Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 34 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 977 Ratings

  • Summary: 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 you will have to play the factions against each other, identify and exploit your their weaknesses, and neutralize their superior numbers and firepower with surprise, subversion, cunning and, of course, brute force. Real-time story telling, systemic auto-healing, minimal in-game interface are just few of the features that make you feel the tension of being alone against barbarous warlords that threaten thousands of innocent lives. Choose from a wide range of weapons to make your way to your primary target. Meet the fight head-on with your machine-gun, go berserk with your machete or make stealth kills as a Sniper. If you feel that the atmosphere is not warm enough, light up your flamethrower and let your enemies and everything around them feel the heat. [Ubisoft] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 34
  2. Negative: 0 out of 34
  1. The unique setting, brilliant AI and palpable atmosphere, make Far Cry 2 a quintessential PC gaming experience. [Dec 2008, p.63]
  2. 100
    Far Cry 2 has its annoying quirks, no doubt. But they can be solved via patch – the quality of fights, atmosphere, graphics and gameplay still reaches a very high level.
  3. You want to freely drive through Africa, set the savannah on fire and run over zebras with your car, Far Cry 2 is the right choice.
  4. Far Cry 2 looks and sounds great (voice acting aside), but it has some gameplay mechanics that make progression through the game world a frustrating task.

See all 34 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. CameronR.
    10
    A brilliant and absorbing sandbox shooter. Something I've been waiting for for years. May be an acquired taste for players used to linear progression and structure, but I for one loved being set a task, immersing myself in the setting and then applying myself to pulling off the job. AI is fantastic, as are the graphics and gameplay. The action is wonderful, dynamic and the whole thing has immense replay value due to the dynamic nature of the thing. Two very big thumbs up. Expand
  2. ChrisS
    8
    This game captures the feel of what I'd imagine it would be like to be an amoral merc / black ops agent in some war torn African country. What I don't like so much is the repetitiveness of certain aspects of the game and the voice acting could be better. However, the main "quests" are well designed and a hell of a lot of fun to play through. Heck, all the combat in this game is really fun to play through and you can take a variety of approaches to any scenario. As I said this game gets repetitive, but the main missions and the wonderful combat and atmosphere totally make up for it. I give it an 8 of 10. Expand
  3. DavidP
    6
    The graphics are lovely and immersive (if your system is beefy enough) and I enjoy having the freedom to go anywhere at any time. However, the game's storyline is somewhere between nonsensical and nonexistent, none of the characters have much depth, the voice acting is mediocre at best, the missions are repetitive, and there are some problems with the control scheme. Some points to consider: (1) Perhaps what throws away the game's immersive qualities more than anything else is that even though you're supposedly a "no-name scumbag", the game clearly revolves around you. Ostensibly you are just some guy caught in a civil war between two sides (UFLL and APR), but in fact the supposed two sides are indistinguishable (you can't tell if you are fighting UFLL or APR guys), there are no front lines, and you almost never see AIs fighting each other. Instead, they only fight you. The war does has two sides: you (and occasionally one of your "buddies") against nearly everyone in the entire country. (2) Ostensibly you're in the country to kill the "Jackal" guy who keeps the war going, but for some reason you reach this goal by killing hundreds of random people that have nothing to do with your supposed objective. (3) The control scheme has issues. For example if you want to run for cover, you are only allowed to run straight forward (strafing disables running) and if you are reloading, the game forces you to finish reloading before you can run or switch weapons. (4) The bus stations that take you long distances have no staff. No ticket agent, no bus drivers, riding the bus is free, it's perfectly safe, and it gets you to your destination much faster than driving. Make sense? (5) Virtually everyone in the country is male and heavily armed. There are virtually no civilians. (6) There are magic boxes all over the map. Put your gun in a magic box and pull the same gun out of another box 20 miles away. Or how about the gun shop (which is normally unstaffed) where you buy the guns on a computer and the guns you bought magically appear in a warehouse next door. Make sense? The problem is that while the graphics are highly immersive, the gameplay mechanics are absurd enough to pull you out of the immersion. Expand
  4. Bought it after seeing some positive videos on the tube. I regretted it. The graphics are absolutely stunning but the game per se is terrible. Far Cry 2 is basically a terrific map with a terrible game spawning sporadically. Expand

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