(1.5 / 4)
Also for: Windows, Xbox 360
BLESS THE WARS DOWN IN AFRICA
Playing Far Cry 2, Ubisoft Montreal's follow-up to the original Far Cry, reminded me of a Don Martin-comic I read as a kid.It was the story of an actor who got a job as an extra in a war movie. He got thrown into a scene without getting any directions whatsoever. As soon as the director shouted "Cameras rolling! And action!" the clueless actor just stood there, looking through the camera at the director, asking "What's this about? What am I doing? Please, tell me what to do."
Of course, the pretentious director misinterpreted this as a statement on war. He said "Cut! Brilliant!" and kept the scene in the movie. The critics were ecstatic, propagating the extra to prestigious awards and stardom for his honest portrayal.
Throughout Far Cry 2, I felt exactly like that actor - like a mercenary thrown into a theatre of war I know nothing about, with no clue where my actions are supposed to take me. At release, it was quite well-received by critics but met with some backlash from players for its repetitive nature, and some regard it as the lowpoint for the mainline series. Boy, do I hope they are correct. If this series plummets any deeper, catching up might turn out... unpleasant.
GROUNDHOG DAY
Any game designer's most pressing matter should be to distract from the fact that the player is stuck in Groundhog Day - that is, to hide the endless loop of repeating gameplay mechanics. There are a number of ways to accomplish this:They could shorten the game to give boredom no leeway. Or they could hide it behind good, distracting writing. Or they could spice the game up by occasionally introducing new gameplay elements. Or they could beckon the player on with a progressional system of leveling. Or, if all else fails, they could just pay me hard cash for each hour played. I would prefer the last one.
Far Cry 2 fails on all accounts, relying solely on total immersion to do the trick, almost as if it was a simulator. Its length is four times the length it needs to be, and double the length it has any right to be. The incomprehensible mess of a story only serves to sidetrack you from what little good the game provides. Apart from unlocking new weaponry and utilities, there's no progression. And with no statistics or descriptions for the weapons and no choice in what order to unlock them, what do we even strive for?
A STORY IN NEED OF SENSE
The game begins with you choosing which silent protagonist to control. You then arrive in Africa with one clear goal: To assassinate a corrupt gun merchant called The Jackal. A helpful driver takes you through the savannah and into a city in an on-rails introduction reminiscent of Half-Life, doing an excellent job of setting the stage. The sun is scorching, dust is choking, flies are buzzing, and the locals are fleeing. The country is brewing for civil war. Only the animals are foolish enough to stay. Now, what kind of animal will you be?
Whatever you choose, it's one position below The Jackal in the food chain. You see, your goal is turned on its head straight upon arrival, as you pass out from malaria, only to awaken in a hotel bed to the sight of The Jackal himself aiming a gun at your head. Apparently, you work for him now, or do you? He leaves you in the middle of this war zone, with only his handgun to fend for yourself.
Enter the two factions that vie for power: the APR and the UFLL. As soon as you're within earshot, they forget about each other and aim at you. Regardless of whether you escape or not, you pass out only to awaken in the care of... ah, frankly I forgot, but who cares?
So, you play through a few tutorial missions, before starting to accept real ones, alternating between the two factions. The purpose is to play them out against each other I suppose, like the Man with no Name in A Fistful of Dollars, but with no greater goal in sight.
THE GAMEPLAY ROUNDABOUT
This marks the start of an infinite gameplay loop of getting an objective, and driving through countless enemy guard stations and patrols to get there - or finding a safer, rugged offroad route. Once there you have to work your way through a more detailed, multiplayer-like map. Upon completing said objective, you must find your way to a new mission provider. All 32 main missions and countless side missions are variations of the same mold: Kill, steal or blow something up.The world might be open, but it's neither big nor small enough, adding both the bother of traveling long distances to get anywhere, and areas cramped enough to be packed with enemies. Everyone is out to get you, and they're armed to the teeth, halting your progress significantly. As soon as you wipe them out and leave the area, they'll respawn lickety-split, adding the nuisance of having to deal with them again upon returning.
It feels like playing an online shooter where you manually have to travel and fight your way to your map of choice, where the real game begins. Granted, there's a fast travel system of buses (let's just be grateful it exists and not consider how a bus service is supposed to work in a war zone), but with only a handful of bus stops present they're never close enough - you'll likely have to fight your way there as well.
It's all in the name of immersion, with as few intrusive loading screens and HUD elements as possible. And the immersion works splendidly - too well, actually - elevated further by the impressive visuals and audio design, as well as the controversial gun jamming and malaria mechanics. The AI is surprisingly advanced, with enemy troops assisting their downed buddies. They even converse, and resort to crazed, hilarious rants when they search but cannot find you.
You need to keep your malaria in constant check through medicine. The weapons wear down awfully fast, and need to be constantly replaced. You even equip and look at the map as if it was a weapon, running the risk of getting gunned down in the process. There's a fitting craziness to the situation, but it fades in comparison to the tediousness of enduring it all.
THE WAR KEEPS GOING
In the guilt-ridden eyes of the west, contemporary Africa has for the longest time been a melting pot of wars and atrocities. Far Cry 2 pays further hommage to that ongoing narrative. But in this instance, immersion into senselessness is too high a price to pay. Far Cry 2 is boring. All its points it gets across a fraction through its running time: This is a hellscape caused by greedy bastards. It's a strong statement, followed by hour upon hour of pointlessness.Far Cry 2 has one feature working in its favor, and it's the freedom of approach to the missions. The wide range of weapon choices allows for strategic planning. However, if you arrive at your objective and have a change of heart, you need to travel all the way back to a weapons provider or be lucky to find a downed enemy with the weapon you desire. You have only three different slots for firearms, each one reserved for a special kind of weapon. So you cannot combine, for instance, a shotgun and an assault rifle, since they occupy the same slot. As a result I stuck to the tried-and-tested setup, risking nothing and making every battle play out in mostly the same, familiar way.
Fire plays an important strategic role, as the dry grass and trees easily ignite, spreading rapidly and killing enemies while you stay out of sight. There's even a faulty, non-recommendable stealth mechanic and silenced weapons for the foolhardy nighttime player.
A system of buddies - fellow mercenaries that you can set free - gives you alternative and easier, but longer, routes to get through most main missions. Helping them out can be a determining factor, since they can return the favor when you're close to death. That's especially useful in the console versions, where saving is only allowed near mission providers and certain unlockable safe houses. In the fray they die easily, so watching their backs is essential.
All these elements combine to make the missions themselves tense and fun - once you finally get there. For a few minutes the game is actually good, but that feeling is over as soon as the world opens up again. The game's mechanics and systems work well enough on their own, but they combine to create one crushingly soulless experience.
To me, hardly anything about this overall freedom makes Far Cry 2 appealing. It only serves to stall and prolong a miserable experience. It's a great technical achievement squandered by a lack of gameplay ideas to motivate its length. I do however get the impression it achieves exactly what Ubisoft intended, and that they wholeheartedly believed in emergent gameplay to save the day. The result is a lack of overall direction, with nothing to strive for until you finally finish the last mission and the credits start rolling. On the way there, your only sense of progress is the main mission countdown in the statistics menu.
Far Cry 2 is inspired by the great, classic novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. That story depicts a crew of colonists on a riverboat travelling up the Congo river towards the eponymous Heart of Darkness, deep within unknown territory. A setup doesn't get more linear than that. The final stretch of Far Cry 2 tries to emulate that story, suddenly getting very linear, with the starting location of the section even named Heart of Darkness.
Playing that part, I become totally convinced that Ubisoft Montreal could create a most engrossing, brilliant depiction of the horrors of war - if they made it heavily directed and more limited in scope. Far Cry 2 is not that. It ends abruptly, suddenly stopping the gameplay cycle of war as if expressing a clear statement, but fizzles out anyway because it earned nothing of it on its way there.
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