A total unique and amazing experience, Gamespot should revise their review and rating. 8.5 is unfair and total crap.
Did UBISOFT not clearly mentioned what they are making ? Did they not released lots of trailers for you ? so that you can see what actually they are making, and all those who say "No monster, no fun". Did UBISOFT not clearly mentioned that their game is based on realistic approach and not the monster shooting crap.
I mean what happened to you guys ? where is your sense of judgement. All of you just start from Crysis and end on Crysis, I think FarCry 2 is way better than Crysis and UBISOFT kept its promise and developed a total unique FPS.
And all those gamespot reviewers what happened to you ? Can you justify that 8.5 rating for this game ? Is a little bit weak story such a big flaw that it dropped the rating of a great game from 10.0 to 8.5, come on its totally unacceptable.
Okay, lets compare the story of Crysis with FarCry 2 in general, I think i don't need to tell you about the story of Crysis, it brought the same old linear story of some high tech aliens invading earth and mankind is fighting for survival, its so brief and easy to explain.
Whereas FarCry 2 brings a new kind of non-linear story with twisting elements, decisions etc... Where you are stuck between two rival factions and have to decide which side to choose and eventually reach your goal of killing a person who is cause havok between these two factions, the story may sound a little bit weak or empty because the scope of game itself is very big, but still I say the story is good, realistic and acceptable.
Lets discuss about Crysis: Warhead and its story, Crytek stressed that its a standalone title and not an expansion pack of original Crysis, but if you see the single player campaign it is too short that you cannot accept that its a standalone title, its a big letdown and gamespot still rated it 9.0. One thing always kept me wondering in Crysis: Warhead, that Sergent Sykes a.k.a Phycho was a total coward in original Crysis (Always throwing dirty work on Nomad) and in Warhead he became such a brave heart, how so ? Did you not noticed this ?
I agree that Crysis is no doubt a visual stunner but FarCry 2 has its edges over Crysis which I will mention below:
1) A new environment (Africa). No more tropical islands Thanks to GOD.
2) Realistic approach. No high tech suit or other gadgets which makes you almost invincible and your enemies total idiots.
3) Huge map, hence more options. 50 square kilometers of African landscape offering tons of different environments.
4) Lots of weapons and equipment (All real, no dream weapons).
5) Lots of missions and side quests (Like an RPG, but still action oriented like an FPS).
6) Real time day and night cycle (Both original crysis and warhead as well does not have this great feature).
7) Perhaps the biggest plus point of FarCry 2 is even with such great graphics and large scale map, it runs like beauty, even on mid-range gfx cards.
8) Non-linear story.
9) Dynamic weather and fire propagation.
10) A totally new healing mechanism.
These are just few great features FarCry 2 has to offer, I am sure there are many other features as well which you will notice when you play this wonderful game.
Gamespot also mentioned that sometimes it becomes tedious to travel from one place to another in FarCry 2, well I say its not a negative point, its a genuine problem with open ended or large scale games. They cannot give you vehicle on every step.
In the end I personally believe that UBISOFT did a commendable job by developing such a great FPS. Crytek only brought a breakthrough in graphics but UBISOFT brought a breakthrough in FPS genre itself.
Next time please judge the game properly before rating and reviewing it. I still cannot believe a rating of 8.5.