5 Reasons Far Cry 2 Is The Best In The Series (& 5 Things It Handled Wrong) (2024)

The Far Cry games are now a household name in the FPS gaming genre. What started out as a semi sci-fi jungle romp has become a wacky series with its tongue firmly embedded in its own cheek. We've gone synthwave 80s with Blood Dragon, faced fearsome Yetis in Tibet, and stared down the barrel of an entire religious cult in Montana.

RELATED:Far Cry 5: 10 Things To Do After You Beat The Game

However, what is arguably the best game in the series is also the one that has received the least attention, at least as far as history goes. Far Cry 2 was a sequel unlike any other, and to this day, there's never been an FPS game quite like it. Today we're making the case as to why Far Cry 2 is the best game in the entire franchise, right to this day. Here are five reasons why, and five reasons where it could have done better.

10 THE GOOD: IT DIDN'T CARE ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS

Far Cry 2 bears the distinction of being one of the most challenging games in the entire series. This is one notoriously brutal game, from start to finish. It was unapologetic in how it handled everything from mission objectives to the menu system. You were literally on your own, and it was up to you to figure things out.

Weapons would deteriorate, only to blow up in your face during a firefight if you weren't careful. At times they would jam up, forcing you to dislodge the round. All of this was brilliantly executed and geared towards players looking for realism and challenge.

9 THE BAD: IT WAS SOMETIMES A LITTLE TOO STRICT

From the moment you arrive in Africa, you're FUBAR'ed right out of the gate with a deadly case of malaria, and that play mechanic sticks with you throughout the entire game. While some players found this highly annoying and inconvenient, it's actually quite brilliant.

It's hard to see that when you come down with the sickness in the middle of an intense shootout, but that's entirely the point. In its quest to be as realistic as possible, Far Cry 2 throws a very plausible scenario your way and forces you to maintain stock of your medicine. Nevertheless, there's no denying the negative impact this had on many gamers who felt it was an unfair mechanic.

8 THE GOOD: THE GRAPHICS WERE SUPERB

Even to this day, Far Cry 2 remains one of the best looking games in the entire franchise. It positively nailed the graphical brilliance of the African continent with excellent lighting, texture detail and physics. The day and night cycle was appropriate, and at each stage of the day, you felt as if you were really there, soldiering across the open tundras and jungles. In fact, even with a few generations worth of subsequent graphics engines, Far Cry 2 could still fool people into thinking it was a modern game.

Thanks can be given to Ubisoft's Dunia engine, which in many ways was ahead of its time. Semi destructible environments, realistic fire effects, and a robust, atmospheric weather system are just a few of its highlights. All this, plus multi-core processor support in an era that was just beginning to embrace such a thing.

7 THE BAD: A LACK OF BIODIVERSITY

Last we checked, Africa waswell stocked up on deadly fauna. Nevertheless, you won't see anything like it in Far Cry 2. The game's animal life is restricted to harmless herbivores, only. Not only does this detract away from realism, but it makes no actual sense.

RELATED:10 Easter Eggs Hidden In Far Cry New Dawn

That means no crocodiles lunging at you from the riverbank, or lions chasing you down in the middle of the jungle. By not having to worry about the local wildlife, it's actually disappointing in the overall grand scheme of the game.

6 THE GOOD: SHOOTOUTS FELT GREAT

The go-for-realism approach of Far Cry 2 had a direct and very noticeable impact on the game's many combat scenes. Shootouts felt authentic, with challenging enemy AI that wasn't afraid to play dirty in order to take the player down. In contrast to the somewhat "designed" feel of later games in the franchise, Far Cry 2's environments felt like naturally occurring battlegrounds that gave the player more options when it came to combat. The inclusion of an excellent fire system meant giving the player an option to use brush fires to their advantage in order to kill foes, provided they didn't get caught in the flames as well.

The level of authenticity in firefights was something no other game could mimic. Add in the game's many anomalies, such as weapon jamming and the like, and Far Cry 2 forced you to adapt and think on your feet if things went south. With such a robust collection of weapons to play around with, it didn't take much for the game to twist our rubber arm!

5 THE BAD: THE HEALING SYSTEM

Far Cry 2 was the first in the series to implement a healing system that featured a number of entertaining (and cringe-inducing) animations where your character pops his elbow back into place, digs bullets and nails out of the body, and resets his broken thumb. Great stuff!

Unfortunately, in the midst of a heavy-handed firefight, this healing system is guaranteed to kill you. While realistic, it also leaves you wide open for attack until the animation is complete. The ability to replenish your life bar by drinking water from a canteen also seems a bit far-fetched.

4 THE GOOD: EXCELLENTVEHICLES

Far Cry 2 forced the player to rely on vehicles to get around, and there were a bunch of them, from crappy little cars to military jeeps and fishing boats with outboard motors. Vehicles riddled with one too many bullets would either suffer an engine breakdown or explode and light the surrounding area on fire.

Driving down densely forested paths or going top speed across an open landscape felt great. The natural beauty of the environment meant that eye candy was everywhere. You could almost feel the breeze in your hair! Similarly, water-based vehicles like boats felt realistic and behaved like their real-world counterparts would. Chalk this one up to immersion, but Far Cry 2 was able to accurately reproduce being on your own with very little to your name, in a hostile environment. This was a direct contrast to later games like Far Cry 3, which felt far too stuffed with NPCs and animal life, which made it impossible to stop and soak up the immersion that Far Cry 2 offered.

3 THE BAD: FIXING THE VEHICLES

To get a vehicle working again, all that's involved is popping the hood and watching an animation play out where your character takes a wrench to a single part of the engine, and that's that. Not particularly realistic, but understandable given that players don't want to spend 20-40 minutes doing complex engine work to get the vehicle running again.

Still, this animation is silly, and actually drags you out of the immersive nature of the rest of the game. Surely a better system could have been implemented!

2 THE GOOD: HUNTING FOR DIAMONDS

One of the coolest additions to Far Cry 2 was the diamond hunting system, comprised mainly of hunting for hidden cases of diamonds strewn throughout the landscape. Some of these were easy to get to, while others provided an immense challenge.

RELATED:10 Locations In Far Cry 5 That Were Inspired By The Real World

In terms of maximizing the amount of hours you could invest in the game, this was a pretty good method! It was tedious as hell, but the feeling of accomplishment one got when locating a truly hard to find stash was difficult to describe.

1 THE BAD: IT WASN'T EASY TO FIND DIAMONDS

Like all things Far Cry 2, hunting for diamonds was a simple, straightforward experience with very little help from the game. It was tedious as hell, and involved a lot of discipline and patience on the part of the gamer.

This kind of system would later be applied to future Far Cry games, but with an entirely different feel. It may not seem like much, but for those who loved the unforgiving nature of Far Cry 2's world and challenge factor, it was appreciated, nonetheless.

NEXT:Far Cry 6: 10 Things We Want Ubisoft To Include