Far Cry is, now, a series regarded for its open world funhouse. Beautiful playgrounds where players can charge around the map collecting things, ticking off checkpoints, liberating people and generally causing mayhem within a specifically designed rulebook; one that doesn’t allow for much frustration at all. That wasn’t always the way though; while Far Cry 1 was a decent first person shooter that led on to Crysis, Far Cry 2 was the studio’s first “open world” game, and what an effort it was.

The game had the open world of the later Far Cry games but it also had an intense thrill of danger, something the subsequent games would lack. Malaria was a constant threat in the harsh African wilderness, while guns were unreliable and hostile locals were plenty. The game’s systems were unique and interesting and clashed in ways that produced amazing emergent results. The game still hasn’t been matched in the series since.