Eaxactly, not to mention the fact that game just slams you with Malaria in the opneing cutescene and you're eternally fucked for for the rest of your experience.
All I hear is people complaining about this. But why is this such a bad thing for gameplay? I think if this was removed a lot of the atmosphere of the game would be removed along with it.
Like you said there is an oppressiveness looming over you.
This place isn't really pretty looking, especially in the cities. They are only made of concrete, metal and dirt. The cars aren't painted nice colors. Outside of sunrise and sunset most of the world's colors are muted. The inhabitants aren't friendly. They all shoot on site and your only relief is a cease fire zone, a bar or a mission where you visit the priest. And even in the cease fire zones the people will tell you to fuck off if you stare at them for too long.
All while there is this constant ticking thought in the back of your head. When will I run out of medicine. "I'll just do this one last thing before I run out."
And next thing you know you're health is down in the red, you have a malaria attack right in the middle of it, you reach for a pill and none come out, you get shot and black out, you pray this isn't a game over, you wake up! Your buddy from a few missions ago is carrying thing through the bushes shooting screaming Africans in the face, they place you behind a rock and you live to fight on, you begin to fire, "click" what the fuck your gun is jammed now! You sprint out from cover and pick up a rust bucket rifle off a dead man and finish the last few enemies with it. "Christ I'm hit!" you hear from behind you as you spin around to see your buddy rolling on the ground in pain. You kneel down to help them but you already ran out of morphine for yourself. You have no choice but to shoot them in the mouth with the desert Eagle. Damn, I grew to like this buddy...
YOU DO NOT and WILL NOT GET GAMEPLAY LIKE THIS EVER AGAIN. I hope one day to be proven incorrect.