Parents' Guide to

Far Cry 2

By Chad Sapieha, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

A violent but graphically superior shooter.

Game Xbox 360, Windows, Mac, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo 64 2008
Far Cry 2 Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

Community Reviews

See all
age 12+

Based on 12 parent reviews

ETHAN G.
ETHAN G. Adult
April 4, 2019
age 14+

Honest Review

Far Cry 2 is a game where your entering the country Africa and you have some disease you enter a town to find a certain person but you get captured you wake up the town is having a war people are shooting etc a nan takes you and takes you back to his base you work for him Far Cry 2 Contains Some Strong Language the Violence is okay not too bad you can rip bullets out of you ... Far Cry 2 is a really good game a bit different from the first one it's not on a tropical island it's in Africa

This title has:

Easy to play/use
Sam M.
Sam M. Parent of 0-year-old
June 5, 2017
age 14+

violence and language

Holds up better than expected. Great atmosphere, gunplay, well designed world that still looks pretty good even on console. Large blood splashes. No gore though. No stylized machete kills like the sequels. Dark subject matter, described in greater detail in audio logs.
See all 12 parent reviews

What’s It About?

The original Far Cry for Windows PC was a sprawling, epic, highly realistic shooter. It spawned four console offshoots which, while fun, significantly tamed the original's scope and authenticity. However, FAR CRY 2, the first proper sequel in the franchise, restores and expands upon the first game's enormous, imposing, and beautiful environments by providing players some 50 square kilometers of completely free-to-explore African wilderness, multiple means by which to carry out each assignment, and a lengthy campaign designed to last a minimum of 30 hours--potentially much longer should players decide to seek out every last mission and hidden item.

The game's hero -- your choice of nine rough and tumble mercenaries from around the world -- is on a mission to rid a war-torn African country of an arms dealer known as the Jackal, a man responsible for providing weapons to warring factions in more than a dozen of the continent's civil wars. But our protagonist is no angel. He does dirty work for both of the conflict's factions to earn the cold hard diamonds necessary to fund his investigation. And while he establishes a rough brotherhood with a few other hired guns, there's no attempt to make these men out to be noble knights; they're professional soldiers, plain and simple.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (12):
Kids say (26):

It doesn't take long to figure out that the game's real star isn't any of its grisly military men, but rather its lush jungles, rolling deserts, and expansive savannahs. Zebras and wildebeest roam the plains, wind ruffles the leaves of trees and bushes, and the sun, moon, and stars rotate across the sky to create a wonderfully believable day/night cycle (we can actually see this happen in sped up photography whenever our avatar sleeps). It would probably take half an hour to walk across the game world from one corner to another, and you would never see a loading screen while doing it. Spend enough time with Far Cry 2, and you may well feel as though you've actually visited Africa.

Other elements help to extend the player's sense of immersion. Cars break down and have to be repaired with a wrench. When injured, our hero must fish out bullets from his flesh or pat out flames on his legs. Should he become gravely wounded, one of his buddies will come to his rescue and carry him away while fending off attackers -- an excellent alternative to the traditional die-and-respawn system found in most games. These unique tweaks combined with the game's gorgeous environments help Far Cry 2 overcome its semi-unlikable characters and give the game a flavor all its own.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about this game's portrayal of a conflict that resembles the sort we often hear about in the news but, thankfully, never experience firsthand. Does it seem realistic? How do you think you would cope living in a world in which gun-toting militia walk the streets and armed blockades keep you from traveling freely? Do you think a game like this helps players get a better feel for a problem taking place half a world away, or is it simply more mindless first-person shooter entertainment?

Game Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate