I still play FC2, but have never seen this. Always more to find!
The immersion appeals to me, especially the vegetation, sunsets/rises and sound design in nature. It would be great to have an actual, non-cartoon sequel. (not necessarily in Africa, but the approach to immersion).
And yes, I too would love a sequel in spirit.
But TBH I have never monitored an enemy outside a outpost in an area with animals.
Possibly! They normally take flight when they notice a human nearby[1] but as the player you can certainly bump into them if you sneak up. And I think they just fall over and die if you do that.
The other claim in the article that's clearly untrue is the one about not hearing a line of dialogue twice. The idle dialog between NPCs definitely repeats fairly soon, sometimes within a minute or so. So I get the impression the author isn't particularly familiar with games and is quite happy to parrot some of the publisher's claims or perhaps they found some pre-release interviews where some of this was mentioned.
[1] As they should! Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of wild mammals and birds in Africa, including predators, will be on alert it if they spot a human nearby and leg it if they get close. Safaris are only a thing because cars/safari trucks haven't been hunting or retaliating against predators for 99.9% of the last 100000+ years, and most animals can't distinguish the human figures/faces inside vehicles. This is another thing Far Cry 2 got right versus the subsequent Far Cry games, which are just crawling with highly aggressive predators and where the herbivores are essentially tame.
I agree it repeats, though the dialog is pretty rich and there are even several accents. I can imagine in a direct play through there wouldn't be much repetition. I mean, I muck around a lot.
BTW There's also many different enemy idle animations, some only in one location, like fishing, eating a meal, exercises.
You're likely right that the author is more interested in analyzing the game, rather than being a die hard fan.
Oh, I’m not complaining about the voice acting. The fast-talking mission briefings are a little odd at first, but they work. And yeah, they put a lot of effort into idle animations and chatter; putting more effort in just yields diminishing returns. Plus, real people repeat themselves too, particularly when bored…
I just brought up the matter-or-fact remark about never repeating a line because it suggested something to me about the author.