Office" from the game. In the train station, users could play a Mancala mini-game, and there was a newspaper clipping that users could read. In Reuben's office, users could play a mini-game called "Interactive Map," view dossiers, and play the mini-game "Reuben's Report." These spaces were only available to users of the European and North American versions of PlayStation Home. These spaces were released during the closed beta on October 16, 2008, for the North American version and on January 22, 2009, for the European version which was after the open beta launch on December 11, 2008.On July 2, 2009, Ubisoft released a patch for Far Cry 2 that enabled full game launching support, allowing users to set up a multi-player game in Home, and from there launch directly into the game.
Reception
Far Cry 2 received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. The graphics that went into the open-world design and the African setting were generally praised. Critics also liked the intelligent enemies who actively hunt for the player, but noted that it was occasionally unresponsive. Some critics, such as Terrence Jarrad in the first Australian review of the game, praised all three aspects: "The unique setting, brilliant AI, and palpable atmosphere make Far Cry 2 a quintessential gaming experience."The main criticisms of the game were the long time it took to travel from one objective to another, constantly respawning enemies, the lack of information within the plot, and the not-so-compelling storyline. The IGN review pointed out another minor issue, with the difference in the save system: the PC version allows players to save at any time, while the console versions only allow players to save at certain points.
Additionally, some reviewers noted that the focus on immersion sometimes goes too far, and was sometimes killed by bad game-design choices and game glitches.
Game Informer gave praise to the console save system because it gives a sense of realism to the game. While IGN criticised this, GameSpot noted that the console version's save system gave the player more of a sense of urgency as it made death seem more consequential. GamePro praised Far Cry 2, saying: "Its detailed presentation, feature-rich gameplay, and palpable sense of placing players in another world yield a bar-raising effort."
Technical issues
Far Cry 2 also suffers from a number of technical problems across all platforms, such as crashes, corrupt save files, freezes, and critical mission characters disappearing from the game. In the PC version of the game, several users were able to nullify some of these technical problems by disabling audio entirely. One of the biggest issues of the game is a corrupt saves issue where all of a player's saves are corrupted thus making it impossible to finish the game.In May 2009, a patch was released for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 that fixed several issues including the corrupt save game issue. In July 2009, a similar patch was released for the PC. Other bugs, such as crashes, may still occur under some circumstances, although at decreased rates. No bug fixes or patches were integrated into the Classics/Platinum rerelease of the game. The game had also issues on Windows 7, such as inability to join servers or to download custom maps.