This game is beautiful – absolutely, positively, undeniably beautiful. All-star team Ubisoft Montreal took the reins after Crytek switched sides and developed Crysis for Electronic Arts, and we’re not remotely worried. Ubisoft has built a new engine called the Dunia engine, and it’s simply hot.
If you’re a graphics nut, look no further. We saw a lot of pretty games at PAX, but this was the most graphically impressive. Trees and underbrush trampled deliciously below our vehicle as we drove through the Sahara. When we haphazardly tossed a Molotov or two into the African tall grass, a bush fire like no other virtual bush fire violently spread with the direction of the wind. A gleam reflected off the barrel of our weapon, as the notoriously brutal Saharan sun shone relentlessly over the environment – until it sets in another “best sunset in a video game” candidate.
If you’re a gameplay nut, you’ve also come to the right place. Vehicles feel weightier than ever, and weapons have serious kick when they fire. Driving controls make use of the triggers, while on-foot controls are mapped almost identically to Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare. Using bush fires to your advantage and scoping out enemy camps from a distance is crucial to tactical success. Our demo was set on “hard” – and they aren’t kidding; going in Rambo style, guns blazing, is a total death trap. Thankfully, a buddy will be there to back you up when you go down hard.
Adventurous? Yeah, Far Cry 2 delivers on that one too. Scavenging the massive jungle for supplies, navigating with your map, maintaining weapons so they don’t jam, and hunting for precious ammunition all tickle our inner adventurer. We noticed the compass from the previous screenshots was replaced with a more sophisticated handheld GPS (also found in cars), to make navigation more manageable. We asked Creative Director Clint Hocking just how large the environment is, and he claims it “took him 40 minutes to drive around the perimeter of the 50km² world in the fastest car.”
Far Cry 2 will have adversarial online multiplayer, but sadly, no co-op. The original Far Cry had one of the most powerful and user friendly map editors ever made, and it returns for Far Cry 2. You can create a map and toy with hundreds of objects, then test it by jumping in to blow it all up. We can’t wait to make maps and play them with friends online. It’s quite possible to play a solid new map every time you hop online in Far Cry 2 - something we’ll be doing this fall.
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