That doesn’t sound like I’m missing the point at all. My point was that people are pigeonholing the game into the “open world” genre and bashing it for all the ways it isn’t an open world game. Which is silly, because if you’re going to pigeonhole it into a genre then it’s clearly an FPS. Maybe some people bought the game expecting an open world game, and that sucks, but it’s wrong to bash the gameplay for failing to live up to your expectations. That has nothing to do with the game at all, and it’s how debacles happen like IGN’s Football Manager review.
BJB is right. That’s exactly why I never really felt disappointed by Far Cry 2. It never felt like an open-world game to me, so my expectations never went in that direction. Right from the beginning, they start you off with a linear “go here and do this” mission, but then even when the world becomes available to you, it’s just a first person shooter with a bigger area than normal. It’s a linear game with a more dynamic playground. It reminds me a lot of Halo in that way actually.
The first Halo was full of all these wonderful open regions where fights were dynamic and dying and coming back to life was something that never bothered me because the fights never went the same way twice. Far Cry 2 kind of takes that same concept and turns it up, and gives you an even bigger playground in which to have these dynamic fights.
I don’t feel like it’s being pigeonholed anywhere.
Whether you want to admit it or not, it is an “open world” game as well as an FPS. And for my part, I don’t think setting a FPS in a world that is devoid of versimilitude* is a particularly strong way to design a game. (I am also not a huge fan of the FPS portion, admittedly. I’d argue that the FPS gunplay is middling, and I know many people disagree. It’s not really worth discussing at that point because it all comes down to how it feels to the person playing. It either works for you or it doesn’t.)
It’s not my fault for misrepesenting what the game is trying to do, the game is doing a perfectly good job of that by itself. That’s like telling me it’s unfair to criticize the Total War games for having unsatisfying turn-based map-play because “clearly it’s an RTS!”
The game is attempting both, it can be criticized on both.
*Not knocking the actual map design here, the geography and textures are gorgeous.
FoRmaT
1604
I’d play this if it ran on my PC. For me, this game is far too frantic when playing it on the 360.
The only way you get no peace in Far Cry 2 is if you don’t want it. I’ve gone very long stretches in the game just exploring the environment, hunting down diamonds, and generally staying off the beaten path. If you don’t want to encounter enemies, stay out of sight of the roads, and you’ll be fine.
Agreed, I actually find FC2 to be a fairly slow paced game in general. It is fun when shit hits the fan though.
That’s one of my favorite things about it. You can take all the time in the world to just poke around the environment, but if you get too close to the road or to a checkpoint, or you happen upon a patrol, everything goes to shit and before too long, you’ve burned down the entire world and you’re limping away, down to your last syrette, looking at the map to find a safehouse. Great intensity.
I completely agree with what everyone is saying, the shit hitting the fan in this game is definitely a big part of the fun. I would just like to be able to drive somewhere without constantly being attacked. I really do like the game though, so don’t take it as me hating, I just have to take pretty frequent breaks from it or I flip out.
PS- I know if you stay off the road it helps with the constant attacks, but it’s pretty hard to drive competely off road, and walking seems to take a ridiculous amount of time if I’m doing anything other than exploring.
I’m so lost I have no idea what i should do the actually forward the game’s main story.
Quitch
1610
The problem was there was little reason to do so, which is why I guess they added diamond hunting. Thing was, you didn’t need to do that either unless you’re like me and suffer from serious OCD.
I really enjoyed Far Cry 2 and I hope to God they’re making another because games like this need sequels to build upon what they achieved. A full open world is almost too complex for one project, you need to add the layers in additional games.
I’m very excited by the direction shooters seem to be heading though, we’re really starting to explore some compelling territory.
Oh, and Pentadact’s idea is awesome.
To move the main story forward, you do the missions inside the cease-fire town. One of the two factions will give you another mission, or sometimes the Church/Underground also (that’s to get more medicine at certain points in the game).
My problem is I took a break from the game and when I came back a I went exploring and now I have to find that town again. :)
Just find a bus stop. It’ll get you there quickly. Check your map.
Strato
1614
Damn shame there aren’t any trains actually running in the country, at least, as far as I know.
One mission I decided the best way to get around was to simply get in the car and merge onto the train tracks and drive that way. Miss a few checkpoints, enjoy some of the less travelled areas, (from memory) get sniped and blow up the target with what was a failing rocket launcher.
It was failing because the next rocket I fired in that game some time later ended up spiralling away from me with the launcher blowing up in my hands. I had a lot of open ground to cover to some dude with a rifle shooting at me, and I’m crouching behind a car with a silenced marakov and AK-47, wondering what to do. I decided overkill would be better than walking away from the checkpoint and opted for the rocket. That didn’t work clearly.
Well, I hope you like Clear Sky because what I meant by my post was that even though that game on paper has everything you wished for in Far Cry 2, it still had its own significant problems due to poor execution.
Actually what’s even more funny about this comparison is that CS feels like more of an “action game” than the original so it has its own genre expectation issues.
I thought this was always what the problem was. I know I was a bit misled by the marketing and early reviews that didn’t quite understand what they were implying and getting into. No big deal since I was able to enjoy it for what it is, but we open-world first person shooter types are still looking for more awesome content exactly how we like it, so we’re going to yell loudly until we get it. We’re jerks like that.
Whenever I reflect on open world FPS games I realize how few polished examples of the subgenre actually exist, especially compared to third person open world games. Do developers want to keep FPS games on rails for console players or something? Has anyone thought about this for a better explanation?
Sam_C
1616
Well, I’ll have to wait a little longer to find out, since they sent me the original Stalker instead. Maybe it’s a sign…
That actually raises a good question. As far as open world first person shooters, I can think of Boiling Point, Far Cry 2, Stalker, Fallout 3 - and only Far Cry 2 could really be considered polished, and almost all of these examples could fit into another genre.
But when you say open world, that’s a very poorly defined concept in general, and I think it means something a little different for everyone. What is the archetypal open world game?
I think Far Cry 2 meets the requirements of an open world game if that means missions you don’t have to do in an exact order and the ability to entertain yourself outside set missions. But, I just think that for some people ‘open world’ means being able to interact with other people in at least some semblance of the real world and RPG elements.
Quitch
1617
The idea of the faction war in Clear Sky was good, but it’s so disconnected from the rest of the game.
Open World to me means more than sandbox, I expect there to be a living world. Far Cry 2 is a gorgeous open map with repetitive gameplay which compensates by making up excuses to send you into amazing firefights in big locations.
After playing FarCry I think if they added some of the trading & exploration of Elite it would be pretty cool.
Far Cry 2 doesn’t feel like an open-world to me, for the reasons others have more effectively summarized.
Because the enemies are almays in the same guard post locations (except for the odd jeep/boat on fixed routes from there), it feels more like fixed levels stapled together since you have to essentially “redo” the level every time you wander through it.
It does sort of remind me of retracing the levels in Halo 1 as I think someone else suggested (which was a common criticism of that game, despite the fact that Halo’s AI was more dynamic and enemies weren’t in the exact same locations on the way back). While battles in Far Cry 2 stay interesting for a while because of the weapon variety, for me that didn’t remain engaging for as long a period as I expected, since every trek across a map involves fighting the same battles over and over again. I start to dread travelling because of the repetitiveness of them.
I love open-world games, but Far Cry 2 has turned out to be a game that I was initially thrilled with, but which after getting most of the diamonds on the first map and completing most of the missions – I’m struggling to stay interested in the game any more. I’m too OCD to not get the remaining diamonds, but that only adds to the annoyingly repetitive guard battles since you have to basically carpet sweep areas to pick up traces of the missing diamonds – and none of the story missions has really been more exciting than the random guard fights (and the factions just seem indistinguishable and far more evil that the apparent primary objective).
And the subquest missions like the convoy quests are just stupid, and really break any illusion of purpose or life in the world, as the same vehicles just endlessly circle. The other subquests just involve going to the exact same areas I previously visited and cleared out before, so they’re not remotely interesting. 100% hostile NPCs/no civilians really weakens the game for me too.
I got my money’s worth out of the game for sure, but ultimately I’m a bit disappointed with it.
I agree. I think even Red Faction Guerilla did the convoy quests better by making the routes have a start and a destination.
