This game is fairly polarizing, and I don't blame anyone who completely disagrees with me on this. I loved this game because it is beautiful to look at, and the story mode is very thought-provoking. The main character is essentially a mercenary who's been hired to help take out a war-profiteering arms dealer who's been supplying both sides of a civil conflict in eastern Africa. In gameplay, weapons degrade over time, the weather can be unpredictable, and players can get killed for doing absolutely nothing at all.
Sometimes the missions can feel quite repetitive, and many people don't like the mechanism by which one looks at the map is a bit awkward. Vehicles often must be repaired before they are drivable, and anti-malaria medicine must be taken in real time in order to stave off blurred vision and eventual death. In story mode, the player eventually has "buddies" who are NPCs that can assist during difficult missions or often simply provide moral support. It might sound ridiculous, but I had to euthanize my buddy during a mission at one point by shooting him, because I had to keep the syrettes, which are used to heal, but can also be used to overdose a fatally wounded buddy for an easy death.
This experience hit me harder than it should have, but it was also at this moment that I realized I loved Far Cry 2, in spite of some of the tedious and tense missions. It provides a higher degree of realism than a lot of games out here, because let's face it: being a hired gun trying to take out a warlord in a third world country would probably involved just as much tedium as it would danger. Far Cry 2 isn't for everyone, but you'll know almost immediately if it's for you.