Far Cry 2
Ubisoft
PlayStation 3
4 stars (out of 5)
Review by Hayden Meikle
Ah, the mercenary.
The ultimate fighting machine.
In this sequel, you step into the steel-capped boots of a predictably fearless and ruthless soldier-for-hire in an intense world of retribution and hailing bullets.
The setting is Africa, which is immediately satisfying.
Most semi-futuristic shooters take place in a bleached eastern European landscape, and dozens of World War 2 titles involve the mud and trenches of the West.
Far Cry 2 features brilliant sunsets and acres of free-roaming terrain.
There are forests, plains, swamplands, scrub and, obviously, all sorts of wildlife running around you.
Just beautiful.
The gameplay is based on the tried-and-tested formulae of the first Far Cry and others of its ilk.
There's a lot of intense first-person combat, stealth missions, firing of an array of weaponry, and location scouting.
Your mercenary is plunged into a random African nation engulfed in civil war and your mission is to eliminate The Jackal, a shady arms dealer.
The aim is to sell your soul to the highest bidder.
Two main groups offer a series of ultra-violent tasks and subsequent pay-offs, and gradually you build a picture of where the Jackal is and how he can be stopped.
An odd twist is that your hero suffers from malaria (I'm serious), so as well as serving the two major hit squads, he also has to help out a group that can give him medical assistance.
Throughout the game, you can call on a dozen friends to enlist as accomplices, and packets of side missions offer the chance to earn medication, money, diamonds and safe houses.
The tools of the mercenary trade are obviously weapons, and there are plenty to unlock, from stock-standard automatic rifles to Molotov cocktails.
Don't think this is all too complicated.
Far Cry 2, at its heart, is a nice, if busy and very violent, example of a first-person shooter.
There are plenty of absorbing storylines, gorgeous graphics and online options to make for hours of gameplay.
Not one for the kids.
