Honestly, I haven't played it either, but from what was posted I believe the story is about violence being horrific and infectious. The game mechanics include both things that make you paranoid by limiting your perception (increasing violence and reactivity) and a variety of nasty things that do awful things to the non-player characters (the pictured flame and barrel are apparently a good example).
That's also pretty certainly what he means about the ending betraying that message, while the rest of the game supports it.
It's not really the impression I got from playing it, it just seemed to me like they made a sandbox game and then remembered to throw some cutscenes and missions in at the last minute to break up the driving around and getting shot at. Perhaps I'm just cynical, but that was my take on it... don't get me wrong though, I actually quite liked playing it. I just thought the story side of it was very rushed.
edit: Oops, I didn't mean to reply to your message. The game story is a bit of a jumble. You start by chasing this arms dealer (The Jackal mentioned in the article) but spend at least 2/3rds of the game running errands for two factions in a civil war (they both offer you missions and you can choose which to accept). I've tried playing it twice but never made it too the end, it gets a bit monotonous by hour 20. That's mainly because you don't care about your foes or allies in the game. Unlike the author of the article, I ascribe that to completely uncompelling and irrelevant storytelling rather than careful manipulation.
It's a very flawed game that with tweaks could've been superb. The landscapes and settings are very good, but it should've been more like an African version of Grand Theft Auto complete with innocent bystanders going about daily life.
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 25.0 ms ] threadThat's also pretty certainly what he means about the ending betraying that message, while the rest of the game supports it.
edit: Oops, I didn't mean to reply to your message. The game story is a bit of a jumble. You start by chasing this arms dealer (The Jackal mentioned in the article) but spend at least 2/3rds of the game running errands for two factions in a civil war (they both offer you missions and you can choose which to accept). I've tried playing it twice but never made it too the end, it gets a bit monotonous by hour 20. That's mainly because you don't care about your foes or allies in the game. Unlike the author of the article, I ascribe that to completely uncompelling and irrelevant storytelling rather than careful manipulation.