Emotionally affecting video games (???!)

I played Far Cry 2 long after it came out, mainly on the strength of recommendation of the gone-but-not-forgotten Idle Thumbs podcast.I'm not usually a big fan of first-person shooters, but since I love freeform adventure games I decided to give it a shot.

Without turning this post into a full-blown review of the game - suffice to say, I definitely recommend it (it's probably only a tenner these days) - I'd like to share a memory from my time in Far Cry 2's fictional, war-torn African country. Yeah, that's right, a memory. My favourite aspect of games is that, unlike books and films, where every viewer goes through an identical journey, in games it's personal.



Far Cry 2 is particularly personal, because the game has "buddies", who you work with throughout the game. They come to your rescue when you're hurt, and can also die if you don't come to their aid. My "best buddy" at the time was a guy called Hakim Echebbi, a Algerian with (like all the other buddies) shaky morals and a mysterious past.
[caption id="attachment_24" align="alignright" width="208" caption="Hakim, my 'best buddy'"][/caption]


I used to play with only one saved game, which had the unexpected effect of making what I would otherwise have treated as inconsequential, correctable mistakes into major plot points for my character.

So, the memory: it was a mission in which I was attempting to rescue an outspoken journalist from deportation. During an intense firefight with the mercenaries holding the journalist hostage, I was wounded. Hakim appeared from nowhere and dragged me to safety. Once I had recovered enough health, the two of us took on the remaining men, and eventually it seemed we had cleared the way to the airport hangar.

Suddenly, one of the men I thought we had killed took a pistol out and began shooting from the floor. He hit Hakim, who collapsed to the floor. Once I had taken out the straggler, I ran over to Hakim to heal him - but my efforts were in vain - the wound was mortal, and Hakim passed away in front of my eyes.

No worries - I'll just load up my last saved game, and make sure that Hakim doesn't get shot. Unfortunately, it had auto-saved mere seconds after the fatal shot, and so my second attempt at reviving Hakim was futile as well.

I didn't want to lose Hakim. He was my last remaining "buddy" in Far Cry 2 (and furthermore, he opened up the opportunity for otherwise unaccessible side-quests). So I loaded my saved game again, and rushed over to heal him - but again, no dice. Again and again, I tried to save this character made of data and polygons. But, like some sort of recurring nightmare, I watched him die over and over, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

Eventually, I came to the realisation that I had to accept Hakim was gone. Leaving his corpse in the middle of the airstrip, I went to free the journalist, with the hope that I maybe could do some good in this godforsaken country.