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Far Cry 2 pc Game Reviews
Far Cry 2
Critic Score
Metascore: 85 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
5.5 out of 10
based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 553 votes
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Rate this game

Caught between two rival factions in war-torn Africa, you are sent to take out "The Jackal," a mysterious character who has rekindled the conflict between the warlords, jeopardizing thousands of lives. In order to fulfil your mission you will have to play the factions against each other, identify and exploit your their weaknesses, and neutralize their superior numbers and firepower with surprise, subversion, cunning and, of course, brute force. Real-time story telling, systemic auto-healing, minimal in-game interface are just few of the features that make you feel the tension of being alone against barbarous warlords that threaten thousands of innocent lives. Choose from a wide range of weapons to make your way to your primary target. Meet the fight head-on with your machine-gun, go berserk with your machete or make stealth kills as a Sniper. If you feel that the atmosphere is not warm enough, light up your flamethrower and let your enemies and everything around them feel the heat. [Ubisoft]

PUBLISHER: Ubisoft
DEVELOPER: Ubisoft Montreal
GENRE(S): First-Person Shooter
PLAYERS: 16
ESRB RATING: M (Mature)
RELEASE DATE: October 21, 2008

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
PC PowerPlay
The unique setting, brilliant AI and palpable atmosphere, make Far Cry 2 a quintessential PC gaming experience. [Dec 2008, p.63]
100
Cynamite
Far Cry 2 has its annoying quirks, no doubt. But they can be solved via patch – the quality of fights, atmosphere, graphics and gameplay still reaches a very high level.
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94
PC Gamer UK
After playing Far Cry 2, I'm simply unable to go back to straight and simple first-person shooters. This game has executed my expectations. [Nov 2008, p.62]
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94
PC Gamer
I'm unable to go back to straight and simple first-person shooters. Far Cry 2 hasn’t just exceeded my expectations, it’s blown them away. [Holiday 2008, p.58]
94
Cheat Code Central
By adopting a laissez faire attitude to player discretion, Ubisoft has crafted a brilliant follow-up.
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94
3DJuegos
Far Cry 2 is not a game for everybody, neither is it perfect. It requires time, patience and dedication; some will be frustrated with the long car trips - avoidable - while others will struggle with the excessive freedom. Nevertheless the little objections that can be made disappear compared to its virtues. This video game is technically impeccable, it offers a very interesting multiplayer mode, and is equipped with a campaign that should appear in the dictionary under the words intensity and immersion.
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92
PC Format
Sumptuously realised, stuffed with action and pushed along by an engaging plot. Far Cry 2 is how shooters should be made. [Dec 2008, p.86]
91
Gamers.at
A remarkable array of physical effects that weren’t just pretty but actually relevant to the gameplay itself, stunning graphics and a story written also by the player instead of the developer alone: Far Cry 2 truly did impress me. Only the constant respawning of outposts had me grinding my teeth.
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90
VideoGamer
Nothing but brilliant. But we're already looking to the future. Our minds are already spinning at what Ubisoft Montreal might come up with for the inevitable "Far Cry 3."
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90
PC Zone UK
There's nothing like it around, and even with its flaws, it's a game you certainly grow to love. [Dec 2008, p.56]
90
Jolt Online Gaming UK
It’s a shame that more wasn’t done with the story, as the shallow characters and lack of moral depth sits in stark contrast to the hard work spent on some of the most impressive game technology we’ve ever seen.
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90
LEVEL (Czech Republic)
Unusual in that a first person shooter shows you the fictitious African country where real crimes against the civil population are fought in the name of profit. An intense experience in all aspects. [Nov 2008]
90
Boomtown
Far Cry 2 is phenomenal fun and brings new meaning to the term open world. It has surpassed my expectations and without a doubt Ubisoft Montreal have taken an uncut diamond and worked it into a nearly flawless gem.
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89
PC Games (Germany)
Far Cry 2 is far from perfect, but the gorgeous African landscapes and thrilling gun-fights make up for the annoying enemy camps with their constantly spawning occupants. Ubisoft delivers an immersive First-Person-Shooter, which is easily on a level with Call of Duty 4.
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89
IGN
More importantly, it has nowhere near as many bugs as something like "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl," a title that bears many similarities. Add to the roughly 25 hour single-player campaign a remarkably easy-to-use map creation tool and a full multiplayer suite, and you've got one of the most complete overall gaming packages of the year, as well as one of the most ambitious.
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88
Game Chronicles
Since the game is fairly open-ended as to how you play it and which side you choose, you could easily play this game all the way through a few times before you ever started feeling tired of it.
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87
GameTrailers
The action is high-quality, free-roaming stuff, and the game earns major points for its smart way of dealing with getting shot up, patched up, and bailed out. The story does keep you on a leash and your objectives tend to repeat without too much variation, but if you enjoy this line of work, Far Cry 2's dangerous African landscape is a great place to be a merc.
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86
Computer Games Online RO
You want to freely drive through Africa, set the savannah on fire and run over zebras with your car, Far Cry 2 is the right choice.
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86
2404.org
It has its shortcomings, but it still makes its mark as one of the best releases of the year, at this point. The graphics and setting alone make it a real stand-out, and I like the fact that Ubisoft tried to go after something a bit more unique in a genre that is known for rampant replication.
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85
GameSpot
Although you can't say the same for the plot, Far Cry 2's first-person action squeezes every last drop of potential out of the unique African setting.
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82
GameStar
Far Cry 2 scores right in the core area of first-person-shooters: action. Players who like some logic and a good story even in a first-person-shooter will have their problems with Far Cry 2. Ubisoft's Africa is beautiful, but life in all its glory is missing most of the time. Travelling takes a long time and you are forced to make absurd detours because of mountains and valleys. Far Cry 2 can be reproached with a lot of things, but once the Savannah is burning they are forgotten, at least temporarily, because fighting the APF and UFLL is so much fun.
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80
G4 TV
Technical issues aside, Far Cry 2 is an epic (and epic-ly long) take on the first-person shooter. The setting, open word, and side quests make it feel more like a more action-oriented "Grand Theft Auto," or a less ridiculous "Just Cause," than the original. Which, admittedly, will annoy fans of the original (present company included).
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80
Edge Magazine
Combat is thrilling – each weapon packing a solid, vicious blast; movement suggesting heft and momentum. [Dec 2008, p.80]
80
Gamer.nl
Far Cry 2 isn't able to deliver on its expectations, but is still a high quality shooter with lots of freedom and one of the most beautiful settings ever. The developers could have been more creative with the mission structure though.
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79
ImpulseGamer
I would say that Far Cry 2 is a well put together game that will be giving players hours of gaming fun for along while.
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76
YouGamers
Visually impressive and ambitious but ultimately falls short of the hype. Attempts very hard to immerse you in a realistic sandbox world but fails to be anything but a simple, repetitive shooter. Driving across beautiful but lifeless world while fighting infinitely respawning enemies to complete unimaginative missions for people who all try to kill you can be summed up as beautiful but disappointing.
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74
Worth Playing
Far Cry 2 looks and sounds great (voice acting aside), but it has some gameplay mechanics that make progression through the game world a frustrating task.
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70
DarkZero
It falters in just enough places to make you think before you hand over your money.
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70
Game Over Online
Some games grow on you the more you play them, as you get used to the little idiosyncrasies and learn to appreciate the finer points. Far Cry 2 is at the opposite end of the spectrum, a game that makes it harder and harder for you to like it by placing more and more junk between you and its best features.
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70
GameCritics
A mixed bag that redeems itself just enough to be worth playing, Far Cry 2 serves as a valuable experiment in open-world first-person shooter game design, but one that is not quite up to par with what developers like Crytek and GSC have accomplished.
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70
Total PC Gaming
If you plot a graph of genius times faltering game design, Far Cry 2 sits firmly in the top right. [Issue#13, p.50]
70
GameSpy
If you can bear some of the repetition in between missions, the missions themselves are a blast. The environment is among the most compelling ever put on a screen this year. And multiplayer is strong. Far Cry 2 may not live up to its full potential, but there's a lot here to enjoy regardless.
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69
GamingExcellence
So long as you only play the game in small bursts, Far Cry 2 is an interesting experience.
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57
Absolute Games
In 2007, Ubisoft sent to Africa a whole team of Far Cry 2 developers so they could record sounds, take pictures and soak in the spirit of "Heart of Darkness". Judging by the promotional videos, the guys had the time of their lives. It's a pity that the game fails to convey even the tiniest fracture of their emotions.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this game is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 553 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Keijo K gave it a2:
I´ll give 2 point for smoothly running game, graphics are good and there are no clitches. The game itself is as said in most of the comments the biggest disappointment of the year. This is not an FPS this is poorly made driving game, they did everything better in Colin Mcrae rally 2.0; consider buying it instead. I´m just curious; did they pay for the reviewers to give good points to this piece of you know what? I´m disappointed.

Samuel W gave it a1:
I'm giving this game a 1, sincerely, because it's not a game at all. It is a gigantic conglomeration of nothingness in a vast world of nothing, where everything, everywhere, is exactly the same. A game (in my opinion) is supposed to have some kind of substance to it. If there was ever an instance of a modern game with phenomenal graphics that had the gameplay of an atari game, this is definitely it. Every mission is EXACTLY the same. Well, I shouldn't say every one... There are 3 types of missions. You either blow up a truck and get guns, kill a random dude in a random place for money, or kill some random guys in a random place to make money and make the faction happy. None of it feels like anything at all. This is the only game in existence where playing missions is exactly the same as not playing missions. If you randomly drive around and don't accept a single mission of the game, you will be equally as satisfied as completing the game (ie, you will be about as satisfied as drinking piss when you're thirsty). None of it makes any sense. You will be in the middle of a firefight, and suddenly your brand new gun will jam, then your screen will blur out and turn yellow because you're randomly sick with malaria, you will get shot nearly to death, so you run like a scared little girl behind the first rock you see. 3 bandages, a syringe, and popping some pills later... you feel better... only to repeat this incredible nonsense all over again 15 minutes later. Oh.... Oh..... don't even get me started on the controls..... really.... don't... well.. oh, what's that? You want to hear what I think of the controls? Okay! EPIC BAGS OF FAIL Mouse is extremely laggy and sluggish even with 60 fps. After random tweaking of various files, I have gotten it to feel "decent" at best. Leaning and Prone are completely 100% removed. Why remove a feature from the second game that was essential to the first game? It's one thing if you're playing half life and you can't go into prone or lean, but in a jungle setting where cover is essential, you will grind your teeth out cursing the developers for being so naive. Every movement feels slow, sluggish, and delayed. Your character sprints slower than a sloth, and becomes tired and weary after a mere 3 seconds of sprinting. Jumping feels useless, especially when there are invisible walls EVERYWHERE to keep you from getting to places that seem interesting. ............ I'm done. Please, do yourself a favor and don't buy this game. Far Cry 1 for the PC was one of my favorite games of all time. I've beaten it countless times and had countless hours of fun playing through that game. I'm disgusted that this developer disgraced a title that I hold so dear to me.

Mads H C gave it a2:
I just completed the story mode on medium, and i've gotta say, that i am really dissappointed. I think this game misses alot. There's not a very wide selection of vechicles, which i think really sucks. The guard posts and the safe houses are pretty much all the same. I think the selection of weapons is too small. There isn't even any special quest weapons, which is a must for any game. The way you acheive your weapons in this game is quite bad too. It's cooler to just walk around and pick up whatever weapons you enemies may have. In the 1st Far Cry game you could throw rocks to distract you enemies, which is a feature i really miss in this game. The quests in the game is all the same. Go kill someone or go get medicine. No sniping quests, no sick weapons quests, no "free use of sick explosions" quests. Not even a single car chase or something like that! I also think the story of the game is very badly written. It seems like they have just made the main quest to kill "The Jackal" just because they needed something to be the main objective. None of the quests seem to have any relation to that main objective at all. But the worst shit in this game is the ending. Either go shoot yourself or blow yourself up..... That sucks ..... Visually the game is amazing, but just about every last piece of the game sucks. Repetitive, unrealistic and boring. I was expecting Far Cry 1 with a new storyline and better graphic! I payed 495 DKK for this game, which equals to about 80 USD..... Waste of money! My overall rating is going to be 2/5 I'd rather play Far Cry 1, if they hadn't added all the monsters.

Judge E gave it a9:
Love it! I started playing it on a PS3 where the graphics and setting are astoundingly gorgeous. The sound track and atmospherics haunted me into getting it for PC. It is a game I wanted to finish from the moment I ran my first mission. Now I play on infamous and NEVER get tired of sneaking around No belly aching for me. Bring it. A soldier of fortune isn't going to last ten seconds in a place like Africa if he rushes in where fools fear to tread and thinks he's bullet proof. If that's your MO, stay out of this jungle.

Tre0n gave it an8:
I'm going to start like this: To the guy that complained about how it crashed; computers are complicated business. Crashes are rare normally, and if you had an issue with them, consult the Steam support team. Also, if it took 2 hours to download, that's your problem only. If you have that slow a connection, don't pin that on the game, and don't buy games from Steam. Onto a review :) Far Cry 2 is a complicated game. Hard to get the most out of, but if you do, you're in for a treat. The gameplay is essentially like that of any other FPS, but tweaked towards realism. The immersive aspect is executed brilliantly, except for the very few graphical glitches to be seen about 2 - 4 times in a play through. Most of the time though, it's something that you see and think "Oh, that's wierd. Oh, wait. It's gone." Graphically, the game is impeccable. The environment interacts with all of the tiny little models and everything you can see. Trees blow realistically in the wind, and fires will soon see them nothing short of a black stump with branches. Vehicles are nicely implemented. Helping you get from A to B with minimal effort. Just watch out for guard posts. While most people complain about the guard posts, I like them. I'm a fan of tactical gameplay. Which is something you'll have to learn to be able to properly enjoy FC2. Anyone used to running and gunning may want to stick to playing online. The scope of the world is amazing. Every little detail is beautifully rendered thanks to the technical mastery behind the Dunia engine. Anyone that doesn't like this game is probably just not a fan of the style of play. The game itself is impeccable. If you're a fan of tactical gamplay, mixed with realism and immersion, buy it. If you're looking for just another shooter, go back to CoD4. I'm giving it an 8/10. It'd get a 10 if it had Co-op. :( Oh, you might want to invest in a computer with at least 1.5GB of RAM and a9600GT or better :)

Thad M. gave it a3:
I have never been so sad about a game i LOVED far cry 1 and this is just the worst excuse for AI and mission and storyline and voice acting ever they could have just built a new graphics engine and thrown the old far crys ai and story line on this and it would have been a better game whatever you do DO NOT BUY THIS.

Chris D gave it a3:
How the hell did this game get a good review? Here’s a quick introduction to what the game is like. Drive 5 mins to a mission point, spend 5 mins getting your mission, spend 5-10 mins driving to your mission, spend 5-15 mins completing the mission and finally spend 5-10 mins driving to the next area to get another mission. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the game. Think of it as GTA except driving around is not fun at all, it’s the worst part of the game and you’ll spend about 50% of your time doing it. Then think of having to do basically the same mission over and over, with almost zero variation. What fun! To make things ever better, you need to buy all your own weapons, which are mostly pointless. Here’s a great example. I used a “silenced” pistol to shoot a guard, before anyone saw or heard me, I ran behind a mountain and made my way to the back of the base. Without so much as a peep from me I had about 10 guards running to my exact location. WTF Ubisoft? Is there no AI at all? Does buying a silienced gun even matter if the comp knows exactly where I am regardless of how stealthly I’ve been? But what I like even better is when I’m outside a building with no windows and the guys on the inside shoot me through the wall even though they should have no clue that I’m there. No it’s ok, I doing mind playing a game with AI from 1995. gameplay. Boring, repetitive, no memorable moments. Think of a GTA game but with less varity. Very few objects actually interact with the character unlike games like Half Life, MGS games, so forth which pretty much all re-act to whatever you do to them. I know alot of good games and this is not one of them! What dissapoints me the most is the rave reviews this game got! How is a person to decide what game to buy if the review sights are not reliable? Seriously i say to almost all the reviews WTF!!

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