Far Cry 2 is a game that is trying really hard to get me to stop playing. It almost feels like it has its own personality, and not a pleasant one. It’s the first game I’ve played in quite awhile where I have a sense that the game itself has antipathy towards me.

Far Cry 2 is the underachieving student or athlete that, if they just put in a little more effort, could be truly great, but their attitude is so rotten, it’s never going to happen. They don’t show up for class, they’re consistently late for practice, they mouth-off to their teachers and teammates, they don’t do their assignments, etc. Far Cry 2 is the video game equivalent of that.

Far Cry 2 erased my save halfway through, it crashes a lot, the enemy respawn points make no sense, and it takes too long to get to and from your missions.

Also, the lack of mobility hampers its beautiful open world. It takes too long to get from one point to another. There are vehicles you can drive scattered everywhere, which does help. However, chances are, you will be ambushed somewhere along the way while trying to get to your destination. If your destination happens to be a ways off, it’s almost guaranteed you will be attacked.

There are bus depots that can take you to different areas of the world, but these are few and far between. They’re often far enough away that you’re better off just trying to get to your destination with a vehicle, or by walking, than trying to get to a bus depot.

Ubisoft had the right idea with the bus depots, but they just didn’t put enough of them in the game. Not to mention, almost all of my game crashes happened during loading screens when I was trying to use one of the bus depots. It’s been so bad, I’ve had to make sure to save my game every time before using one.

What this leads to is a lot of walking and driving vehicles around. When you’re exploring and messing around while taking out bad guys at the scouting points and safehouses, it’s not as big of an issue.

However, there comes a point where you really want to sink your teeth into the meat of Far Cry 2, but the game makes it hard because there is so much walking and driving in the game. This is where the lack of mobility in Far Cry 2 really becomes a problem. It kills the pacing and flow of the game.

All that being said, what Far Cry 2 does well, it does really well. Ubisoft did a fantastic job of recreating the African wilderness. I don’t know if I’ve seen as much greenery and trees rendered in a video game before. In high resolution, it’s gorgeous to look at.

The enemy AI, while spotty at times, does a great job of not staying in one place and trying to flank and ambush you. If you’re not careful, they can overwhelm you quickly. Even though you seem to do variations on the same thing over and over when doing your missions, it never gets old or repetitive. Blowing away the mercenary thugs that populate Far Cry 2’s world is always, always satisfying.

Ambushing them with my crossbow while they’re driving by in a vehicle brings a smile to my face every time. Why? Because they’re animals who are tearing the country apart and victimizing innocents – and I’m happy to slaughter them like animals.

Even though it takes too long getting to and from your missions, driving through the African wilderness is gorgeous to look at and experience. It’s somewhat relaxing too, when you’re not being ambushed.

While the game never browbeats you with dialogue and story, what story the game offers is interesting. It has an undercurrent of the tragedy of war and greed, while not being preachy about it.

How bad do the thugs in Far Cry 2 want you dead? Why do I call them animals worthy to be slaughtered with impunity? Watch this mercenary crash his jeep into a bridge, and then literally fall off a cliff trying to kill me. He’s still firing his gun with the hope of at least catching me with a round or two as he plunges to his death. I slowed it down so you can see it.

That’s dedication to your profession. Moments like this are why I developed a sense of contempt coming from Far Cry 2. The frequent game crashes and the lost 20-30 hours of gameplay when the game unceremoniously erased my save for no reason greatly exacerbated this feeling. I feel like Far Cry 2 hates me when all I want to do is appreciate the good it has to offer.

Let me love you, Far Cry 2. Please. Why do you keep pushing me away?