Not even God can save you from the shadow that has fallen on Hope County. Angels here are not your friends, raining Hell down on you faster than you can load your guns. The Father wants to save you and bring you to the light, but the only thing that’s gonna save you is a ragtag group of rebels and whatever guns you decide to take to this fight. You are the county’s last hope and the faith of the people rests on your shoulders.
Far Cry 5’s campaign is darker than any previous entry in the series and gives Hope County a desperate feeling, as the religious cult, Eden’s Gate, unleashes fear on the locals. While parts of the campaign remain serious, Far Cry does a great job making sure everything you do is exciting and worthwhile and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Open-world games have an issue fleshing out their worlds with notable side missions, usually resulting in fetch quests that are boring and monotonous. At no point do you feel like you’ve wasted your time throughout your journey in Far Cry 5.
The story starts out with you, a U.S. marshal and a local sheriff, walking through a cult outpost to a chapel with a warrant for Joseph’s arrest. It’s at this moment that you realize things are about to go very wrong. The opening scene does a great job of increasing the tension and setting the pace right from the start, lying the main focus of your adventure right in your lap.
Far Cry 5’s story is hindered by tasks that pull away from the excitement of the main plot throughout most of the game until you start taking on each of Joseph’s siblings. Its progression tends to get lost behind random encounters with the cult, picking up random side missions from locals, or exploring all that Hope County has to offer. Far Cry games have never had strong stories, so if you’re used to playing them, it’s the same old song and dance. What Far Cry 5 offers that differ from others in the series is plain and simple fun in the form of interacting with everything that’s available to you. The story is truly what you decide to make of it.
During the Campaign, your main obstacle is the take out the three Seed siblings. In order to do that, you must rack up enough Resistance points in each of the three regions the sibling’s control. The northern region is run by Jacob Seed, the southern region by John Seed and the eastern region by Faith Seed. You gain Resistance points by completing main missions, side missions, taking out cult outposts and other various small means. An interesting feature is the resistance checkpoints with the Seed Siblings, which you encounter by earning points and vary depending on which territory you’re in. Once you acquire the points needed for each region, you get to take on the Seed that occupies that region and handle them in a creative fashion of your choosing. This differs quite differently from previous Far Cry’s, particularly Far Cry 4, where you could traverse anywhere, but they started you off on the bottom part of the map, forcing you to go in one direction. Far Cry 5 starts you out in the middle of the map and lets you pick any region of your choice to start out in.
While the main campaign is a major highlight of Far Cry 5, the aesthetic and polished environment is where this game really shines, as every detail is fleshed out and fully immerses you into the world. A prime example is the unique fishing mechanic, which was tested and approved of by real fisherman, and are implemented through various missions in the game. Other wildlife, such as bears and cougars (not the old ladies), add to the tension of a mission if while running away from an outpost, a bear decides to attack as you make your exit.
Cooperative play is a hallmark feature in Far Cry 5, especially If you’re someone who doesn’t like venturing solo. It should be noted that if you join another person’s game the progress will only be attributed to the host of that session. While I personally don’t agree with this, it may get updated at a later date. Playing with another person adds to the mayhem and overall experience while playing this game. As far as I can tell, having another person in the game doesn’t increase the difficulty or amount of enemies, but don’t assume you’re going to breeze through the missions. The enemies are still tough and will have no problem taking you out if you become too reckless.
To top off your co-op experience, Ubisoft has added a new Arcade mode into Far Cry. Far Cry Arcade is a space where you can make multiplayer maps and modes for yourself and others to try their hand at. At the time of this review, there isn’t too many maps or modes to mess around with, but I will have an update when there is more content to explore. The Map Creator aspect of Far Cry has been revamped, adding new options for you to customize your playground. They have assets from a number of previous Ubisoft titles such as Assassin’s Creed Black Flag and Unity, Watch Dogs, and of course other Far Cry titles like Primal and Far Cry 4. With assets from all those games, creators are left with endless possibilities, which are sure to be a blast!
Far Cry has implemented microtransactions into this entry, and before you start moaning and groaning about them, let me say, they represent how microtransactions should be done. . You have the option to buy “Silver Bars” with real money if you can’t wait to save up money in-game. These Silver Bars are only used to buy cosmetic items, while you can only use in-game cash to buy newer weapons and cosmetic items. If you can’t spend money on the silver bars, you are still able to buy everything in the game from hard work and a little bit of grinding. Completing missions, collecting animal pelts and fishing are some quick ways to earn small amounts of cash, but if you really want to get large amounts of cash, your best bet is to do Prepper Stash missions. These usually become available to you once you liberate a cult outpost and talk to one of the locals that come to keep the place in Resistance hands. The Prepper Stashes are usually quite easy and only require you to find a key that’s laying around somewhere nearby, and once you get that, you can gain access to the locked door, where you’ll find all the goodies, including large amounts of cash.
Far Cry 5 is a beautiful game that has tons of missions and objectives that will keep you occupied for countless hours. The gameplay never gets boring or dull and coupled with the beautiful aesthetic, you’ll find yourself stopping a number of times to view the surroundings. Whether you’re fishing, hunting or taking down the cult, Hope County is full of life and will demand your attention every step of the way. Far Cry 5 improves on a lot of things that the previous entries fell short on, ditching the old way of fetch quest in favor of an exciting plot to flesh out their open-world. Although Far Cry 5 breaks the envelope, it has areas of improvement, such as allowing progression to be made whether playing single or co-op in the campaign. Overall, Far Cry 5 is a great addition to any FPS players collection and I can’t wait to see what becomes of the game in the months and years to come!
