Platforms: Playstation3, PC, X-Box 360
Far Cry 2 is an upcoming first person shooter to be published by Ubisoft Montreal and is the sequel to Far Cry. Crytek, developers of the original game, are not involved in the development of Far Cry 2. It was announced on January 3, 2008, that in addition to Microsoft Windows, Far Cry 2 will also be available on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and will ship simultaneously with the Windows version on October 24, 2008 in Europe and October 21, 2008 in North America.
Gameplay
The player's hunt for The Jackal will be entirely open-ended and non-linear, with the player being able to ally with anyone he/she chooses. The player's choices are completely unfettered, giving a Sandbox style of gameplay and allowing the story to progress at the speed the player chooses[6]. Instead of using individual maps, the game will take place in a sprawling nondescript land in Africa, with terrain ranging from savannah to jungle[5], similar to those seen in Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, Just Cause and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl. The gameplay area will be 50 km2 (19.5 sq. miles). Some members of the Ubisoft Montreal team spent 2 weeks in several locations in Africa filming and photographing native wildlife. The team will use the animal footage and environment photos to create an extremely realistic environment.
Various factions and vehicles will be featured; enemies will include human mercenaries, but sci-fi creatures such as the mutants from Far Cry will not be featured. Furthermore, the player's feral abilities introduced in Far Cry Instincts and its expansions will not be returning in Far Cry 2. A dynamic weather system has been added that varies the weather based on the players ability - if the player is doing exceptionally well the sky will be clear and sunny, but if problems arise the sky will become dark and stormy.
A pre-Alpha video of the game, showcasing visuals and 13 minutes of gameplay, with developer commentary was made available online in spring 2008. The video showcases many dynamic gameplay features which included procedural breakage of vegetation, allowing players to shoot down trees and shoot branches and leaves off of trees, which can eventually re-grow. The developers also showcased dynamic propagation of fire, and volumetric wind effects capable of breaking vegetation and spreading fire. Man-made structures were also shown to be highly destructible.
Far Cry 2's African-themed setting and visuals.The game will be much more realistic with features such as the player having to use a map and compass to get around, and more life or death related features such as having to use tools to dig bullets out of the body and pat themselves down when on fire. Weapons will disintegrate over time, adding a grimer look to them, and eventually causing them to jam. Several species of African wildlife can be encountered in the game, and will be able to distract the enemy as well as make them aware of your presence . All the large animals in the game will be grazing herbivores only, such as Zebras, Wildebeest, Gazelle, Buffalo, Impala, Gemsbok and the like. The reason for this was said by one of the makers "The problem was, if we wanted to put predators into that ecosystem we would have to balance it to make sure the lions didn't eat all the gazelles and then all starve to death."
The game's producer, Louis-Pierre Pharand, says that the single player will "potentially have close to 50 hours of game play."
During a demo at the DreamHack Summer 2008 event, Ubisoft developers also showcased some new game play mechanics, such as weapon jamming, vehicle damage, propagating fire, destructible environments, adaptive enemy artificial intelligence, as well as day and night cycles, and dynamic weather.
The player will also be able to tag certain objects and locations such as cars, sniper towers, ammo pickups and buildings, so that they will be able to monitor them on their map.
Setting and plot
Far Cry 2 abandons the science fiction aspects of its predecessor in favor of a more realistic and relevant setting. The game will take place in a small, fictional, central-African nation that is in a state of civil war. The name of the country may be Port Selao, or this may be one of its major cities.
The protagonist of previous Far Cry games, Jack Carver, will not be featured in this game. When Ubisoft interviewed players about the original Far Cry in their research for this game, the interviewees didn't find the character very memorable or likeable. As a result, in the sequel the player will be able to choose from eight different characters to play, each with a unique look and back story. All of the playable characters will be different types of mercenaries. The playable characters the player does not choose to play will become non-player characters who are friends of the player's character and who can be found around the in-game nation.
According to the game's plot, the nation's government has recently collapsed, leaving two major factions vying for control. At war are the United Front for Liberation and Labor (UFLL, led by Addi Mbantuwe, a former opposition leader) and the Alliance for Popular Resistance (APR, led by Oliver Tambossa, Chief of Staff for the former government). Both factions have claimed that they have the people's interests at heart, but both have shown signs of ruthlessness, warmongering, greed, and a general disregard for the well-being of the people. Both sides have hired many foreign mercenaries to bolster their strength over the course of the conflict.
Within the game world, it has recently been revealed that the nation's diamond mines have been exhausted, throwing the nation, its people, and the conflict into further turmoil, and possibly leaving the many foreign mercenaries without pay and without a way out, in a country in whose fate they have no real interest.
The goal of the player's character will be to find and assassinate "The Jackal", an arms dealer that has been selling weapons to both sides of the conflict. The player must accomplish this goal by whatever means necessary, perhaps even through actions which are dangerously close to the level of immorality employed by the warring factions and the Jackal himself. This manhunt through an African nation and the simultaneous crisis of morality strongly resemble and were inspired by the 1902 novella Heart of Darkness, and the film it later inspired, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.
Reply
