Far Cry 2

[NANO]

Far Cry 2 is an open world first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in October 2008. It is the second installment of the main Far Cry series, preceded by 2004's Far Cry and followed by 2012's Far Cry 3. Far Cry 2 is backwards compatible with Xbox One.

Ubisoft has marketed Far Cry 2 as the true sequel to Far Cry, however the sequel has very few noticeable similarities to the original game. Instead, it features completely new characters and setting, as well as a new style of gameplay that allows the player greater freedom to explore different African landscapes such as deserts, jungles, and savannas. The game takes place in a modern-day Central African nation during civil war. The player takes control of a mercenary on a lengthy journey to locate and assassinate "The Jackal", a notorious arms dealer.

Far Cry 2 was met with positive reception upon its release, with critics praising the game's setting, open-ended gameplay, visuals and AI, while criticism was directed at glitches, design choices and the writing. By January 2009, the game had sold nearly three million copies.

Far Cry 2 is a sequel to the original Far Cry. The game features an open-ended experience. Players are able to ally with one or multiple factions, and to progress through the game world and missions as they see fit, resulting in a nonlinear style of gameplay commonly referred to as sandbox mode that allows the story to progress at their speed and in the order they choose.Players can use a range of vehicles, including cars, trucks, boats and hang gliders, to travel within the 50 km2 (19 sq mi) gameplay area. The playing styles range from head-on assaults to stealthy infiltrations and assassinations. The game takes place in a sprawling African landscape, with terrain ranging from desert to savannah to jungle.

Various factions and vehicles are featured; enemies include human mercenaries.There is a dynamic weather system that has a day-night cycle and different weather conditions such as storms and strong winds. The time of day also affects the behavior of AI, in terms of enemy alertness and aggressiveness; for example, an enemy might have a slightly heightened awareness at night, but be unable to see the player in hiding, while during the hot part of the day the enemies might be sitting in the shade in groups but easily spot the player from a distance.

The health bar represents the health of the protagonist that is divided into five segments, each of which automatically refills if it is not depleted and the player finds cover for a few seconds. Players carry a limited supply of syrettes which can be used at any time to fully replenish the health bar, and are obtainable from first aid boxes located throughout the game world, specifically at guard posts. When nearing death (only one health bar remaining), the character must perform first aid on himself, for example removing bullets with pliers, or snapping twisted or broken fingers into position.

Weapons

The player has access to a large arsenal of real world weapons, including machine pistols, battle rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, handguns, and light machine guns. The game breaks these weapons down into three inventory slots, each with a specific list of weapons assigned to it.

In addition to the three selectable types of weapons, a machete is carried at all times, which can be used to execute enemies and the player can carry a number of hand grenades and molotov cocktails. All weapons in the game are "mirrored", with ejection ports, charging handles and other user-operated parts on the left side; the exception being the belt-fed machine guns which eject to the right (though this means the PKM is still mirrored). Further changes are made to some, such as the Ithaca 37 having a side ejection port.

A major gameplay feature is that these weapons degrade over time. Weapons become dirty and prone to jamming and will eventually become completely unusable. The player can purchase weapons at various gun shops, which provide an unlimited supply of the weapon in serviceable condition, along with manuals to upgrade weapon's reliability and accuracy. More weapons can be unlocked at the gun shop by completing missions involving the destruction of competitors' arms convoys for the gun shop owner. Weapons can also be picked up off of fallen enemies, but they are always in their most degraded condition and can only be used for a short period of time before jamming and ultimately breaking down completely.

Realism

The game has realistic features such as weapon degradation and the dynamic weather system. The player needs to hold a physical map and use a handheld navigation system (which highly resembles a military-type GPS) to get around, but they are automatically updated as the player travels through the environment. The player is able to tag certain objects and locations such as cars, sniper towers, ammo pickups and buildings, so that they are able to monitor them on their map. When vehicles are damaged the player must perform a short repair animation, involving the tightening of one of the bolts on the radiator (assault trucks), headers (buggy) or other interior part with a ratchet. The player must also deal with different levels of malaria. Every 30 to 40 minutes in real time, the player must take a pill in order to combat the blinding and potentially deadly effects of the illness.

The Dunia Engine allows complex sequences and run-events during gameplay; the game features a day-and-night cycle, as well as tree and vegetation regeneration. A unique fire propagation mechanism, which allows a small fire to spread and eventually cause large brush fires, may be used either to the player's advantage during combat or against the player. The behavior of fire is dependent on factors such as wind speed, wind direction, rain, and vegetation type. For example, a fire may not spread as easily in a lush, moist jungle environment compared to dry, grassy plains and savannas.

Several species of animals can be encountered in the game, and are able to distract the enemy as well as make them aware of the player's presence.All the large animals in the game are grazing herbivores, such as zebras, wildebeest, gazelle, buffalo, impala, and gemsbok. Also domestic animals such as goats and chickens can be found. None of the wildlife found in the game pose any direct threat to the player. Enemies encountered speak two native African languages, namely Afrikaans and Zulu.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer in Far Cry 2 attempts to include the dynamic elements of the single-player game (such as fire propagation) and to provide as accessible gameplay as possible so that it is available to all skill levels and so that players have specific gameplay aspects to keep in mind when designing their own maps in the map editor.It also includes a vast number of vehicles.

Online matches can be held for a maximum of 16 players. Four modes are available with the shipping of the game, consisting of Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Diamond (a slight variation of the standard Capture the Flag as the flags are replaced with diamonds), and Uprising. The Uprising mode provides a twist on a node-capture match by including a captain for each team. Only captains can capture the designated points across the map, and a team must assassinate the enemy captain after capturing all the points to win the round.

Multiplayer gameplay is class based, with six classes available. The Commando is the standard grunt class, with an assault rifle; the Sharpshooter specializes in long range with conventional sniper rifles; the Guerrilla excels in close combat and ambush with shotguns; the Rebel uses explosives and fire with flamethrowers and rocket launchers; the Gunner provides heavy firepower with light machine guns and rocket launchers; and the Saboteur uses stealth and silenced weapons . Each class can choose an appropriate primary weapon and a side arm, as well as explosives such as frag grenades or Molotov cocktails. Players are able to unlock more powerful weapons within each class by spending up to three "blood diamonds" on a class; the diamonds are earned through the experience points from killing other players and completing objectives. Potential upgrades for individual weapons within a class include operation manuals, maintenance manuals, and bandoliers.

The Multiplayer has a ranking system which awards points for killing enemy players, reviving friendly players, capturing control points, and capturing diamonds.