Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Id like to preface my review by stating that in no way has my opinion of the game been swayed by the DRM used for piracy protection by Ubisoft. This review is solely in regards to the gameplay itself. With my pure enjoyment of Far Cry and Crysis, I was extremely excited about the release of this game. Unfortunatly when I began playing the game, I became more and more disappointed as I played. In fact, if it werent for the graphics, this would easily be considered an instant bargin bin title. I have so many gripes about this game that Im not quite sure where to begin, so I will start with my biggest one... the firefights. You have so much against you from the very beginning that it is extremely difficult to find them enjoyable. In fact you feel as though you are being punished just for taking the mission. Your gun will continuously jam. You have malaria, so in the middle of a gunfight you may need to pop a pill to get over it (everything turns yellow and fuzzy). If your health gets low (and it will... continually from all the sharpshooters they have in Africa) you must first pull the bullet out, then.. you must heal yourself. I must ask... why?? I suppose it was to add tension, but only succedes in being frustrating. You will die often... not because you get overwhealmed by the (incredibly stupid) AI, but because of a gun jam, having to heal yourself with a two step process or because you get a malaria outbreak. As I get off that rant, I invite you to another. Lets investigate the whole "sandbox, free roam, open world..." direction in which the developers decided to take with this sequel. First off the compass is horrible and the map is even worse. Not because they are a bad concept... they work extremely well in GTA and games of the like. The problem is, your objective is sooooo far away that even when you pull out your map, because it isnt a full map, all you see is the general direction you are supposed to be going and not able to pinpoint the best route to take or where exactly your objective is. This is compounded by the fact that you hit several checkpoints (more on these later) that ensue a "forced" firefight... and I believe I already explained how much fun they are. It will take you at least 10 minutes to get from point A to point B because of this. Rediculous. Now, remember the checkpoints. These lovely roadblocks are apparently set up by guerillas (no... not gorillas) who attack you when you come close. I guess that makes sense, however, the frustrating part is after you destroy a checkpoint, they respawn so every time you drive by, you get attacked again and again and again. If you try to blast through in your vehicle, a car chase ensues.... sounds like fun right? Wrong, because no matter how fast you are going, they magically appear behind you and if they shoot your vehicle 3 or 4 times, it stalls. And I bet you thought the engine was in the front of the vehicle. So, because of this you end up getting out of your vehicle and... you guessed it, a firefight begins... malaria.... damn... gun jammed... shot need health... pull out the bullet... use medi.... dead. Finally the vehicles themselves. For some reason, the geniuses at Ubisoft only give a 1st person view of driving... so you try to drive, look at map and compass at the same time and because the vehicle handles so poorly you hit a boulder and the vehicle stalls out, so you get in front of the vehicle and fix it. Get back in and hit a lovely checkpoint further up. There are several other nuances in the game like no checkpoints... well theres lots of those, but I mean autosave points... so hit F5 ALOT or your 10 minute trip from point A to point B can take you 30 minutes. There isnt really much of a story here to be found either, so you really just find yourself doing side missions... even the main missions seem like side missions which dont give you much of a feeling of accomplishment. I realize I have been on quite a rant, and most of my reviews are not as negative or sarcastic as this. As a matter a fact I dont think I have given a single star review to anything before... but this game definitly deserves it. As I attempt to leave with a positive remark, I am at a loss. I could mention the graphics, however theyre really not better than the original Far Cry... and I can max them out on my machine. I was extremely disappointed and feel my $60 was just wasted. Ive played the game for about 11 hours, and cannot bring myself to finish it... and thats an extreme rarity for me. With all the great games coming out this year, spend your money on something else.