Preview: Far Cry 2

Title: Far Cry 2

Players: 1-16 players

Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Publisher: Ubisoft

Price: $59.99

Release Date: October 21, 2008

Website:www.farcry2.com

No one can accuse Ubisoft of resting on their laurels when it comes to the development of Far Cry 2. As GSC Game World did with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Ubisoft is aiming to create a living, expansive world for its first-person shooter to inhabit. Like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Far Cry 2 should turn out to be a unique, refreshing addition in the crowded shooter market regardless of whether or not lives up to the lofty goals of its developers or the astronomical expectations of gamers.

After creating the original Far Cry, Crytek has moved on to the Crysis series and it falls to Ubisoft to develop Far Cry 2 in-house. While Crytek left behind some pretty big shoes to fill, Ubisoft seems confident in their ability to deliver a worthy sequel. Instead of clinging to the formula set up by the previous game by making another fairly linear shooter on a mutant-infested island, they've created an open-ended "sandbox" game set in war-torn Africa.

"Immersion" is a word that Ubisoft throws around a lot when talking about Far Cry 2, but what does that mean, exactly? How are they immersing players in the game? Well, there's several different ways they plan on doing this. The first is the graphics. The team has gone to painstaking lengths to ensure that the twenty square-mile region of Africa depicted in the game looks exactly like the real Africa. To breath life into the setting, Ubisoft created a dynamically changing weather system for the game and populated the game's setting with a variety of grazing animals.

The actual gameplay itself is also rooted in realism. Buildings and vegetation alike are highly destructible. The player's weapons and vehicles will break down after extended use, requiring them to be repaired or abandoned. When the player takes damage, they'll have to inject themselves with a syringe or - in the case of serious wounds - perform field surgery on yourself. One gameplay video showed a player having to pull a piece of shrapnel out of his arm.

All of these small touches would be pointless if the other humans in the game were mindless drones who charged you with guns blazing. However, every character in the game goes through a daily routine as though they were a real person: they'll sleep, eat, socialize with each other, etc. Two factions are battling for control of this region of Africa and the player will have to play them off each other to accomplish your inevitable goal: killing an arms dealer named "The Jackal."

The player will also have a few friends to help him out. At the beginning of the game, you'll pick one of nine mercenary characters to play. The characters you didn't select will be allies located throughout the region who you can call upon to help you with missions. If these buddies die, they're dead permanently and you'll miss out on jobs they might have for you.

With many games demanding your fifty or sixty dollars in October, Far Cry 2 might give you the most bang for your buck in terms of gameplay time. On top of the single-player campaign, which could keep you occupied for up to fifty hours, Far Cry 2 will also have extensive multiplayer. There will be four game modes in total: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Diamond, and Uprising (a VIP escort/assassination type deal). The game will also ship with a map editor so you can create your own little corner of Africa for multiplayer matches.

Ubisoft obviously sees a lot of potential in Far Cry as a franchise and they've poured a lot of effort into creating a game that far exceeds its predecessor. We'll see on October 21st if all this work paid off.