Far Cry 2 Multiplayer Hands-On Preview

[TrackZero]

Far Cry 2 Multiplayer Hands-On Preview

Title: Far Cry 2
Platform: PS3/360/PC
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
ESRB: M (Mature 17+)
MSRP: $59.99 (360/PS3), $49.99 (PC)
Editor: Andrew 'TrackZero' Hodder

To begin with, Far Cry 2 supports both online mutliplayer as well as LAN play. It also features a now familiar "leveling" system, where you earn levels through your play, but these translate into "diamonds" which you then spend to upgrade the various class kits. The classes as they stand are the "Commando", which is your standard soldier type class. "Gunner" brings in the heavy machine guns. "Guerilla" is the up close and personal shotgun wielder. "Sharpshooter" is the sniper of the group. Those are all fairly standard arrangements and staples in any team game where you need to fill particular roles. But there's two remaining classes (which I found the most fun), the "Rebel" with his flamethrower (I'm sure anyone playing a Pyro in TF2 will be using this one) and the "Saboteur". Now the Saboteur starts out as a fairly weak class (firing stun darts with long reload times), but it definitely begins to shine as it levels up, since their load-out starts to change. In the case of the Saboteur, you unlock the IED (Improvised Explosive Device), which is essentially the remote detonated C4 of multi-player. It's got a great blast radius, and certainly changes up tactics, especially when you're on the defense (protecting your "diamond", a capture point, or a road). The Rebel unlocks the Rocket Launcher upon upgrade, which can turn the tide of a losing battle in short time. Each class has multiple slots to "fill" with diamonds. So for example, as a Rebel you can decide to keep your flame thrower instead of upgrading it, while pushing up the rest of your kit; there's definitely room for variance.

Getting those class basics out of the way, we can turn to the multi-player modes. Four are featured, with the standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch being present (and always appreciated), followed by "Capture the Diamond" (Capture the Flag) and "Uprising" (capturing points with a twist). The first three modes play out like you'd expect and are always good times. It's "Uprising", though, that we all found ourselves craving for. Each round begins with three neutral positions on the map that the two teams must compete to capture. However, each team only has one "Captain" who is capable of doing so. This plays out as some form of VIP, where your team is trying to keep the captain protected, while at the same time moving forward to grab the next point (they can be taken back by the other team, points are earned by how long they're held). The tactics were extremely varied in this mode; sometimes with the Captain sneaking off on his own keeping a low profile trying to flank the enemy team and grab one of their existing capture points, other times with a split team (one as a distraction and his core team trying to secure another position on the map). Sometimes you'd just have everyone sticking together to overtake the enemy. Combine these tactics with various forms of vehicles on the map, burning forests, IEDs and general craziness occurring in every firefight and you'd never know how things will turn out. There's nothing quite like using a hang glider in the fog to fly over a firefight (with literal fires burning everywhere) to reach an unsecured position, flank your opponent and take his base.

In retrospect, the immediately noticeable additions are similar to the single player. It's all about weather and time of day effects added on to good solid multiplayer modes. As well as using fire as a improvised break wall to ward the other players away from objective points. However, the real key here is that the map editor will play a major role in the longevity of this title. For console players, it'll be their first true taste of user-created maps making it into a mainstream FPS. The entire process is very streamlined to easily create maps and share with your friends. That's what will set this apart from the pack and is the thing you should be definitely looking forward to. Expect to see some wild level designs out there.

The multi-player, combined with the single player and the pure fun of just designing your own map from scratch make for a great title. I hope you've all gotten a good taste of what to expect.

CoG says, "Keep your eyes on this one for sure."

[scythe]

Sounds awesome. Which system are most CoGers picking this up on?

[Ghostbear]

Originally Posted by scythe

Sounds awesome. Which system are most CoGers picking this up on?

PC, it will be $10 cheaper

[scythe]

Originally Posted by Ghostbear

PC, it will be $10 cheaper

Probably where I'll be too, but I imagine there will be quite a few 360 players here.

[SPBTooL]

Sounds good. But, on the 360, is it good enough to pull people away from gears and Left4Dead? Class based games tend to need a decent online community.

[Deadend]

More likely PC version for me, not 100%, but much more likely.

[Disgustipated]

PC version for sure. This sounds shit hot. Thanks for the info, Track.

[Jackel]

PC Version...I'll be picking this up on Steam for sure.

Thanks for the heads up Track!

[Evewalker]

This one went from not even remotely on my radar to one of my most anticipated titles this season.

Which is pretty odd, since I wasn't big on the first one at all. The whole open world factor of this one has me pretty enthusiastic about it.

[Calgar99]

Shame to say but this going to have to be a rental. My wallet is too light coming up to the flurry of releases hitting us soon.

[Sazime]

I won a copy at PAX, got it for my PC. Something tells me I'm gonna regret that. X|

[bryan]

Can't wait for this!

BTW, deja vu anyone?

[Sandman]

Originally Posted by Ghostbear

PC, it will be $10 cheaper

Mine is 360 and it's $50 cheaper than yours.

[Rogue_hunter]

Wow, I had absolutely no interest in the multiplayer aspect until finding out this is what's in it. I hope people will be playing this, as it sounds really cool.
I'll be getting the PC version, to go with my copy of Far Cry that I got for free from my work.

[HALO 32]

Since my PC is old I would have to say 360.

Chances are I will just be using the map editor for months.

[Sazime]

Originally Posted by HALO 32

Since my PC is old I would have to say 360.

Chances are I will just be using the map editor for months.

The fact that they are including it for the 360 shows a lot of forward thinking on Ubi's part. Now, if we could only get MS on that modding bandwagon...

[AgtFox]

I also want to note that the links by the prices are Amazon referrals that will help support CoG. This will be in every review/preview we have.

[Goronmon]

Originally Posted by scythe

Sounds awesome. Which system are most CoGers picking this up on?

PC for me.

[Mdot]

I don't know if my PC can run this optimally so I'm leaning towards the 360. Nice write-up btw, Track.

[SilentScreams]

PC for me. This game will probably be the first true test for my new system.