I agree, FarCry started off good. However it went down the tubes fast at the second half. Poorly placed save points, horribly handled difficulty, and just being ridiculous in general really ruined things. The game's selling point was the outdoor stuff, once you got indoors things fell apart at the seams. If the entire game was designed the first half it would have easily been game of the year.
Difficulty is one thing, but after a certain point things just get stupid. Emptying an entire clip into a human enemy's head and watching him not even get phased is ridiculous. On top of this poorly placed check points before the most difficult parts waste the player's time. I was not a big fan of HL2 (it had its issues and the valve fanboys will crucify me, but it is pretty overrated in my opinion), but it still did better than Farcry.
One of the big things that sets Half-life 2 apart from Farcry is how they handled the difficulty. It had its difficult parts, but only a few gimmicks (basically any time you saw a gunship you knew to run around and look for the rocket crate.) The key is keeping conflicts challenging but fun, Farcry failed miserably here while Half-Life 2 succeeded.
This comment was edited on Jan 31, 14:18.