Set in a fictional African country engulfed in civil war, the storyline follows a mercenary who is assigned to kill the Jackal, a weapons dealer inflaming the conflict.

The narrative and tone, inspired by Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness and Dashiell Hammett's novel Red Harvest, focused on the lengths to which people would go to survive through terrible circumstances.

[8] A notable element of the open world is realistic physics and environmental effects, such as fire spreading through an area if lit and dust storms causing decreased visibility.

[18] In the wake of a rebellion against the old government of an unnamed African nation, civil war rages between the rebel forces' two political factions, the United Front for Liberation and Labour (UFLL) and the Alliance for Popular Resistance (APR).

The situation is being worsened by the Jackal, an arms dealer distributing efficient low-price weapons to both sides in violation of a Joint Signatory Framework designed to stop the conflict escalating.

He also meets Reuben Oluwagembi, a journalist covering the conflict, and after aiding him gains access to malarial medicine through the Underground network, which works to save the civilian population from the activities of the UFLL and APR.

Post-credit dialogue reveals the country descends into anarchy despite attempted peace talks, Reuben's story is ignored by the press and he begins publishing it on his blog, the Underground is praised for its action saving civilians, and the Jackal's body is never found.

[22] The team went through a long pre-production period, with plans for a sequel emerging prior to the original game's release and concept work beginning during the development of Far Cry Instincts (2005).

[34][36] Another influence along the same lines was the novel Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett, where the protagonist enters a lawless city and ultimately eliminates both sides of a deadly conflict.

One of Redding's priorities was incorporating elements into the game world to reinforce the character's thematic journey into madness and violence, including the option for the player to fail at objectives without derailing the narrative or requiring a reset.

[27] The script was written by Susan O'Connor, who worked on other notable video games including BioShock, along with Armand Constantine and Ubisoft staff member Kevin Shortt.

[28] Original Far Cry protagonist Jack Carver was not featured, as during test interviews players either did not remember or disliked him, so Hocking felt no need to bring him back.

[38] The Jackal was written as a contrast to the more simplistic antagonist of Far Cry, being an amoral pragmatist who would eventually understand the damage caused by his actions and take extreme measures to rectify it.

[34] While never communicated in-game, Hocking later revealed the Jackal was intended to be a version of Carver, disturbed by the trauma he suffered and turned into a major smuggler who has seen many more terrible things.

[35] Hocking wanted to incorporate the African environment, found guns jamming during combat, and show a realistic version of the land that was not clean and sterile.

[34] The minimal tutorial section was a deliberate choice, with lead designer Pierre Rivest saying the team wanted players to naturally learn the systems and combine them in their own way.

[30] The outposts, which respawn their enemies after a set period, were originally intended to slowly rebuild and repopulate over time, but the team changed the design as it was possible for players to empty the entire game world and become bored, in addition to technical problems implementing the system properly.

[43] The variety of environments available for use helped make Africa the final choice, as well as the ability to incorporate the presence of malaria and use of blood diamonds as currency into the design.

[48] Compared to other projects he had worked on, there were no equivalent games and soundtracks to reference for Far Cry 2, so the music team were left to make their own judgements about the sound balance.

[49][50] He visited Abbey Road, received a four-hour "crash course" on the game's music, and impressed Canham with his performance as their previous contact had been remote and sporadic due to Maal's touring commitments.

[69] Ubisoft released three software patches between November 2008 and June 2009, fixing bugs and balancing in the single player and multiplayer campaigns, a higher gameplay difficulty option, in addition to adjustments to the map editor and how the game used hardware.

[70][71][72] A prequel novel, FarCry 2: Blutige Diamanten (Far Cry 2: Blood Diamonds), was written by Michael Bhatty and published as a German exclusive on May 21, 2008, by Panini Comics.

[80] Christian Donlan of Eurogamer called it "a game that was born to struggle with itself", noting several elements that clashed with its aesthetic and enjoyable gameplay structure.

[85][86][87] PlayStation Official Magazine – UK's Leon Hurley gave high praise to its design and aesthetic despite some minor criticisms of its technical performance and lack of in-game guidance.

[90] John Blyth for PC Zone was almost universally positive about the game's mechanics and aesthetic, but faulted the voice acting and general hostility of NPCs towards the player.

[8][85][92] The mobile adaptation met with favorable reviews, with Pocket Gamer praising it as a strong game in its own right and IGN enjoying it despite finding it inferior to the console and PC versions.

[101] Chris Remo, in an opinion piece for Gamasutra, noted that Far Cry 2 rewarded thoughtful and slower-paced gameplay, praising it for providing an environment where players could create their own experiences.

[104] Phil Hornshaw, writing for Digital Trends, noted its dated nature in some areas and problems with its mechanics, but found it superior to several later entries due to its immersion and tone.

[23][107] The Jackal, despite his mixed reputation among series fans going forward, was the beginning of a trend for leading charismatic antagonists taking a prominent role in the story and marketing.

[41] Far Cry 2 was the first major release to use Ubisoft's eventually-common design philosophy of sustainable franchises with large open worlds on next-generation gaming hardware.