| Demian* |
| Oh Lordy, Plegaleggole |
| Wed 12th Nov '08 10:07AM |
| 4677 Posts |
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| Member Since |
| 7th Apr '03 |
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This is the prettiest game ever made for the PC. Visceral, terrifying and thought-provoking, and a strange new advance called The Director ensures that every game is different. For example, on starting the game there is no way to predict where you will be, who your initial contacts will be, and whether your ultimate target, an arms dealer know as The Jackal, is even aware of you or where you are. This technology is also used to influence all missions further down the line, with the outcomes of previous missions affecting the plot, and not just in an 'A or B' sense. For example, save and befriend a particular buddy and he/she will offer you new options to expand the scope of missions, and will be available to rescue you should you succumb to a hail of bullets. If the character should die in the process, this has further impact on the remaining storyline and available missions.
The story is set in Africa, with 50 sq km in which you are free to roam and explore as you like. There are no 'invisible walls' which normally prevent you from choosing your own path in a game such as this. There are 40 hours of main storyline missio ns and a similar amount of optional side missions to complete. During your stay you will also need to battle the effects of malaria, which cause confusion, disorientation and loss of consciousness. This can only be remedied by keeping yourself supplied with malaria pills, and these need to be obtained from underground shops and contacts which you discover and meet as you go. But again, each of these elements is influenced by other parts of the game. For example, get too enthusiastic about a fight, maybe by deciding to ignite an entire village with flamethrowers, molotov cocktails and mortars, and you may find you've accidentally killed one of your contacts!
In short, there is no way to predict the plot of the game, and the amount of permutations of people, alliances and events must be near infinite.
Ultimately the game is a FPS, but a fine one at that. New weapons can be purchased at the various arms dealers, and weapon upgrades are also available to improve accuracy, recoil or reliability. Every weapon degrades over time, with the most degraded weapons looking rusty and dented, allowing you to easily assess whether it's worth chucking out your badly-battered sniper rifle for the shiny new flamethrower. Pretty much every part of the game is flammable, leading to much hilarity. For example, I was trying to clear out a patrol point from enemies but they didn't seem interested in coming out to fight, so I just started a forest fire outside and watched them run screaming from the building as it caught fire around them 
Lots of other features aid immersivity. For example, the map screen is not the usual 'pause and work out what to do' system, you actually hold the map out at arms length whilst continuing to orient yourself and move around. The GPS attached to the map also lets you locate briefcases containing diamonds, the only worthwhile local currency. The vehicles are fun to drive, and many have mounted guns to switch to a quick battle before continuing on your journey. If your vehicle is damaged in the process, simply jump out, pop the hood and use your wrench to repair the engine.
Should you get badly wounded, hitting the 'restore health' key can be quite traumatic, so far I have watched myself cauterize wounds with bundles of matches, pull a branch out of my thigh, gouge bullets from wounds with a knife, and remove rusty nails from inbetween my fingers! This, along with the sometimes x-rated language, makes this definitely NOT a game for the kids.
Overall, an utter joy. Half a mark deducted due to the ridiculous amount of PC power you'll need to run this at anything approaching full visuals. Quad Core Extreme will be needed for full graphics options at anything above 1024x768 resolution. That said, my Quad Core running at 1024x768 with all graphics on 'high' rather than 'very high' still looks absolutely amazing, although I am using an Nvidia 9800GTX which helps a lot. Fortunately a benchmarking tool comes with the game which allows you to test out various combinations of graphics settings until you find one that gives you a decent framerate. However, I wouldn't bother trying to run this unless you have at least a dual core processor and a pretty decent graphics card.
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Second opinion by Xander on 21st Sep '09
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2/10
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| Really sucked on PS3 anyway. I just can't stand a game where you have to drive miles in it to get to the actual mission! What is the point?
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Especially when we have had some genius threads going. 
