By Alfred Siew

LIKE many open-ended games, Far Cry 2 is one that can be frustrating during the first hour of play but fully rewarding as you delve deeper.

You play a hitman sent to a war-torn African country, but end up being a gun-for-hire used by its various factions.

The game has some of the most innovative features in a first-person shooter in years.

Let's start with the landscape. For the first time, you not only destroy things like crates (yawn) but also set fire to a dry patch of grass to force your enemy into a corner. You can wait until nightfall, when visibility is poor, to strike fear into them with a sniper rifle.

Or how about firing a round into an ammo cache and seeing the stray bullets being sprayed in all directions? It is devilish but so much fun.

The environment is so dynamic that no single gunfight ends up the same way.

Wind direction counts too. If you throw a fire bomb into the grass, make sure the heat does not spread back towards you.

The computer opponents and friendly buddies, who will save you should you be injured, are also pretty smart. When you snipe at the enemy, they will usually take cover behind a building. Braver ones will hop into a Landrover and gun for you.

You just never know what you are going to get next. I ended up looking over my shoulder more often than in any shooter I have played.

The weapons are great too. The flare gun gives you a nice bush fire when you shoot it into the grass, while the flame-thrower is the ultimate short-range weapon - just one burst of the flame and everything in its wake gets incinerated.

To make things more realistic, weapons jam during fights and the way the character clears, say, an M16 rifle, is as realistic as the way you would do it when you are in national service.

Graphics-wise, I would say Far Cry 2 is excellent, though slightly short of what Crysis offers in terms of dynamic lighting. But then again, Far Cry 2 has a truly interactive environment - you will be spellbound standing there, watching a tree catch fire and being consumed to the last leaf.

I would have given it a 9/10, if not for the fact that some parts of the game are repetitive.

Unlike Grand Theft Auto (GTA), not much of the story is integrated into Far Cry 2's gameplay. Sometimes you seem to be attacking an endless bunch of guard posts and convoys on the way to a mission.

To make things more frustrating, you sometimes do not 'unlock' a guard post despite killing everyone there.

The other bug is that you die - ostensibly from malaria that you got early in the game - whenever you stray out of some designated area of combat. Strange because it gives lie to the idea that you can freely roam about every place on the map, a la GTA.

However, despite these problems, the game still gets you going because of its biggest strength - the dynamic gameplay.

No other shooter I have played since Quake, that seminal first-person shooter in the 1990s, have redefined gameplay as much as Far Cry 2 - and that is high praise.

Cheat sheet

The first thing to do is make use of the environment. Watch where the wind is blowing and set fire to the enemy camp before attacking the panicked survivors.

You can do this either by aiming at an oil drum, firing a flare into the bush or throwing a petrol bomb into the mix. Since you are often outnumbered, rely on stealth. Keep yourself hidden in the foliage; attack at night.

If you see a safe house near your objective, secure it before going all guns blazing into an enemy camp full of soldiers. Doing so lets you choose the time of attack - always do it at night - and also hook up with a buddy for help.

Invariably, you will run into many roadblocks and enemy patrols on the way to and back from a mission. If you are impatient, just run past them on a fast buggy. Make sure you repair the vehicle as it gets damaged along the way.

You can also take the bus. Yes, purists will say this is sissy. However, buses do not get harassed on the way, so it is an easy ride.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life on 17 December 2008.