Far Cry 2 Game Analysis: Singleplayer, Multiplayer, and Player-Created Content

1. Game Analysis: Jakob Lindh - 2009-05-26 - jaklin-9@student.ltu.se

2. Table of contents • Introduction • Far Cry 2 A short history The game experience Singleplayer Multiplayer • Far Cry 2 and player created content • Conclusions • References and Bibliography

3. Introduction This is an overview slideshow over the work done on my Final Assignment for the course ”Introduction to Game Design” given by Luleå University of Technology in Sweden, spring 2009. For the full rapport, please see the attached file on my blog post which contains this slideshow, or contact me by e-mail. During the course I have learned a lot about game design and how it works. The techniques, theories and thoughts provided by the teachers at the University of Tampere have proven very instructive, and the knowledge provided will be useful in the future. It has also opened up doors to areas that were previously pretty much unexplored by me, such as pervasive games, game cultures and games as services. Game chosen for analysis: PC-version of Far Cry 2. Sub-topic: Far Cry 2 and player created content. This game analysis will be about the PC version of Far Cry 2. I will start with the single player experience of Far Cry 2, going through aspects like game play, player experience, characteristics, immersion and so on, before moving on to shortly write about multiplayer. I’ll then finish the analysis with a short in depth look at Far Cry 2 and player created content, and my work using the games’ level editor.

4. Far Cry 2: A short history First Person Shooter (FPS) Developed by Ubisoft Montreal Released in October 2008 Sequel to Far Cry Doesn’t share any settings or characters with its prequel. Has had several spin offs, including Far Cry Instincts and Far Cry Vengeance.

5. Far Cry 2: A short history 2004 2005 2006 2006 2007 2008 Cover art from all the Far Cry-games in chronological order, starting with Far Cry on the top left and ending with Far Cry 2 on the lower right.

6. Far Cry 2: The game experience: Singleplayer Far Cry 2 takes place in a made-up, although never named, African nation during present time. The nation is beset by civil war. Your part in this mess is easy; kill a man known only as “The Jackal”, an ill-famed arms-dealer who has supplied both fighting parts in the war with weapons. The game can be said to have all the characteristics of an FPS. Far Cry 2 also has features from other genres such as: RPG:s; side quests and the ability to chose from nine different pre-made characters to play as throughout the game. Sandbox Games; a large 3D virtual world. Simulators; being able to pilot multiple vehicles such as cars, boats and hang gliders. These additional features makes Far Cry 2 kind of a hybrid among genres, like many other games.

7. Far Cry 2: The game experience: Singleplayer Driving a buggy The Jackal Character selection screen Sunset in Far Cry 2

8. Far Cry 2: The game experience: Singleplayer Interesting immersive and coherent aspects of Far Cry 2 include: Visual feedback for different actions, such as opening doors, repairing cars and recovering from major wounds. Weapons jamming and being degraded by continuous use. Fire which spreads realistically. Player character suffers from malaria. Doing missions as a mercenary for both sides of the war; the APR (Alliance for Popular Resistance) and the UFLL (United Front for Liberation and Labor).

9. Far Cry 2: The game experience: Singleplayer Recovering from a wound Repairing a car engine Malaria symptoms A spreading fire

10. Far Cry 2: The game experience: Singleplayer Un-immersive and un-coherent aspects include: Very fast respawn-time of enemies. Going after the Jackal just for money seems a bit unmotivated. Emergent aspects include: Multiple ways of solving missions. Nearly unlimited strategies and paths of approach to missions.

11. Far Cry 2: The game experience: Multiplayer Four game modes are available for multiplayer: Capture the diamond. Same as capture the flag but instead having a diamond suitcase replace the flag for each team. Uprising. Each team has a player captain that can take over three capture points on the map. Once your team has taken over all points, you must kill the enemy captain to win. Having more bases when the time runs out will also result in victory. Deathmatch. Everyone fights each other for the highest score of kills. Team Deathmatch. Same as above but with two teams playing against each other. When playing in teams like some game modes let you, each team plays as one side in the civil war. Either the APR or the UFLL. Multiplayer also lets you choose between one of four classes for different specialized roles. One is good at long range, one is good at close quarters etc. Weapons can also be upgraded by earning diamonds which then are spent on upgrades. Perform better to earn more diamonds.

12. Far Cry 2: The game experience: Multiplayer Enemy in sight Me and my team-mate, pouring it on

13. Far Cry 2 and player created content Player created content, or modding, which comes from the word modify, can be considered to be a pretty wide field within games. According to Tanja Sihvonen, who is being interviewed in the podcast “Player Created Content” by Timo Nummenmaa, it is not just making levels, maps and items for a game; “It is a vast concept that includes things like cheating, bending the rules and exploiting all kinds of bugs and glitches in the game code. Players not just play the game but do all kinds of things with it.” Player created content also include: Taking screenshots. Making machinima. Modifying hardware to play pirated games on consoles. Creating manuals and walkthroughs for a game. Creating stories for a role playing game.

14. Far Cry 2 and player created content I have focused my work under this topic on the Far Cry 2 level editor, and what follows are some of my conclusions regarding it, including strengths and weaknesses. Strengths: Ships with the game. Fast and easy to use. A lot of pre made objects at the players disposal. Allows for immediate uploading of your levels to share with other players. Weaknesses: Not as advanced as other level editors. Only multiplayer levels can be made and not singleplayer. Therefore it lacks aspects such as cut scene-making and scripting. Having so many pre made objects makes you rather limited in how unique and original settings and surroundings you can create.

15. Far Cry 2 and player created content Clean slate in the level editor Main base on my map Jungle Juggling

16. Far Cry 2 and player created content APR spawn point on my map Desert Doom Capture point on my map Mountain Madness

17. Conclusions This has been a short overview of my Final Assignment. The actual report contains more information and goes deeper into the topics. In my rapport I have analyzed the game by applying theories and thoughts from podcasts provided by the course, but also from books and other reports that I have found interesting and which I thought could add to the analysis. When you analyze a game like this, you understand more of how it is built and how the developers thought while creating it, but you also find flaws in the game design, and this knowledge can be helpful to you for future analyses’ or work in the game business. Things and aspects that I would have done differently had the analysis been of greater magnitude: I would have liked to go a lot deeper into the game play experience of Far Cry 2, analyzing it by the addition of more theories and thoughts to really touch all sides of it. I would have liked to further explore all the aspects of what player created content really is and all the possibilities that the phenomenon presents, not laying my focus only on the level editor. By doing this I would get a much greater view of what player created content can be and how it is created.

18. Thank you for tuning in!