FarCry 2 - Reviewed - Xbox 360
Being Africans ourselves means that our experience of FarCry 2 was always going to be different to those who have never had the chance to see Africa with their own two eyes.... Be it the sounds of familiar birds in the trees, the sunset over the veld or the banter of the Afrikaans mercenaries in the guard posts, you are going to be amazed at exactly how much detail has been added into this game to make it feel like a true African experience, the environment nearly steals the show entirely.... You will run into two major factions in the game and it will be up to you to play them against each other so that you can complete your objective.... If you get 'killed' in battle and your second best buddy is available, they will come and pull you out of the mess you have made and help you clear out the enemies in the area. Be warned though, any of your buddies get hurt and you are unable to heal them or choose to put them out of their misery then they can die, for good.... The type of shooter that's weapons feel so solid and the action so intense that it reminds of those good old days when gaming meant nothing but playing FPS games on your PC.... While I am not a fan of developers relying too much on their tech-wizardy to make a game feel fun, it is the exact reason why FarCry2 is a real treat to any shooter fan.... I realised that I didn't really mind that so many missions were similar, the sheer difference that the locations and environmental differences made meant that every single repetitive mission played out in a completely different way.... On the other hand, the first time you manage to silently take out an entire guard post without attracting any attention or alerting any other soldiers, you will feel a deep sense of pride and accomplishment. I say it again, FarCry2 is a shooter, put into a setting that allows you to play as much as you want and experiment with different ways to accomplish goals.... So if you are looking for a fun shooter that you can pick up and play for a long time to come, here it is.... While the multiplayer is quite a lot of fun and plays fairly similarly to the formula seen in the Call of Duty franchise, it does come across as quite obvious that the single player game was the main focus of the developers.... All of the elements in the map editor are taken straight from the disc, which means that they can be easily shared over Xbox Live and PSN because of their small file size because essentially all that other players will be doing will be downloading the configuration settings and placement info.... Say yes and you will have it in a minute or so and can jump straight in. At the end of the map, you can rate it if you want and then decide to keep it or dump it.... With smooth and stunning visuals, amazing sound and the fact that you will never ever leave the first person view, you really will feel like it is you standing under a tree in the African veld, stinking like something that died a few days prior.
Nick De Bruyne