JeffL
1741
How much of the game could I play with nothing but a sniper rifle?
Marcin
1742
For me FC2 was one of those “sum of its parts” thing. The gun feel, the way the fire propagation worked, the AI, the weapon progression, and the world. On the downside was the dialogue, the silly respawns, and having to drive back to get missions all the time. My enjoyment of the former overshadowed the latter, so it ended up being quite a lot of fun.
Getting some decent weapons definitely helped.
How to enjoy FC2:
Delete it from your hard drive, and play Just Cause 2 instead.
If you want a sandbox consisting of explosions, fire, and a beyond-dismissable story, JC2 is so far beyond FC2 it’s just silly.
Most of it. But you’ll probably want at least a pistol or something for close encounters.
That seems like a very short amount of time to give a game as big as Far Cry 2! Of course FC2 is one of my favorite games of this generation. I was absolutely hooked on it when it came out.
By the same logic, if you want a deep RPG with tactical combat, delete Just Cause 2 and install Dragon Age. You’ve entirely missed the point of Far Cry 2.
The biggest difference is first person perspective. This may not seem like much, but some of us really want open world FPS games. There are very few.
This is the best sniping game I’ve ever played. As Two Sheds said, you will need something for up-close defense (my personal pick is a machine pistol) and then that leaves your heavy weapon slot free for a rocket launcher. I played with that loadout and variations thereupon for pretty much the entire game.
“Waiter! There’s too much delicious chocolate cake on my plate! Do not bring me any more!”
Looking at Far Cry 2 as a series of checkpoints to pass, sets you up for significant frustration. If you look at them as an endless resource, a constantly renewed opportunity to watch fire dance across the savanna, or to listen to the sounds of frightened mercenaries, the game becomes much more enjoyable. This is a playground, not a race.
Also, turning off the music in Far Cry 2 makes a huge difference in the game.
Dean
1750
I found committing myself to a goal, like, “I’m going all the way up the river” made FC2 pretty awesome. It’s not a fuck-around-for-20-minutes kind of game. Take a trip. Explore something far away. Don’t go running back to town/bar/gun dealer every 15 minutes.
Far Cry 2 is about the stuff that happens when you’re outside your safe zone.
And yeah, turn off the music and go hang gliding. You can hear the wind.
More precisely, don’t grind through it. Pick it up to play 30 minutes at a time.
Hah, I see Dean cross posted and had a different experience than me. He’s right though, if you go out a long ways you’ll be fine. Just don’t grind quests and go through the same checkpoints around town every time.
I loved Far Cry 2 and you guys are making me want to replay it.
“Fire! Fire!”
This was the key to enjoying Far Cry 2 for me. In a linear corridor shooter you go from point A to point B, and you handle the enemies in between. In Far Cry 2, those enemies happen to be at set locations, and you get the opportunity to scout them out and decide how to take them out. And once in a while your plans go awry and all hell breaks loose. But those checkpoints just take the place of the enemies you face in any corridor shooter. Just because you’ve been through that checkpoint before in the past doesn’t mean that going through it again will result in the same or even a similar firefight. And since the firefights are the meat and potatoes of the game, that’s something to be enjoyed, not looked upon as something you have to do as an annoyance. If viewed that way, I can see how it would suck. But then that would be true of any corridor shooter too. In Half Life you have to get past those soldiers, and if you wished all the time that you could just get past it already, what kind of game are you really playing, and why are you playing?
For me, the sniper rifle is the only weapon in the game that kind of breaks Far Cry 2. It’s satisfying, yes. But if the true joy of Far Cry 2 comes when things go awry, when things don’t go as planned, then the sniper rifle is the weapon with which that is least likely to happen. You have a huge buffer, depending on how far away you are, with which to correct any mistakes if you miss. So while the sniping is satisfying, I’d say it’s also the weapon that lets you least enjoy the chaos that’s the best part of Far Cry 2’s dynamic encounters.
Quitch
1756
And it’s awesome how well you come to know some of the locations. First time you cause massive explosions throughout the refinery. Second time you sneak through the fence and pick off the guards. Third time you plant your vehicle in front and let rip with the machine gun. Fourth time you sit on a hill overlooking the refinery checking guards out and then begin the sniping watching them run for cover.
It was a beautiful world to explore and the terrain made for some great fights. The only pure FPS playground I can think of.
Well, JC2 IS the next game in my GameFly queue…so if I returned FC2…
Oh, I see. That means you’re playing Far Cry 2 with a PS3 controller. Interesting. I think I’ve had nightmares about that scenario.
Alright guys, I hope it clicks in the next hours and so on. :) Y’all are making it sound pretty great.
Quitch
1760
Go out, let the shit hit the fan and what will be will be. Don’t worry too much about picking up missions and all that rubbish, those are just excuses to get you to go and cause more shit to happen.
And you do it all on foot, in a beautiful landscape. No grappling hook antics, just you, your gun and all the chaos that results.
