Far Cry 2 (XBOX 360)

Gamecow’s Price	RRP $109.95     Save $11.95 $98.00
Availability
Genre	First Person Shooter
Platform	XBOX 360
Release Date	23/10/2008
Rated

Far Cry 2 will have you telling your friends about your adventures in Africa without actually having to leave your room.  The open world environment is unbelievable and you have 50 square kilometres of map to explore.  The action and combat is some of the best in the first person shooter genre, but it is the attention to the little details that make this game stand out from the pack.

Far Cry 2 should be in your collection, either for the combat or the hours you can send exploring the surrounds.

Far Cry 2 (XBOX 360) Product Information

Far Cry® 2, the next-generation first-person shooter from Ubisoft, takes you deep into the most beautiful but also most hostile environments in the world—Africa! A true open-world shooter, every decision you make affects the outcome of the game.

Caught between two rival factions in war-torn Africa, you are sent to take out "The Jackal," a mysterious character who has rekindled the conflict between the warlords, jeopardizing thousands of lives. In order to fulfil your mission, play the factions against each other, identify and exploit their weaknesses, and neutralize their superior numbers and firepower with surprise, subversion, cunning and, of course, brute force.
• Open world: Experience real freedom while roaming in more than 50 square kilometres without any loading.
• Dunia Engine: The award-winning Ubisoft Montreal dev team has tailor-made this new engine for Far Cry 2. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments
• Fire: Feel the heat of the most realistic fire ever seen in a video game. Use wind and propagation to surround and trap your enemies.
• Destructible environments: No more obstacles – everything is breakable and alterable, even in Multiplayer mode.
• Non-scripted A.I.: Medics will drag wounded soldiers to safety. Grunts will come to fear you. Your reputation and in-game actions will make enemies drop their guns and run for their lives.
• Huge adventure: Fight for two rival factions, and make your way up to your primary target by any means necessary.
• Multiplayer: Challenge your friends but watch your back – you never know who your true friends are and who might betray you!

Far Cry 2 (XBOX 360) Review

What's best about Far Cry 2? Is it the astonishingly beautiful African environment, so alive with movement, sound and realistic reaction to your actions that it might just be the best shooter sandbox of all time? Is it that the potential for eye-popping explosions, flying vehicle chassis and spiralling wood splinters awaits around every corner, above every ridge and in every chasm of the huge 50km square open world? Or is it the true freedom the game grants the player, allowing for a plot that has its roots in linear storytelling but provides tantalising off the beaten path branches?

The true answer is that there is no one thing that can be considered best about Far Cry 2. Its brilliance lies in the fact that it is more than the sum of its already impressive parts.

Essentially the game is a playground that caters for whatever mood players find themselves in. Want to storm into an enemy encampment in broad daylight John Rambo style, perhaps running a few unfortunate soldiers down with a MG-mounted Jeep before letting loose with your grenade launcher? Go ahead. Prefer to fast-forward the incredible day/night cycle to midnight by taking a nap in one of the Safe Houses and sneak in under the cover of darkness before slicing and dicing from behind with your machete? Be the game's guest.

You wake in a slaughter house just outside town. A merc, one that you did not pick to play as at the beginning of the game but is determined by that choice, now reckons you owe him a few favours on account of him saving your ass. From there, it's up to you what jobs you take on, whether it be paid work from the UFLL or APR (diamonds act as currency in Far Cry 2, which can be spent on upgrades), malaria pill jobs from various good Samaritans, weapon vendor jobs that unlock new purchasable gear, buddy jobs that improve your 'history' with the NPC mercs or assassination jobs dished out by a disguised voice heard from communication masts. What they all have in common, however, is combat, and it's here that Far Cry 2 initially frustrates.

And it's also through experimentation that you'll experience the magic moments you'll not find anywhere else. Here's only a few of ours: Spotting the score of cockroaches darting about the floor of the APR HQ in town, evidence of Ubisoft Montreal's incredible attention to detail. Swimming in a ravine as the morning sun rises over the horizon, a breathtaking vista reinforcing the game's graphical credentials. Driving through the Savannah wilds with a pack of zebras at your side (we only ever accidentally ran over animals, promise). Chucking a Molotov cocktail inside a heavily guarded building and watching the propagating fire technology flex its muscles as it sweeps in the direction of the wind, torching everything in its path. Using the grenade launcher to destroy a convoy and praying the charred metal doesn't fly in your direction.

Obviously if you're a shooter fan you should buy this game. A simple glance at the score should confirm in your mind, if there was ever any doubt, that Far Cry 2 is nothing but brilliant. But we're already looking to the future. Our minds are already spinning at what Ubisoft Montreal might come up with for the inevitable Far Cry 3. Just like your options when it comes to tackling a mission, the possibilities are endless.

Full review VIDEOGAMER