Far Cry 2 is in some ways an anti-precursor to many systems that are now standard in games of its type (especially its sequels, which go in a much safer homogeneous direction). In particular, its systems are realistic and exact to a fault in a way that often feels antagonistic to the player.
While this is a pain in the butt it also makes the game fascinating to play - you are an interloper in the space it provides and are not welcome.
For example:
* Checkpoints respawn full of enemies and you never manage to fully exert control or supremacy on the world.
* In world map that you have to look at in the game space and time continues while you do so.
* Vehicle physics are punishing and you cannot press a button to "fix" them. If you crash that jeep, it's done.
* Weapons constantly jam and are generally crap to use.
* Thrown weapons have physics - ie: grenades roll down hills (often back towards you)
* Plotline and factions are hazy and undefined. You have a core mission (hunt down an arms trader) but everything around this feels directionless and punishing.
* The game does not do much or any "fudging" of the systems to increase player enjoyment. Often games will silently assist the player to make the game more exciting (your health is not linear and goes further as you approach death, enemy and your own aiming of weapons is improved or reduced to highten tension, combat arenas will be arranged to be more "fair to the player) and Far Cry 2 ignores this.
I would hesitate to call Far Cry 2 a "fun" game but it is certainly a good one, and has spawned a lot of good discussion, like this piece and pretty much the whole of the Idle Thumbs Podcast(now on extended Hiatus, sadly).
I somewhat value realism, the problem is the control interface on PS4/XBox/PC games is never remotely real and so I need concessions to that fact that. Something that would be second nature in real life manipulating real objects with real hands and or actually using my body and head becomes frustrating and tedious translated to the 18 buttons and 2 analog sticks of a modern controller. If I had a gun in a holster I'd know exactly where it is at all times and be able to grab it without really thinking about it where is in games I've often been killed fighting with the control system to let me select a weapon.
This is one place where VR accels. When a game's VR control system is well designed it's so much more intuitive than the non VR counterpart.
The most obvious example is you just look in the direction you want to look. You don't press and hold the camera stick and wait for the camera to swing around. Other good examples include actually ducking behind walls and looking around corners with your body instead of pressing the duck button and the peak around corner button. A good example of that is Budget Cuts but it exists in plenty of other VR games.
Yet another can be switching inventory by just grabbing things off your belt or back or arms.
I haven't tried Far Cry in VR. Usually games not designed for VR don't translate so well.
I guess for many of us, the controls have become second nature (mouselook in my case) so they do not break immersion for me for that kind of game.
Something like Far Cry 2 in VR would be amazingly immersive but also terrifying. The main other issue I see is that the Far Cry worlds are huge, and exploring them is a large part of the appeal. And walking around in VR isn’t a solved problem yet as far as I’m aware. (IMO teleporting breaks immersion more than mouselook controls ever have but YMMV.)
> * Vehicle physics are punishing and you cannot press a button to "fix" them. If you crash that jeep, it's done.
You could repair vehicles, but you had to exit the vehicle, go in front and play an long-ish animation. And it even then vehicles couldn't be endlessly repaired.
You've also forgotten the malaria pills you had to take, the fire which will spread in all directions, how all weapons ended up breaking (and weapons taken from enemies were much lower quality), how your pals could die saving you(and you would be able to finish them with morphine) (and even then you had to kill the survivors at the end) and on console, being able to save only in safe houses (it really diminished the tension of my playthrough on PC when I realized that I could save anywhere). Also it's quite unique compared to the other Far Cry is that there's no character progression (except weapon unlocks), the PC is the same 1 hour in to the end.
Still a good game, but not necessarly as fun as the other Far Cry (Blood Dragon being the best in that regard IMO)
> While this is a pain in the butt it also makes the game fascinating to play - you are an interloper in the space it provides and are not welcome.
Very comparable to the Dark Souls franchise with its animation priority, personally I'd also put The Long Dark into the same category.
TLD was a particularly surprising experience, after decades of mindless spriting around in video games, this was the first one that really managed to punish me for rushing things when there's no need to rush.
The way I describe it is that FC3 is the better game, but FC 2 is the better experience.
I don't really know of a better way to describe it than this. I vividly remember playing this game, marching around at night, and getting the vivid feeling of being there. I've been playing games since the Atari days and this is the only game I've ever felt like this with, period.
For example:
* Checkpoints respawn full of enemies and you never manage to fully exert control or supremacy on the world.
* In world map that you have to look at in the game space and time continues while you do so.
* Vehicle physics are punishing and you cannot press a button to "fix" them. If you crash that jeep, it's done.
* Weapons constantly jam and are generally crap to use.
* Thrown weapons have physics - ie: grenades roll down hills (often back towards you)
* Plotline and factions are hazy and undefined. You have a core mission (hunt down an arms trader) but everything around this feels directionless and punishing.
* The game does not do much or any "fudging" of the systems to increase player enjoyment. Often games will silently assist the player to make the game more exciting (your health is not linear and goes further as you approach death, enemy and your own aiming of weapons is improved or reduced to highten tension, combat arenas will be arranged to be more "fair to the player) and Far Cry 2 ignores this.
I would hesitate to call Far Cry 2 a "fun" game but it is certainly a good one, and has spawned a lot of good discussion, like this piece and pretty much the whole of the Idle Thumbs Podcast(now on extended Hiatus, sadly).
(Edits to fix formatting)