A Tale of Two Sequels

After I finished Fallout 3 (I ran through the story once as a good guy, then got halfway through a second time as an asshole before getting bored) and got my own copy of Rock Band 2, I needed a new game to rent and play. After 5 minutes at the video store, I decided that game would be Saints Row 2.

I had purchased the original Saints Row for my 360 and enjoyed it, even with the bugs and other assorted bullshit. At the time, it was the only GTA-like experience on the current-gen consoles. Since then, GTA4 had hit, and I wasn't sure how well Saints Row 2 would stack up.

Turns out it stacked up pretty well, just for different reasons. Saints Row 2 doesn't take itself nearly as seriously as GTA4, and isn't even half as long as GTA4 (I finished the main storyline in about 24 hours), but it's a whole lot of fun. There were only a handful of aggravating spots, and almost no bugs to speak of. Controls, story, graphics, and voice acting were all great. Thumbs up for Saints Row 2.

Since I was done with Saints Row 2 after a couple of weeks, I needed another game, hopefully one that that would last a bit longer. After checking online, the consensus was that Far Cry 2 was a free-roaming sandbox type game that boasted 60 hours of gameplay. One trip to the video store later and Far Cry 2 was in my possession.

For the first 5 hours, it was great. It took some getting used to, as it's not only an FPS on a console, but getting shot is much more fatal than GTA or Saints Row. Once I tackled the learning curve, though, I was off gathering conflict diamonds, shooting people, and blowing shit up. Far Cry 2 is kind of like if GTA was set in Africa. Go here, get mission, kill people or blow something up, get paid, buy weapons, shoot more people, get another mission, etc.

There was just one problem. In Far Cry 2, you have "buddies" which help you out with main mission objectives and rescue you if you get dropped in the field. Just like you, though, they're very mortal, and if they get dropped, you have to heal them or they'll bleed out and die. Once they're dead, they're dead forever. You can also "mercy kill" them if you don't feel like healing them, but there's absolutely no reason to do that. You don't get any money, you don't get their weapons, and you lose them as a resource. So the bottom line is you should protect your buddies and heal them if they're injured. Which I did.

But then I had a mission where one of my buddies derailed a train and set up an ambush. I was tasked with helping him clean up. Imagine my surprise when I rode up in my truck to his ambush location to find him dead and enemies swarming the area. I went on a hate-fuled rampage and then loaded game, because I didn't want to lose my buddy. Take 2, this time I roll up, only to see him blast a guy, and then two seconds later drop dead. At first I thought someone had shot him, but there were no enemies left in the area, not even a hidden sniper. What was stranger was that he wasn't injured and in need of healing (like would usually happen), he was just dead, game over, end of story. At this point, I was supremely pissed. I really didn't want to do the whole thing over a third time, because from my last save to this point there was a shitload of combat and driving to be done. I managed to reason with myself that this was part of the storyline. I drive up, too late to save my buddy, and he goes out in a hail of gunfire. Sure, fine, whater.

I continue on, now with only one "rescue-ready" buddy, not a mission helper buddy. There's another potential buddy back at base, but she doesn't trust me enough yet to help me out with missions. So I'm rolling along doing side missions trying to avoid the story until I can get another buddy, and I get taken down while I'm out hunting down an assassination target. My buddy rescues me, we gun down the rest of the enemies, and I go off on my merry way. I stop by the arms dealer to spend my ill-gotten gains, then save my game. I go out on another side mission, get taken down again by enemies, and am confronted with the loading screen, rather than being rescued by my buddy.

My Spidey-sense tingles, but I load game. I check my journal, and my buddy shows as "mercy-killed." What the fuck? I didn't mercy kill anyone. Out of curiosity, I check the status of my earlier buddy, and he shows "mercy-killed" too. It's at this point that I realize not only was his death a bug, but this death was also a bug. I had left my rescuer alone in the wilderness, but like all times before it, I expected him to get back safe, and instead, he just dropped dead at some point and became listed as "mercy-killed."

Nevertheless, I was still having fun with the game and soldiered on. I went to the main faction's HQ to get a new mission, but there wasn't one available. Instead, I was tasked with rescuing a prisoner. Ah, finally, a new buddy. I go to the place, gun down the guards, and open the prisoner's cell. She says she's glad to see me, and tells me to go ahead and eliminate any reinforcements. I leave, expecting her to follow. I wait at the main entrance, watching for reinforcements, but none show. I shrug, and get in my truck and start driving back to base. I then realize that my GPS is still showing the rescue target. So I turn around and go back, expecting to see my buddy still standing in the cell or something equally stupid. But there's no one there. Yet my GPS continues to blink, "You're supposed to rescue someone here." I wander around the camp, hoping those mysterious reinforcements will show up so I can gun them down and advance the mission, but still nothing. Furious now, I drive back to base. What a surprise, there's the rescued prisoner. But she has nothing to do with me, because the game still thinks she hasn't been rescued. I rest, thinking that will do it. No dice. "You're supposed to rescue someone here."

Load game. Get rescue mission again, gun down guards, unlock cell. Go on ahead, reinforcements, we'll meet back at base. I lead the way backwards, trying to see if she'll follow me, but she just stands there dumbly in her cell. I leave the camp and return, and the guards have respawned, but I pretend they're reinforcements and gun them down. She's gone from the cell. I return to base, she's there, but I still can't talk to her. I can't take another mission because this one isn't completed. I can't finish the mission, even though I did what I was supposed to do. At this point, I hit the PS button, select "Quit game," eject the disc, and am forever done with Far Cry 2. It took me 9 hours to hit a game-killing bug. Fan-fucking-tastic. Big thumbs down for Far Cry 2.