I'll give this a watch, thanks. Sounds a lot deeper than africa must be destroyed.

Obviously just 20 minutes in at this point but I think the criticism so far falls flat. Maybe I'll get my mind changed but I think the essay is ignoring some pretty important things so far.

Heart of Darkness does portray africa as a corruptive place, so the essay claims that you, the player character, come there, get caught up in the thing and then become shit. But they have backstorys that have 0 bearing on plot and gameplay. All of them full of extensive violence. It's pretty diverse politically, but I think the point is that these are fully formed garbage beings when they get there. I mean they're mercenaries for hire from when you start controlling them. I also don't understand where the author grabs the idea that you descend into the madness or that your friends do. They're all very sane, rational people. The game never really gets cooky with it.

You initially go there as a hit job on the Jackal, the arms dealer, who supplies both sides. The essay however seems to uncritically accept the premise presented in the game at the very start that someone - and who that is or was is never made clear in the game which I think is very intentional - a random, unsupported mercenary, is there to kill that one guy so that order may be restored. By whom that happens is also entirely unanswered. I think you're very much supposed to figure out that this was never, ever about doing good, just not right at the start. You came there on a hit job, you fucked up and since killing people for money is what you do, you start killing people for money until you get the guy. $20 in blood diamonds is $20 in Blood Diamonds regardless of who hands it to you. You're a mercenary for hire, caring about who you shoot is pretty much out of the question. I mean you can think the retired IDF corporal turned smuggler who takes hitjobs for money was an upstanding guy right up until he got to africa but then I might also think you got kicked in the head by a horse. The whole white man who gets corrupted, specifically, that's mentioned also falls entirely apart when you choose the guy from Algeria, Haiti, China or Mauritania as your player character.

I also don't understand how you can look at the guy that supplies arms to both the United Front for Blowing up Water Infrastructure and the Alliance of Bombing Medical Equipment concluding that he, the prolific international gun runner, isn't the problem, it's the country as agreeing with that idea. It's his conscious eating at him, it's why he grandstandingly quotes Nietzsche all the time to rationalize this. The takeaway from FC2 is much more "stop fucking with Africa".

EDIT: I'll continue this as I go I guess, his criticism of the fact that country is literally unnamed african country and a mishmash of africa as a colonial view is correct, but also it's the point. The entire game, barring the very last cutscene, is entirely from first person view. You, the mercenary for hire, don't care about what country this is past how shoots who and how you can get your hands on guns to also start shooting people. You see a wartorn country and figure you'll go in there in the side of war, you don't give a shit about culture and history.

EDIT 2: He's now getting into the factions and by this point I'm kind of getting the feeling he's taking a lot of things as face value or as an endorsement because the game says it. The two women, merc friends of yours ingame, that portray the faction leaders as garbage people - not that they aren't - one of them is a CIA agent, the other is former Cuban Intelligence Services that stayed back to fight UNITA for some reason.

Him just uncritically believing the faction leaders as they grandstand about pan-african unity and prosperity, one with a communist tint and the other with a monarchist one is also just very stupid. These people don't even care enough to publically ever admit they employ you, why would they not give you the fucking PR line for everything? "Comrade, to help build a united socialist africa we need you to blow up this childrens hospital in a black flag operation" is supposed to tell you something, but it's not that the leaders are idealistic but blind to what they're doing, being manipulated by their foreign aides.

EDIT 3: This is falling apart, he argues that the faction leaders are controlled by foreigners, which as mentioned I disagree with, but then also cites the guy selling them both guns who is very much not a native saying peace isn't possible here and them blaming ordering a childrens hospital blown up on the other faction that africa is just wartorn by default. If I follow the foreigners are the true leaders of the faction this entire ideal falls apart because it's all white guys doing all of this, not an endorsement that africa is just default wartorn because it's natives are too dumb for peace.

EDIT 4: I had to scroll back because I couldn't believe he actually did this, but when he portrays the mercenaries having taken over the factions he argues that this means they got corrupted into violence by africa and the guy in the footage was working for a shady PMC mostly operating in Latin America and the Caribbean since the 80s and is now doing this because his company fell apart. It's also implied he used to be in the Royal Air Force. This motherfucker did not start becoming violent in Africa.

EDIT 5: "This game portrays how Africa strips these people of their humanity" I say as I show, again, the CIA Agent that tasks you with burning down crop fields for blood diamonds. I feel like you have to be kind of racist to get to that conclusion.

This motherfucker is the most gullibe person on the planet. He portrays your mercenary "friends" betraying you as them descending into uncivilization due to africa and how they lose all ideals - motherfucker they're mercenaries! They're ideal is get paid! The reason they turn on you isn't because they got driven mad by the incivilisation of Africa it's because you got a great big suitcase full of diamonds! This isn't even subtle! Your "Friends" keep paying you to do warcrimes throughout the game! They started out garbage!

EDIT 6: So he just claimed that our player character mercenary was sent (again, by whom you dense idiot) to save the country but destroys it in the end because he got corrupted by Africa and I'm just aghast again how you can read and argue like modern critiques of how Heart of Darkness is colonial, still and then think foreign mercenaries going to africa for hit jobs is like, just generally a good thing and if the FC2 devs weren't racist they would've written about how the registered security guard from Florida (not making that one up) would've saved the country. The dudes solution to his perceived writing problems on Far Cry 2 is to make it Far Cry 3, curiously a game in which all of his criticisms would land entirely

EDIT 7: He's really giving the buddy system a lot of thematic and narrative depth that is not there especially for one of the first few missions. This is a random, other, mercenary you met like 3 days ago who will pay you more money to be more horrible.

EDIT 8: He's getting into the ludonarrative dissonance now between the action packed gameplay and the more melancholy storyline but Far Cry 2 is like among the worst example for that out there because your guns jam and blow up if you don't replenish them a lot, fire spreads wantonly and not according to neat area of effects and before and after every big boomfest you gotta drive long distances between every point since there is only very limited fast travel.

EDIT 9: Further evidence for the fact that Far Cry 2 as a medium thinks africa is a corrupting force: dialogue between two white mooks with heavy south african english accent involves them saying the country is cursed. Damning evidence, as far cry 2 generally makes it clear the people fighting there are otherwise good people

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

• yewtu.be
• inv.nadeko.net
• yt.artemislena.eu
• piped.video