FA+
Shop
In which I discuss something that nobody cares about
16 years ago
General
Gametap added Far Cry 2 last week. I'd been looking forward to it. It's one of those games that I've looked forward to playing, but not so much that I'd actually buy it. And Gametap mentioned they were eventually adding it, like, a year ago, so I've just been patiently waiting ever since. I'm already paying ten bucks a month for it, might as well use it.
Anyway. Pretty much all of the reviews I've read have said the same thing. Achingly beautiful world, wonderfully immersive game mechanics, but oh god there's a guard post every 100 meters and I'm sick of every person in the world trying to kill me. And that's more or less how I felt, too. The world around you looks so real, you can almost SMELL it. I almost wished there was an option to remove everyone else in the world so I could just explore. And yes, I was getting sick of the constant guard posts. I was getting sick of how these guys would hound me to their dying breath. How much are these fools getting paid, anyway? Dude, whatever it is, it's not worth it.
And that was when I realized I was doing it all wrong. The early parts of the game taught me how to scope out an area first and approach things with tact. I realized I should be doing this with the guard posts as well. It's much more interesting to hop out of your jeep beforehand, find a nice vantage point, and silently take out everyone you can from afar. It took LONGER, yeah, but it was more fun. Silently skulking around in the tall grass, firing off a shot, running off to a new position, sniping the guys who ran out to where you used to be, picking off the scragglers silently with your machete ...
And it was THEN, after I had turned the game into a psychotic murdering simulator, that I was struck with a profound truth.
There are no "good guys" in this game.
Think about that for a minute. When I first started playing, I was struck with the similarities to another game with similar mechanics, Just Cause. In Just Cause you're a suave CIA agent or something who is working to overthrow a corrupt dictator and liberate the populace. You're the good guy, the citizens are good guys, the dictator is evil and the people that work for him are evil. Simple. Black and white.
Far Cry 2, on the other hand, is nothing but greys. You're sent in to assassinate this guy known as the Jackal who's supplying weapons for a civil war in some small African nation. So you're the good guy and he's the bad guy, right? At first, yeah, it seems that way, but then you catch malaria, fail to kill the Jackal, and now you're stuck in this terrible little hell hole of a country, and you need to work with the two fighting factions so you can find the Jackal and kill him and get out, but then you realize that the two factions are EXACTLY THE SAME, both of them claiming to fight for the people after overthrowing the king, but ... but there are NO PEOPLE LEFT, because they've all fled, because the fighting has gotten so bad, and there's nothing left but mercenaries, and then you hear propaganda on the radio from one of the factions telling the people to fight for their freedom, but that's what the other guys are saying too, but there's NOBODY LEFT because they're either dead or gone, and these two factions are fighting for NOTHING, and and and ...
... and YOU!! You play right into it! You've got to kill the Jackal so that he can't supply weapons, but to survive you've got to buy the weapons he supplies, and you're working for both of the factions, and you're killing the soldiers and mercenaries and making things worse just so you can get out of there, and ...
It's all very bleak.
So that's my take on it. People seem to often complain about game plots, how they're cookie-cutter, or how the choices you make are either sickeningly good or chaotically evil. I'm surprised more people don't mention Far Cry 2. I dunno, maybe I just haven't played many recent shooters. Maybe they're all shades of grey. But this one is just ... so subtle about it. You just start off, thinking you're the good guy killing the bad guy, but then after awhile you realize there ARE no good guys, no bad guys, everyone is working to profit off of everyone else ...
tl;dr - Far Cry 2 is awesome and I don't care what anyone else thinks.
Anyway. Pretty much all of the reviews I've read have said the same thing. Achingly beautiful world, wonderfully immersive game mechanics, but oh god there's a guard post every 100 meters and I'm sick of every person in the world trying to kill me. And that's more or less how I felt, too. The world around you looks so real, you can almost SMELL it. I almost wished there was an option to remove everyone else in the world so I could just explore. And yes, I was getting sick of the constant guard posts. I was getting sick of how these guys would hound me to their dying breath. How much are these fools getting paid, anyway? Dude, whatever it is, it's not worth it.
And that was when I realized I was doing it all wrong. The early parts of the game taught me how to scope out an area first and approach things with tact. I realized I should be doing this with the guard posts as well. It's much more interesting to hop out of your jeep beforehand, find a nice vantage point, and silently take out everyone you can from afar. It took LONGER, yeah, but it was more fun. Silently skulking around in the tall grass, firing off a shot, running off to a new position, sniping the guys who ran out to where you used to be, picking off the scragglers silently with your machete ...
And it was THEN, after I had turned the game into a psychotic murdering simulator, that I was struck with a profound truth.
There are no "good guys" in this game.
Think about that for a minute. When I first started playing, I was struck with the similarities to another game with similar mechanics, Just Cause. In Just Cause you're a suave CIA agent or something who is working to overthrow a corrupt dictator and liberate the populace. You're the good guy, the citizens are good guys, the dictator is evil and the people that work for him are evil. Simple. Black and white.
Far Cry 2, on the other hand, is nothing but greys. You're sent in to assassinate this guy known as the Jackal who's supplying weapons for a civil war in some small African nation. So you're the good guy and he's the bad guy, right? At first, yeah, it seems that way, but then you catch malaria, fail to kill the Jackal, and now you're stuck in this terrible little hell hole of a country, and you need to work with the two fighting factions so you can find the Jackal and kill him and get out, but then you realize that the two factions are EXACTLY THE SAME, both of them claiming to fight for the people after overthrowing the king, but ... but there are NO PEOPLE LEFT, because they've all fled, because the fighting has gotten so bad, and there's nothing left but mercenaries, and then you hear propaganda on the radio from one of the factions telling the people to fight for their freedom, but that's what the other guys are saying too, but there's NOBODY LEFT because they're either dead or gone, and these two factions are fighting for NOTHING, and and and ...
... and YOU!! You play right into it! You've got to kill the Jackal so that he can't supply weapons, but to survive you've got to buy the weapons he supplies, and you're working for both of the factions, and you're killing the soldiers and mercenaries and making things worse just so you can get out of there, and ...
It's all very bleak.
So that's my take on it. People seem to often complain about game plots, how they're cookie-cutter, or how the choices you make are either sickeningly good or chaotically evil. I'm surprised more people don't mention Far Cry 2. I dunno, maybe I just haven't played many recent shooters. Maybe they're all shades of grey. But this one is just ... so subtle about it. You just start off, thinking you're the good guy killing the bad guy, but then after awhile you realize there ARE no good guys, no bad guys, everyone is working to profit off of everyone else ...
tl;dr - Far Cry 2 is awesome and I don't care what anyone else thinks.
I admittedly never had high interest of FPS games outside of Source engine based games nowadays, but maybe I check it out if I find it for cheap. :/
Lesse how it goes.
faction 2: "You're working for us but we want to keep it secret so our soldiers will shoot you on sight."
There are no factions, it's just a bunch of people all over the place shooting at you.
But plotwise, I mean ... it's all so pointless! They're both "liberation" armies, but it's nothing but a power play! They've overthrown the king, but now the country is worse off than ever! They're wasting their resources hiring mercenaries instead of working together!
It just ... it feels like an ACTUAL WAR, not some cartoon conflict. I can overlook a lot of the game's faults just for that.
I only dislike the game because you never have your time to relax (always some jeep with people trying to kill you being spawned to keep you CONSTANTLY ALERT wherever you are) and because the only person I end up finding cool is the Jackal, because he's a bit like an Übermensch (i.e. he is his own only leader)
Btw the driving around to every location thing is not just to prolong the game, it's also to hide load times. With a turbo speed cheat you can zip all over the place and the game engine can't actually keep up.
I've actually done very few missions, now that I think about it. Yeah, I figured the map was loading in the background, since using a bus involves a load screen, but I don't mind it. It makes things interesting and pads out missions without making them feel too boring.
... Wasn't I ranting in a similar fashion about Borderlands a few months ago? Now I can barely tolerate it. I'll probably be the same way with this.
It is interesting though to note how, once you play the game by the rules intended to be played by, things start to make sense. With games getting so sandboxy, it can be so easy to break the immersive scenery and lose touch with the plot and characters.
(Because you wouldn't know, I'll inform you I'm a jackal)
I have the original Far Cry game for PC... I never beat it. The world was amazing, the graphics were great, et cetera. That said, the acting blew chunks, and the story was invisible as far as I could tell. The same thing happened with that game as did with FC2: I played it for a while, then lost interest. Things never seemed to really click with it.
Another FC game: Far Cry Instincts (for the original x-box). Again, visually amazing game... but the rest of it was "eh" at best.
But are graphics really something to buy/play a game for? Or are they supposed to be gravy? The FC games are known for their amazing graphics. FC2 attracted my attention due to the weapons system... But once I realized how slow things would actually be in the game, I decided that my time was better spent elsewhere. I'm somewhat hoping that other developers pick up on the graphics, environment, and weapons system (including the 'oops this was a dropped weapon so it might jam on you') from FC2 and make a story that has an actual story.
Ha, I find it funny that it's called Far Cry 2 at all. Wasn't the first one about an evil scientist who was breeding a race of mutant gorillas or something?
Mmmmmm, gravy... If it's all about graphics, FC wouldn't be bad. Should be dirt cheap now, and almost all computers these days would run it. The controls were pretty acceptable, as well. I just never got that far into it due to HORRIBLE acting.
... *cough* Or maybe you could just find a god-mode cheat, turn wayyyy down all the sound effects and voices and only leave ambiance and music, and do that whole exploring thing, just totally ignoring all the people as they make futile attempts to harm you.
P.S. Be on steam tonight 'cause I want to ask you somethin'!
No plot, all gameplay
And it's so delicious~
It's a Far Cry from the world we thought we'd inherit.
Hmm. I shall have to keep an eye out for steam sales.