October 24, 2008

Far Cry 2 impressions

I have been a console gamer my entire gaming life.  I didn't own a PC until I was already knee deep in console games, so I never got into the entire PC gaming scene.  My experience with the Far Cry franchise was on the Xbox with Far Cry: Instincts.  A game which differed greatly in playstyle from the PC version that inspired it.  I am a big FPS fan, but it has all been in the console realm.  I am used to going down a pre-determined path, having clear objectives, and having a linear narrative to work with.
 
That is why it was pretty intimidating when I completed the "tutorial" section of Far Cry 2 and I was set free on my own.  I didn't have an immediate mission or objective.  I had 50 kilometers of African savannah, jungle, and swamp land waiting to be explored and no invisible walls or artificial obstructions ushering me down a path.  I've played open-world games before, but never from a first-person perspective, with first-person combat.  Bringing up my map I could see various points of interests where I could acquire missions, similar to GTA, but it felt foreign (and liberating) in a FPS setting.
 
One thing I immediately liked about the game is that everything happens from your character's perspective.  I'm a big fan of this technique, since I feel it is a much more immersing experience.  There are no "cinematics", you experience all story elements from your character's point of view.  When hopping into one of the many vehicles, again, no 3rd person view kicks in.  Even viewing your map keeps you in your character's perspective, since you bring up a paper map with your left hand and can continue to move around while viewing it.  Sure, this is a "magical map" which you can zoom in and out of and displays icons and points of interest, but it works for me.
 
Another thing I noticed immediately was the impressive technology running everything.  I followed the game's development close enough to have seen all the demos for this game engine and the final product doesn't fail to impress.  You have a huge open word, day and night cycles, solid physics, a dynamic weather system, destructible foliage, great draw distance and a solid frame-rate.  Morning and dusk are particularly beautiful and walking through a dense jungle with sunlight trickling in through the trees above is a sight to see.  Weapon models are very detailed and reload animations are great.  If you are using old, war-torn weapons (the kind you pick up from the enemies) you can see their visible wear-and-tear, as they are often rusty and gritty.  They are also prone to jamming, resulting in great animations of your character trying to un-jam them.  Fire acts like fire and throwing a Molotov cocktail at some bushes is a sure way to start a blaze that can get out of control and char a pretty large area.  All these elements come together to create a realistic, immersing, and totally satisfying experience.
 
So far I have spent my time tracking down some diamonds (the game's currency which you use to buy new weapons) and unlocking safe houses (unlocking means killing the enemies that guard it).  Once unlocked you can use that house as a HUB to save your game or sleep (which you can use to advance time to a different time of day).  I've only done a handful of actual missions.
 
Given the large game world, getting from point to point will require a lot of driving.  Vehicles are essential, unless you use the bus system, which teleports you to pre-determined stations across the map.    I actually don't mind driving.  I enjoy it and it makes the game world seem even more realistic.  However, it does introduce my only complaint with the game so far.  Stationed at most intersections are guard checkpoints.  Usually manned by 3 guards.  These guys will engage you on sight.  These battles can vary in difficulty depending on the size of the checkpoint, but on average you can be done with them in a minute or so, and they typically shouldn't be a problem . . . but there is an inherent flaw with them.  After you clear one of these guard posts, if you drive a bit further down the road and decide that you need to make a u-turn and come back, the guard post will be fully manned again, even though you just killed everyone one minute before.  This is not only very unrealistic, but after a while it makes driving around a bit of a chore, since all guard checkpoints will always be manned, no matter how many times you've cleared them, and they are frequent enough to realy make getting around more of a chore than it should be.  I am sure the developers put all these guard posts in the game so that the player does not get bored driving around, but in all seriousness, they are more annoying than fun after you have to battle through the same checkpoint for the 5th time.  I really think they should have had the guard posts stay empty for at least a day until new guards show up.  I mean, the game has day and night cycles already, it would not have been very difficult to program this in.
 
That complaint aside, I am really enjoying the game.  It really is a fresh experience, a first-person open world game.  I just hope I can get all the way through it without stopping in frustration because of the previously mentioned travel problems.
 

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