Huwajux
17 May 2009, 11:34am
When this game was released games journalists everywhere had a field day, each emphatically falling head over heels for it. What with its boundless possibilities, endless replay value, large scale map and devastating weapons this was set to be the best 'sandbox FPS' game ever. Alas, this wasn't the case.
During around the first half hour into the game, you begin to take notice that the storyline is fairly hollow. You have been provided with no more explanation as to what is going on than "There is an arms dealer called the Jackal who is fuelling a war, find and stop him". The opening sequence is fairly impressive, as it blows you back with its stunning visuals. You are seated in a taxi whilst a man begins to explain the aforementioned linear and disappointing storyline. You can tell that the country is in a state of conflict and chaos as a speeding car flies past you and almost crashes into the taxi your are in.
Once you finally begin to play the game, you are left bewildered as to what to do. You realise you have been infected with malaria courtesy of the 'Jackal'. You need medication and you need it fast, so you are told of a church where a man possesses the medication for such an illness. In turn for the medication, he asks that you help him with particular missions throughout the game. Eventually you are left to your own devices.
The most dull and tedious task in the game soon becomes clear, travelling. Due to the map's extreme vastness, travelling quickly becomes something of a chore. This is not helped by the psychotic drivers wandering aimlessly around. Once one of these badboys locks their gaze on you, they will go into a fit of blind rage and drive their car head on with yours; completely disregarding both their own and their passenger's safety; which is clearly of no concern to them. This is bound to happen at least once for every trip you make and it feels as though each one is even more maniacle than the last.
The missions which you undertake are very similiar to one another. E.g. Blow up this truck which has weapons on it or find this guy and kill him. The latter of which being cut down to just "kill him" since your map pinpoints his position and all you have to do is head there (whilst in a state of fear of being rammed repeatedly by some crazyass lunatic with a death-wish).
One key mission type is where you have to take out an entire encampment of bad guys. How this is done is left up to you. You can either sneak around and take them out one by one silently or go in guns blazing. Unfortunately it appears that only the guns blazing option is open to you. This is because as you try sneak up on some guy with his back to you, there is no sneak mode as such and as a result he'll just hear your footsteps, turn around and scream just before you slit his throat. This obviously notifies his teammates who are infuriatingly difficult to pinpoint. This is especially problematic when you are in an area jam-packed with vegetation. Bullets are flying at you and you can't tell where on earth they are coming from because of so many goddamn trees, bushes and oversized leaves in your way.
Besides the game itself having these set-backs, you have to deal with the extremely glitchy programming and the crash-prone scripting. For example, my character was told to go and find this guy and save him as he had been ambushed. I immediately set off to go and help him.
A few whiplashes later and I find him surrounded by a bunch of goons as he holds his ground at the top of the hill. I fire one shot to try and help him out and every NPC turns their weapons towards me simultaneously. I take such a battering that I have run out of medical supplies, but at least I'm alive. I go to check on my friend and he is fatally injured. He pleads for me to help him but I've used up all my medical supplies! I run around and check if there is a near-by place with medical supplies, and there is. I quickly run to it, grab the supplies and run back. He's dead... I reboot the game from that point and try other alternatives. Again I look around for some more medical supplies, go back to check on him and find he has decided to teleport himself down to the bottom of the hill. As my character checks him out after this unnatural occurence, I see the "Heal" button flash up. I immediately press it. Much to my dismay, my character pulls out his pistol, puts it to the side of the man's head, looks away and fires. Well...that sucks. I just went through hell and back to save this guy and in the end I end up killing him anyway.
The problem with this is that there are only a few of these people in the game and once they are dead, they're dead. I can see why some people may enjoy this game, if they are prepared to look past some of it's flaws you can have a great time blowing stuff up. Fire is especially a fun element to toy with. Grab a few molotovs, find a small stronghold point surrounded by grass, light up the grass and watch them all burn. Sadistic? Maybe. Glad that I've knocked a couple of numbers off the 'bad driver' registry? FUCK YES!
During around the first half hour into the game, you begin to take notice that the storyline is fairly hollow. You have been provided with no more explanation as to what is going on than "There is an arms dealer called the Jackal who is fuelling a war, find and stop him". The opening sequence is fairly impressive, as it blows you back with its stunning visuals. You are seated in a taxi whilst a man begins to explain the aforementioned linear and disappointing storyline. You can tell that the country is in a state of conflict and chaos as a speeding car flies past you and almost crashes into the taxi your are in.
Once you finally begin to play the game, you are left bewildered as to what to do. You realise you have been infected with malaria courtesy of the 'Jackal'. You need medication and you need it fast, so you are told of a church where a man possesses the medication for such an illness. In turn for the medication, he asks that you help him with particular missions throughout the game. Eventually you are left to your own devices.
The most dull and tedious task in the game soon becomes clear, travelling. Due to the map's extreme vastness, travelling quickly becomes something of a chore. This is not helped by the psychotic drivers wandering aimlessly around. Once one of these badboys locks their gaze on you, they will go into a fit of blind rage and drive their car head on with yours; completely disregarding both their own and their passenger's safety; which is clearly of no concern to them. This is bound to happen at least once for every trip you make and it feels as though each one is even more maniacle than the last.
The missions which you undertake are very similiar to one another. E.g. Blow up this truck which has weapons on it or find this guy and kill him. The latter of which being cut down to just "kill him" since your map pinpoints his position and all you have to do is head there (whilst in a state of fear of being rammed repeatedly by some crazyass lunatic with a death-wish).
One key mission type is where you have to take out an entire encampment of bad guys. How this is done is left up to you. You can either sneak around and take them out one by one silently or go in guns blazing. Unfortunately it appears that only the guns blazing option is open to you. This is because as you try sneak up on some guy with his back to you, there is no sneak mode as such and as a result he'll just hear your footsteps, turn around and scream just before you slit his throat. This obviously notifies his teammates who are infuriatingly difficult to pinpoint. This is especially problematic when you are in an area jam-packed with vegetation. Bullets are flying at you and you can't tell where on earth they are coming from because of so many goddamn trees, bushes and oversized leaves in your way.
Besides the game itself having these set-backs, you have to deal with the extremely glitchy programming and the crash-prone scripting. For example, my character was told to go and find this guy and save him as he had been ambushed. I immediately set off to go and help him.
A few whiplashes later and I find him surrounded by a bunch of goons as he holds his ground at the top of the hill. I fire one shot to try and help him out and every NPC turns their weapons towards me simultaneously. I take such a battering that I have run out of medical supplies, but at least I'm alive. I go to check on my friend and he is fatally injured. He pleads for me to help him but I've used up all my medical supplies! I run around and check if there is a near-by place with medical supplies, and there is. I quickly run to it, grab the supplies and run back. He's dead... I reboot the game from that point and try other alternatives. Again I look around for some more medical supplies, go back to check on him and find he has decided to teleport himself down to the bottom of the hill. As my character checks him out after this unnatural occurence, I see the "Heal" button flash up. I immediately press it. Much to my dismay, my character pulls out his pistol, puts it to the side of the man's head, looks away and fires. Well...that sucks. I just went through hell and back to save this guy and in the end I end up killing him anyway.
The problem with this is that there are only a few of these people in the game and once they are dead, they're dead. I can see why some people may enjoy this game, if they are prepared to look past some of it's flaws you can have a great time blowing stuff up. Fire is especially a fun element to toy with. Grab a few molotovs, find a small stronghold point surrounded by grass, light up the grass and watch them all burn. Sadistic? Maybe. Glad that I've knocked a couple of numbers off the 'bad driver' registry? FUCK YES!