Far Cry 2

There aren't many games out there that make you question your actions during play, and many, many fewer that manage it successfully when they try. Gameloft's Far Cry 2 takes a very subtle approach in this respect, highlighting the sometimes sour fruits that bloom as a result of your own success in its loading screens. While the game is full of guns and gusto during play, to be told that whole scores of people are starving or have been left without water because of you is sobering.

It's not, by any measure, the focus of Far Cry 2's action, nor is there anything you can do about it. Playing as a mercenary caught in the middle of a civil war currently alight in a fictitious central African nation, you have allegiances to no-one and you carry out missions for both sides of the conflict, intent on nothing more than getting paid and learning information to bring you closer to your main targe, The Jackal, who – like you – is profiteering from this war by selling arms to every faction.

Simply surviving long enough to take down the Jackal is a hard enough task. Depending on which side you happen to be supporting at the time (the war is between the United Front for Liberation and Labor and a body headed up by a former Government official called the Alliance for Popular Resistance), you take on jobs that are usually designed to either weaken the opposition or free a captive from an enemy stronghold.

Sometimes alone or sometimes with a partner, these missions basically take one of two forms: either the all-guns-blazing variety, where you travel through 2D top-down levels taking out anyone that moves, or those that rely more on stealth, where sneaking past your assailants or taking them out from behind is the better approach. Either way, mixing up your arsenal is essential. While most of the time you'll simply shoot your targets (easily handled with the '5' key), those hiding behind cover or with a machine gun turret at their disposal are often best deposed of with a Molotov cocktail or two thrown in their direction.

Some missions even ask you to take a sniper rifle to task, taking out guards from a distance by moving a cursor around on the screen so you can aim before taking your shot. You'll even find yourself hopping on a motorbike on occasion, racing through the African desert taking out enemies en route. It's a mix of play that means that, while essentially you'll be tapping the '5' key an awful lot, each mission has a slightly different flavour.

In between these missions, you'll have time to pick up ammunition and talk to the locals, who put your part in the war into some kind of context. Neither the UFLL or APR seems to be doing the best by its people, their efforts to weaken each other's foundations only punishing the general population and fuelling yet more fire from the other side. Though not expressly mentioned, the very fact that the missions you undertook before switching sides might have directly hit the fellows you're now chatting to, whilst also living under your former enemy's hand, is one that resonates throughout.

It's not overestimating Far Cry 2 to suggest it has a message: war kills, but it also keeps many afloat, such as the mercenary you take charge of here. It's this notion that there is no right or wrong that makes Far Cry 2 a distinctive package when compared to the mix of polarised action titles also currently out on mobiles, and the game's ability to entertain as well as provoke thought makes it the kind of benchmark shooter that might make some of its rivals evaluate their merits.