I have bought Far Cry 2 from GOG a while back but didn't have a chance to play it.
Recently got Far Cry 3 and thought I might have a go at Far Cry 2 first (I know the stories are completely unrelated).
Firstly, the game look really dated for a 2008 game. Crysis was released in 2007 and I remember it being a very pretty game.
I actually enjoyed it a bit for how you navigate with a map and the minimal HUD.
Driving around was actually enjoyable, for reasons I don't quite know myself.
But then there were the enemies. They were not difficult to fight off but they just keep re-spawning.
I just wanted to drive to my mission, but no, there is a checkpoint between me and my mission. Even if I speed through the checkpoints, there will be enemy cars spawning next to me. They are more annoying than Zubats...

I think there's a mod that cuts back or eliminates the respawn. And yeah, it's annoying. A one or two day delay would be reasonable, but it's nowhere near that long.

Anyway, check some of the older threads and I believe you'll find a link to the mod I'm thinking of.

HereForTheBeer is right. Here is the realism mod.

Fast travel, eh? You know, I've noticed the comments of some people who, in the end, preferred FC2 to FC3. I know, weird, right? Their point is that at least FC2 felt like you were exploring the world and discovering things as you move along, while in FC3 pretty much everything is pointed out to you on the map and the in game hud, from treasure/animal hunting/radio tower locations to waypoints leading to the next area in the mission.

I have played all three games. And though it is true that Ubisoft left Far Cry 2 unfinished in many ways. With the realism mod, it just sucks you back in. In my opinion Far Cry 2 is the closest thing to a western "S.T.A.L.K.E.R" game. It conveys the feeling of being a mercenary quite well, and the story is my favorite of the franchise. Plus the soundtrack is phenomenal.

But in the end, to each their own.

FC 2 actually has dynamic physics that FC 3 doesn't have.

I think both games are pretty good, I played FC 2 after finishing FC 3 and then I'll play FC 1 (reverse order because why not)

FC 2 & 3 are interesting to compere because one's strength plays on the others weakness.

For example FC 3 is awesome once it gets going but once its' over I didn't find myself going back to it. Not sure if I will go back to FC 2 but I see myself going back to it more then FC 3.

I found the gun fights in FC 2 awesome and the enemies aggressive and relentless which is what I like. In FC 3 I found myself shooting friends and civilians out of boredom which is never a good thing. The one complaint about FC I have is that it takes too long to get around and there are so many cliffs making the whole area smaller then it appears on the map.

Lastly the fact that FC 2 is DRM free does play a part in it. I know I'm just saying what a lot of people already think, but a sense of owner ship goes a long way into me enjoying a game in all honesty.

Far Cry 2 is one of those games with a fantastic premise (I'm oddly attracted to dirty "modern" mercenary stories), excellent atmosphere but everything else in the design department is a half-note off.

You have this immersive and convincing looking visual style and a gameplay structure that feels quite open-worldish, but at the same time the game is held back by seriously unrealistic and jarring action gameplay. All enemies can soak up a whole bunch of bullets which immediately kills any pretense that you're really there with a gun in your hand. It is just bizarre to watch someone in a t-shirt have his chest seemingly explode with bullet impacts yet he only staggers and even side-steps while firing back. Sure, it makes it so that you can't take advantage of the AI too much by simply shooting everyone before they can react properly, it prevents the game from becoming too easy as the aggressor. It feels very cheap however and makes the dramatic and punchy feel of the game seem a little hollow when your high velocity rounds hit like bean bags.

Next is the infamous re-spawning manned checkpoints. You can destroy them, burn them down and kill all the guards, but if you wander off for five minutes you will come back and find them refurbished and manned again. I understand why they respawn, they are the only thing that give the player a sense of danger and challange outside of the actual missions. If you could just clear them out in 30 seconds and never have to fight them again the game would lose it's atmosphere and pacing very quickly. It shouldn't be five or 10 real-time minutes however. It makes it feel like attacking is inconsequential, like you're not accomplishing ANYTHING at all. I don't think it would be so bad if it took about an hour in real-time for a checkpoint to become active again after you gun everyone down. The roaming patrols already provide enough of a distraction to your open-world travel and exploration, it would be great to come back to a smouldering checkpoint and find a single truck with two or three dudes investigating the carnage rather than finding a completely untouched checkpoint with yet another guard sleeping in the sun despite what happened to his predecessors.

I've enjoyed a whole bunch of hours of FC2. I've probably invested about 50-60 hours on a couple of playthroughs in the past. Still I must admit the bullet-sponge enemies and fast respawn rate for manned checkpoints are truly immersion breaking and frustrating design decisions that needed a different design philosophy. It is ok to make your game a little easier if it makes it more playable and enjoyable. I'm looking forward to starting another playthrough with the realism mod that tweaks bullet damage and some AI behaviour. Far Cry 2 has so many things going for it, but it needs some re-balancing and tweaking to the core design to make it an excellent shooter.

You should get far cry 1 then if you haven't already; that is an excellent ego-shooter.

FarCry2 dated for 2008? LoL

It looks superior to FarCry3, which was a downgrade in both visuals and gameplay.

FarCry 2 is the best of the series, by far.

This game is horrendous for the average gamer, only buy it if you are a REALLY big fan of the franchise. The lush colorful jungles of the first game were replaced by a dry African country with a brown filter attached that makes it even more horrible. And the malaria mechanic is AWFUL, sometimes in the middle of a battle you will simply fall on the ground with your character grasping for his pills only to discover there arent any left which just makes the whole experience so much more boring. The only good thing about Far Cry 2 is how solid the driving and shooting feels, and the iron sights surprisingly dont have any zoom and there is no HUD which really adds to the immersion. Only for it to be broken by an attack of malaria or whatever.

I disagree; I liked the malaria mechanic. I never ran out of pills because I was too scared to - the game foreshadows quite well that running out would be a really bad idea, with the number of times you end up in the middle of a firefight and grasping for the few pills you have left, whenever I used my last pill I headed on back to the church to get more.

I agree with the common complaints of respawning checkpoints. I never noticed the enemies being bullet sponges much because I quickly moved away from automatic weapons to sniper rifles; naturally, I did this because the automatics were extremely underpowered. This, and the magic AI that knows exactly here you are as soon as you do anything, make the silenced weapons completely useless. That coloured my perception of the game alot - it seemed to offer so many paths to taking on groups of enemies, only for a large number of them to be completely useless.

It really is a shame, as it has a great setting, and a lot of potential, only to fall flat on what amount to small design flaws in the game mechanics - that unfortunately have a large impact on the player overall.

BTW SPOILERS SKIP MSG IF YOU DONT WANT ANY SPOILER INFO


Having recently played 4 games of Far Cry 2 back-to-back; all of them with a "stealth build-out', I had a very different (and satisfying) experience with the stealth. My play-through's were once each on the 'normal', 'hard', and 'infamous'; and lastly on 'infamous' with the commonly-recommended Dylan's Realism Mod (which I found made the game too easy IMO).

My stealth build-out consisted of the silent MP, the dart sniper rifle, and (since that was enough for the stealthy stuff) the grenade launcher (for bigger fish, like taking out convoys); and of course the camo suit.

My experience is that (especially at nighttime) the stealth worked very well (for an FPS). I could sneak around the various bases (hiding via using LOS cover; or bushes and tall brush where available).

In a base if I needed to take out a target I can routinely sneak up, take a quick head shot with the MP, and the move away; and rarely was that shot heard. In addition, until another patrolling NPC happened to stumble over the dead body, no one would be alerted. So taking a long-patroller out was almost for sure not going to be seen for awhile (if at all) and meanwhile no one would be the wiser that I was even there.

Even in firefights, especially (but not necessarily) if I was in brush, as long as I stayed on the move, the NPC's would always go to where I had been and not where I went to. Most often I could even extract away from the action and re-approach a different way, without being found by the NPCs. I never experienced any 'magic AI' (the closest to that would be any snipers - they seem to see right through brush - but that's what I carry to dart rifle for - to get the snipers <g>)

Often I could sneak into a base and grab diamonds unseen. And as I recall, I complete every single 'target of opportunity' (assassination) mission completely stealthy - only taking out that single target, and getting away cleanly (often without any NPC's even knowing that a hit had occurred. (The toughest sneak in and kill job is at the Ranger Station/Resort - but I did it every time by sneaking very slowly and carefully and using the abundant brush for cover.)

Things are of course more difficult during daylight. But even then the stealth is decent. It really shines at night though (to make a bad pun).

My experience with the stealth in Far Cry 2 is that it is rather decent for an FPS with a big focus on killing; and I enjoyed it quite a bit. (Actually I may start another game soon - to be played stealthy again - but maybe with more restrictions upon myself - like perhaps I cannot use mounted vehicle guns - or maybe can't use any vehicles at all except for boats. Not sure yet...)

I found the many 'paths' to each mission were quite fulfilling. I could always choose to go by roads (and thus through enemy checkpoints) or off-road (and thus avoid most or all intervening checkpoints). I didn't really find any approach to be useless. Contrary I felt the game was quite open with many viable paths.

Regarding the so-called (by everyone it seems) 'malaria mechanic' - it's very simple. You will NEVER run out of pills - until certain points in the story-line. Then you will ALWAYS run out at that time.

If you do all the available assassination missions; all the available gun-trader missions, and every available buddy mission; you won't run out of pills at all (and that's quite a few missions). They only run out after certain specific main story missions - and then they always run out at that time. BUT you are told to go get more medicine while you still have one or two pills left - and that is plenty of time to complete the medicine mission and proceed on your way. If you do that you will never actually run dry of pills.

I just consider those points in the story to be like any other main story mission - you *have* to do it. So just do it and carry on. Then you never run dry.

I really enjoyed Far Cry 2. It's now one of my favorite FPS'.