Tied into the gameplay of course are the excellent sound effects, the superb musical score and the weapon effects. These audio elements are combined in the right mix and stand out far more than the vanilla voice acting, which lets the game down a little especially with some of the dialogue. It feels as though a great deal of effort was farmed into the actual engine but the story was left till last and piped in using the generic dialogue creator. Whilst not terribly bad the delivery of some of the lines sounds forced and jars the player out of the game world and reinforces the fact that it is just a game and not an African manhunt gone badly. It’s a minor niggle but one that stands out to me since I’m a sucker for good dialogue and solid storytelling.

Far Cry 2 also features one of the best map editors in a console game to date, it’s simple to use but will require a little bit of a learning curve to get the best out of. The editor allows you to create maps for use in the games many multiplayer modes and provides an excellent set of tools that are extremely robust and powerful. Every aspect of the game’s map can be tinkered with and set, from the time of day, the weather, the ambient lighting to the actual terrain itself. The terrain tools are mind-bogglingly effective and within 10 minutes you can create your own little piece of Africa ready for multiplayer mayhem.

It’s nice to see that there’s already a growing community of user made maps on the console version as well as the PC. You can play numerous multiplayer game modes, choose various character classes/careers and unlock/upgrade weapons by earning diamonds. When you combine this with the robust single player experience that allows you to approach the game as you want, with very little railroading, the incredible level of detail in the graphics and animations, Far Cry 2 is leaps ahead of the original game. I can see why they didn’t go with the original protagonist and setting and why they made the changes that they did.

My initial reservations about the game vanished like new-born early-morning mist rises through the grass surrounding the jungles. It does a competent job of trying to do something different in the first person shooter genre and succeeds in terms of raw fun and gameplay tactics. The AI does have some issues now and then when it might suddenly forget what it’s doing. There is some pop-up and pop-in if you’re looking for it and the story feels a little flat, the side-missions have Assassin’s Creed/GTA syndrome and feel a little repetitive.

All in all though, Far Cry 2 is a game that you simply have to experience and will probably last you around 30 hours if you just focus on the core story. There’s a considerably deeper gameplay experience to be had if you concentrate on mixing it up and approach your objectives with a little bit of innovation.