Far Cry 2 — The only one I liked… and it happened in Africa

The Only Bad Guys Were Humans In This Game

I had to be in my last year of high school when everyone only started to cram on the last day before the finals because they spent 99% of the time partying with unsolicited materials and whatnot (I forgot what it was like being a teen… and good riddance). But that was the last month or two of the year because what I’m talking about actually came out earlier (technically the year prior, since I’m talking about a school year). It had to be like a month or two after the start of the last year a game named Far Cry 2 came out. Of course, I was already familiar with the original game, but I never played it. So I decided to try out the sequel.

The game was moderately enjoyable as I played through to the end of it. Of course, that happened because back then I was more passionate about the notion of being a gamer, considering how massive the subculture is today. But these days, I try to invest my time in other activities that do not necessarily involve burning your eyes in front of the monitor (and I have found moderate success at that). I still think that this game can still be an enjoyable experience by today’s standards, even for a game that came out in 2008. But that’s coming from someone who played that game when it came out and never revisited it. But yeah, it will probably still be fun because there’s some other cool stuff in it.

Interestingly enough, the series only truly started to become popular with the 3rd entry in the franchise, Far Cry 3, because of its “clever incorporation of narrative into the gameplay itself” or some other similarly pretentious quote (basically something like that) even though the 1st game allowed you to play as this dude that transforms into a monster, something that, from what I know, never happened in any subsequent title.

Time to talk about the real issue

I specifically brought up the 2nd game in the series, Far Cry 2, because of its setting. It has a plethora of languages rarely seen in modern forms of recreation (namely, video games and TV shows). The game doesn’t hide that it takes place in Africa, but it never tells you which country. I don’t even think there was even a clue as to where it might have happened. But regardless, it doesn’t really matter where it happened because I rarely see any African languages anywhere in terms of languages.

The most you will see regarding African languages in pop culture is probably in The Lion King, as most of the names are actually in Swahili, and that’s probably the most recognised African language, as it appeared in more than just revolutionary 90s movies. I mean, there was also a joke in one of the American Pie direct-to-DVD spinoffs, but it is so insignificant that I’m surprised at myself for even mentioning it. Another thing is “jumbo”, which I was told it means “hello” in Swahili. However, like all random statements that have been popularised by word of mouth, I don’t know how true that is (it turns out “let them eat cakes” was never something that actually happened).

Let’s put Swahili aside. What about Amharic? Amharic is a language that I’m somewhat familiar with because I hear it a lot… relatively speaking. But I could never really find a recreational outlet that features the language. Even Google Translate doesn’t have a voice synthesis for it (A lot of languages don’t… but that’s beside the point). So clearly, there are no video games that feature the language. With that in mind, I went to check out some videos on YouTube (AKA the video archive to everything that ever happened). The only relevant stuff to watch was a dub of Sesame Street and some sitcom or some other TV comedy. And not just Amharic, but also other African languages like Oromo, but all of these are just random examples since it applies to whatever all of those languages.

The solution is intercontinental

I think that, to find a solution to the problem of “there isn’t enough African language in modern culture”, one has to understand that, from what I’m told, some African languages don’t even have an alphabet. That’s a problem you’d encounter when trying to incorporate it into a video game. However, should it’d be only a voice problem, then I’m sure there’d be someone out there who not only speaks Amharic but is also willing to have their voice heard in a video game. I heard that after COVID struck, some recording studios adapted the methodology of recording the voice actors while in their homes, even if they were continents apart (such a privilege would have never been if it weren’t for the pandemic). Even if the potential voice actor is in Africa, it might still pose a problem due to socioeconomic issues, something that I will not talk about right now… or ever.

However, when it comes to teaching African languages, I think that there should be more dedicated to teaching those languages since there aren’t a lot of venues that are willing to do so. I, personally, don’t know of any place, so maybe someone should take the time to make a school where they teach these languages, even if it’s on the internet. That would be cool if I had one place to go to if I wanted to learn any African language that came to my mind.

But back to the voice actor thing, if having Amharic in a video game is really important to you, you should go over to Ethiopia (that’s where most Amharic speakers live) and record the voice actor yourself. If they have dubbed Sesame Street over there, then they probably have some voice actors.

I don’t know a lot about Amharic

Although this one, in particular, intrigues me due to the melting pot I live in. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t find a lot of accessible YouTube videos in that language, but even seeing that one sitcom bit, it was amusing just hearing the language. But I want to hear from any speaker of any African language, first language or otherwise, how they perceive that language and its integration into modern culture… or lack of it.

And game designers, how they think they can make an African language look cool in a video game. The real trouble is finding one first.

Although maybe I should also hear from people from the sides who see the complications as being more political than “how can we make language sound awesome in video games”. But this place isn’t dedicated to politics. I don’t even know what politics is.

In conclusion…

Play Far Cry 2, languages or not; it’s a good experience if you’re looking to play a game from the late 2000s, a time when people thought that PC games were dying, although that would later be proven untrue.

African languages, I am personally intrigued by the phonetics of the language since no matter how many times I hear it, I can’t make out a single word (indeed an enigma). I don’t think there would be an emphasis on these in any video game unless the game “just happened” to take place in Africa, but that’s because it worked for the game’s design.

But yeah, you should learn an African language… because not a lot of people do.