Now Playing: Far Cry 2

Everyone Hates You: The Game is pretty darn good. But my initial enthusiasm kind of waned over the course of the game. You see, Far Cry 2 does a lot of things right but it sadly falls short of greatness due to four unfortunate issues. Set in a large, fairly varied slice of Africa, you play as a merc for hire, with the overall goal of assassinating an arms dealer.

There’s a ton of content to be found in the game’s beautiful, open world even if you only focus on the primary missions. So let’s look at the positives. I found Far Cry 2 to have extremely satisfying, free flowing combat. I actually enjoyed the collectibles in the game and I liked the weapon upgrade/purchase system.

Enemy AI is also pretty decent, as they flank, take cover and even retreat in response to your actions. There’s a lot of little touches that I like in this game. I love the fact that guns can jam or even back-fire on you and I love the DIY surgery you perform to heal yourself.

Okay, onto the negatives. One: Everyone hates you. People will drop whatever they’re doing to mercilessly hunt you down. It feels a bit silly when some guy in a crappy car passes you on the road, immediately does a U turn and starts trying to ram your heavily armed assault truck off the track. Two: A very repetitive mission structure. So yeah, lots of content, but practically zero variety.

Three: Re-spawning guards. It wouldn’t be so bad if they re-spawned every few days of game time, but they literally re-spawn when you’re twenty feet down the road. Four: The lack of a decent fast travel option. Combined with the constant re-spawning and the angry NPC populace, and getting to and from mission areas becomes a really painful chore.

But you know, despite these irritating issues, I still had a lot of fun with Far Cry 2. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but the game did surprise me in a good way. It’s definitely worth checking out if you think you can live with the flaws.

6/10