They had me cornered. There I was, with a cliff behind me and a dozen angry mercenaries in front of me. My gun jammed, and my buddy was nowhere to be found. I scrambled for cover, not ready to give in even though I was out of first aid supplies; digging the bullet out of my hand would be the only option. That’s when the malaria hit, causing me to lose balance. I stumbled off the cliff and fell several storeys into the river below. I couldn’t believe my luck when I dragged myself out of the river, somehow living to fight another day.
The best games surprise and delight us. Far Cry 2 has its moments, and my plunge off a cliff in Bowa-Seko remains one of the most exhilarating experiences I’ve ever had in a video game. With Far Cry 5’s release, it's a great time to revisit one of the most interesting games Ubisoft has ever made.
A Game That Actively Antagonizes You
The first Far Cry game is an exceptionally weird game. Published by Ubisoft but developed by Crytek, Far Cry told the story of a generic first-person-shooter protagonist who was trying to go on vacation but ended up getting shot at by pirates. Most of the script is written with lines like “I’ll paint his little red wagon!” and bullet spongey monsters show up halfway through the game.
What made Far Cry stand out was its impressive level design. Back in 2004, most shooters were designed around linear corridor combat. Games like Call of Duty, Doom 3, and Half-Life 2 were built around tight, linear corridors with scripted sequences and obvious enemy spawn closets. Far Cry was different: its maps were huge, with paths through and around island jungles that let you observe and plan each encounter before engaging with the enemy. It created a distinct rhythm that made combat encounters exciting in a way that linear shooters just couldn’t match.
Far Cry 2’s announcement disappointed me. In Far Cry, you swam through shark-infested waters, crept through lush jungles, and fought weird mutants all while wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Playing as a mercenary hunting an arms dealer in Africa sounded a lot less exciting. Still, when it released a year later in 2008, I decided to give it a shot.
It’s a strange game, beginning with a lengthy ride through an unnamed African country. Your taxi driver tells you how everyone’s leaving the country, offers to bring guards beer in exchange for letting him pass, and tells you to get out of his taxi when you suffer your first malaria attack, which leaves you unconscious. You wake up, meet the Big Bad named the Jackal, pass out again, wake up again, run through some gunfire, pass out again, wake up again, and work your way through the game’s tutorial. Eventually, you are let out into the open world, where you play through the game’s missions before eventually meeting the Jackal and fighting your way to the end of the game.
The reviews for Far Cry 2 weren’t bad, but they weren’t great either. Reviewers complained about the way each character delivered their lines—it was too fast, like the cast was too nervous to do anything but read their lines quickly. Players routinely complained about the military checkpoints where even after clearing one out, the enemies would respawn within minutes, making road travel tedious. The story was neither interesting nor compelling, a dull rehash of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Far Cry 2 was brown and grey at a time when shooters were at their brownest and greyest.