In a way, Far Cry 2 feels somewhat like the first film of a famous filmmaker that you only ever watch out of curiosity. If it weren't for Moonrise Kingdom, I wouldn't have any interest in watching Bottle Rocket and so on. Outside of attempts to ape the success of the original Far Cry on the original Xbox and then later to the 360 and Wii, Far Cry 2 is the first proper game that Ubisoft made with the brand name, and it shows. It's almost shocking that the game that came after this was Far Cry 3. Case in point, there isn't a mini-map here. Your character has to be physically holding the map in their hands for you to read it, and if you're playing on PC, the key you press to access the map is next to all of the ones you use to pull out guns. The general impression here isn't that Ubisoft was attempting to push ambition through a giant world map. Through your experience within much smaller and more detailed spaces, you're given the idea that technology was at the forefront of the experience. While the phrase "tech demo" might cross your mind, it belies the rest of the experience. Looking beyond what must have wowed people in 2008, there's a solid game in here with lots of tension that often gets overlooked in terms of discussions surrounding enemy camps, character upgrades, and all of the water-cooler talk that later games in this series embraced. There's still a lot of fun to be had here, even if it isn't driving a car with C4 on its side into a fortress you're trying to conquer. That might make this game seem less interesting, and it almost is. But it's this absence of bombast that sets it apart as the most unique game in the series. Had Far Cry followed in the footsteps of this instead of throwing a lot of its bullet points out for more emergent systems, I'm certain we would talk about the series differently nowadays.
What ultimately holds this experience back, even with those expectations, is that its narrative is about as dry as its color palette. Aside from its imposing world, there isn't much to pull you in. The introduction does you no favors, either, and made me realize how much I've taken Skyrim's opening cart ride for granted over the years. You can see the bones of what would end up being Vaas in Far Cry 3 through the opening scene with The Jackal, but the set-up for meeting him and the actual voice performance feel cookie-cutter at best. And then you step out into the world, and it's... eh. Oh, sure, there's artistic intent. It makes the world feel less welcoming and more hostile to the player. But so did Shadow of Chernobyl, and that game had some fucking color in it. I'm unashamed to admit that I installed an ENB as soon as I decided to start replaying this again because I just really don't find grey and brown to be that pleasing to the eyes. Combined with an upscaled texture pack, it looks slightly better; although all ENBs tend to have the issue that character model mods in Bethesda games have where their improvements can start to feel artificial past a certain threshold. Still, it works for what it is and has helped me to appreciate Far Cry 2 for what it is a little more. Whether or not that's the recommended experience depends on how much you mind the threshold I mentioned. If you believe post-processing takes away from the experience, by all means, skip it. I do recommend the texture pack, though. It's not a massive, 4K, "night and day" improvement, but it's only about two gigs in total and gives the world a little more clarity.
My impressions so far are this: this is the kind of game that would benefit from a remake the most. Not because my mini-map-obsessed gamer-brain needs constant UI pop-ups to be satisfied, but because the envelope could absolutely be pushed further with newer technology. And also because it would mean the narrative could be given another chance to be interesting, I dunno. Sadly, a proper remake would mean the project would have to be handed to a studio that doesn't tell its employees that "women don't sell" and fixate over seedy trenchcoat monetization practices that wouldn't be out of place behind the barren dentist's office you frequented as a youngling. If it ever does happen, Bloober Team better not be behind it.
I'll say that, in terms of first attempts, Far Cry 2 is more reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs than Bottle Rocket. It still holds up without knowing that its developers would go on to develop bigger, more interesting projects. All of the trademarks that you would later see in those projects are here in small and subtle ways, so you're not missing much, and a lot of what isn't carried over is genuinely fascinating to mull over. Is it the black sheep of its series? Do I care? It's unique, and I don't love it, but I also kind of do. It deserves slightly more recognition than it's gotten over the years, but anyone who tells me that they've bounced off of it for all of the things that could be addressed with hindsight has understandable reasons to do so.
What ultimately holds this experience back, even with those expectations, is that its narrative is about as dry as its color palette. Aside from its imposing world, there isn't much to pull you in. The introduction does you no favors, either, and made me realize how much I've taken Skyrim's opening cart ride for granted over the years. You can see the bones of what would end up being Vaas in Far Cry 3 through the opening scene with The Jackal, but the set-up for meeting him and the actual voice performance feel cookie-cutter at best. And then you step out into the world, and it's... eh. Oh, sure, there's artistic intent. It makes the world feel less welcoming and more hostile to the player. But so did Shadow of Chernobyl, and that game had some fucking color in it. I'm unashamed to admit that I installed an ENB as soon as I decided to start replaying this again because I just really don't find grey and brown to be that pleasing to the eyes. Combined with an upscaled texture pack, it looks slightly better; although all ENBs tend to have the issue that character model mods in Bethesda games have where their improvements can start to feel artificial past a certain threshold. Still, it works for what it is and has helped me to appreciate Far Cry 2 for what it is a little more. Whether or not that's the recommended experience depends on how much you mind the threshold I mentioned. If you believe post-processing takes away from the experience, by all means, skip it. I do recommend the texture pack, though. It's not a massive, 4K, "night and day" improvement, but it's only about two gigs in total and gives the world a little more clarity.
My impressions so far are this: this is the kind of game that would benefit from a remake the most. Not because my mini-map-obsessed gamer-brain needs constant UI pop-ups to be satisfied, but because the envelope could absolutely be pushed further with newer technology. And also because it would mean the narrative could be given another chance to be interesting, I dunno. Sadly, a proper remake would mean the project would have to be handed to a studio that doesn't tell its employees that "women don't sell" and fixate over seedy trenchcoat monetization practices that wouldn't be out of place behind the barren dentist's office you frequented as a youngling. If it ever does happen, Bloober Team better not be behind it.
I'll say that, in terms of first attempts, Far Cry 2 is more reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs than Bottle Rocket. It still holds up without knowing that its developers would go on to develop bigger, more interesting projects. All of the trademarks that you would later see in those projects are here in small and subtle ways, so you're not missing much, and a lot of what isn't carried over is genuinely fascinating to mull over. Is it the black sheep of its series? Do I care? It's unique, and I don't love it, but I also kind of do. It deserves slightly more recognition than it's gotten over the years, but anyone who tells me that they've bounced off of it for all of the things that could be addressed with hindsight has understandable reasons to do so.