KMGR of "Far Cry 2"

Image via WikipediaFar Cry 2 is a sequel that sends the mercenary to Africa on almost free-form adventure to hunt down the Jackal, but the merc, along with other mercs, gets embroiled in a civil war... So how does it fare on the mobile platform? Pretty well, interestingly.

Gameloft knows how to make mobile games, and Far Cry 2 managed to shrink most of the good parts of Far Cry 2, and combined it with the good parts of a phone 2D shooter, and came out with an interesting game. You start with one faction, and you can perform one of the three missions. When you finish all three, the plot have you join the opposing faction (supposedly the pay's better, but not). In the course of the missions, you collect extra diamonds (which acts as currency for ammo and such), journal notes for a reporter who lost her notes, and commit a series of atrocities such as destroying farms and water sources to starve the other side. When you realized this faction will not take you closer to the Jackal either... You're tossed into jail as the faction leader can't risk having mercs who will turn on him. After that... it's escape time... Except after you left, some old friends who you thought were dead came back to haunt you... And who you thought were friends where your enemies... and who you thought were enemies... are your friends. :)

As a phone shooter, this game is pretty standard... The game auto-aims your AK-47, and auto-reloads as well. If you lean up against obstacle you'll "hide" behind it, and if you have a molotov cocktail you can use that as a "grenade" and take out a group at a time, esp. machine gun nest. Else, run past it and look for another way around it. You may also run into other toys, such as sniper rifle, RPG launcher, and so on for special missions.

Some of the missions involve drive-and-gun. You'll be on a motorcycle, where you need to dodge shooters, incoming mortar rounds, obstacles, other vehicles, and shoot back as much as possible. You'll either get in front of someone you need to kill, or intercept someone else. It's rather fun, but quite difficult because if you crash into an obstacle it's pretty much "restart from checkpoint".

If you got hurt, just find a quiet place and rest for a while, and you'll heal to full. At more advanced levels, this takes longer to occur and longer to trigger.

The game has periodic checkpoints and the difficulty can be turned down a bit to fit your level of expertise. If you do die, you restart from last checkpoint you passed. It's simple and effective. Graphics are good enough for 2D sprite game, similar to the other Gameloft 2D games, such as Rainbow 6 Vegas and so on. Sound is not that good but adequate.

And I must say, the ending is one of the most poignant in mobile game history. And what's more surprising, you can unlock additional characters to play as, and you get three to start! Each has slightly different dialog, but same missions.

All in all, the game doesn't break too many molds, but it is definitely well polished. Can't give it a "best", but it's definitely "up there".

Overall rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: effective port of all shooter conventions, plus effective use of Far Cry 2 plot
Cons: doesn't really break the mold, it's still a standard 2D shooter