Now, I realise this is a FPS and I enjoy nothing more than a good shootem-up. My question is more about the design of the game than being a pacifist while playing.

Cheers
B

I'd go as far as to say a definite no. This is still an FPS, and I know that there are at least going to be a couple parts of the game where you'll have to blow something up, or assassinate someone, or generally run into some violent opposition. I'm gonna guess that the shake-hands route of trying to convince someone to let you do sabotage something of theirs isn't going to be an option most of the time.

The aim of the game is to kill The Jackal, so no to pacifism.

Plus, I'm sure a few objectives to progress the story will require you to blow up a convoy of trucks or kill key players.

But to give some credit to what you're saying, I'm sure you can sneak or run through places to do what you have to and kill as few people as possible. But Ubi do say that by the end of the game you'll be a sick, vile and corrupt person and the missionaries won't fund your drug habit, so maybe it's pretty much unavoidable to kill lots of people.

I think gaining the trust of the different factions is done primarily by causing severe damage and casualties to the opposing faction, and this is the driving gameplay of FC2.

Even with the original game, while you could stealth your way past the hordes of mercs and Trigens, there were some key areas where you needed to kill someone.

The problem was that the next cut scene was triggered by a characters death so you couldnt progress otherwise.

I would hope that you will have the same fredom of play style with FC2, but as others have said, since the primary goal is assasination its unlikely you can complete it without getting your hands dirty...