Far Cry 2 takes place in a war-torn region of Africa. There are two factions warring with each other – the UFLL and the APR. Both sides are supplied by an arms dealer called The Jackal. Your job is to find The Jackal, and assassinate him. You play as an assassin, who is fighting mercenary gangsters who are tearing the country apart. You do jobs for both sides, and though you’re always given the details why you’re doing a particular job, it doesn’t matter to you. As long as you get paid.

Far Cry 2 is a game that is all about the ambush. You ambush scouting points, ambush safe-houses, ambush convoys, and you get ambushed yourself and have to think on your feet and fight off your attackers. It’s a simple mechanic that you do over and over again. And, to its credit, it never gets old. Planting myself in the middle of a road where I know a weapons convoy is on its way, and using my crossbow or rocket launcher to blow said convoy to kingdom come, is always fun.

Stealth is an important part of the gameplay, as you’re constantly outnumbered in almost every firefight you get into. You absolutely cannot run and gun through Far Cry 2. Guerrilla warfare is the name of the game.

The currency of Far Cry 2 is diamonds. You can find diamonds out in the world, and you get them for doing jobs for the two factions. Diamonds allow you to buy guns and upgrades, which you unlock by completing side missions.

In addition to your machete, you can only carry three other weapons at any given time: a primary, secondary, and special weapon. It works well enough, but since every weapon falls into one of those categories, you’re limited in what combination of weapons you can carry. For example, you can’t carry a sniper rifle and an AK-47, since they’re both primary weapons. It makes you have to think about what your preferred weapons and play style is.

You can also buy upgrades for your weapons in the form of accuracy and reliability upgrades. Accuracy upgrades give you the ability to handle your weapon in combat better. Reliability upgrades lets your weapons last longer before jamming. You need to switch your weapons out at the weapon shop regularly. If you don’t, your weapons will rust, jam up, and eventually stop working altogether.

You can buy crates that allow you to carry an extra weapon in a crate, that you can then access at a safe house, but the game only allows you to store one extra weapon for each crate. You can have one primary weapon, secondary weapon, and special weapon crate.

There’s day and night cycles in the game as well. You can go to sleep in a safe house, where you can set the time forward and play the game at night. Playing at night isn’t as pretty to look at, but it does enhance your stealth, making it more difficult for enemies to see you, and vice-versa.

The buddy system in Far Cry 2 is interesting. If you reach a safehouse, you might have an ally waiting for you there. You can choose to team up with them or not. If you do choose to team up, your buddy will swoop in to save you if you die, pulling you to safety and fighting off your attackers, giving you a chance to fight another day.

And when you get a mission from either the UFLL or APR, your buddy will call you with an optional way to team up and accomplish the mission together. Or you can go it alone.

For some reason, your character can’t run for more than about 10 seconds without getting tired and having to walk. It makes no sense that you’re a professional assassin, but can only run for short distances. However, your stamina does improve as you progress further in the game.

Also, you’ve contracted malaria, which plays into the story somewhat and affects you randomly during gameplay. You get medicine for it at the beginning of the game, but you eventually run out. You have to do certain side missions in the game to get more medicine.

Far Cry 2 gives you the feeling of a real assassin-for-hire. You’re not a good guy, and you’re not a bad guy. For you, you’re just pulling jobs for whoever is providing the diamonds.