The latest instalment of Ubisoft’s First Person Open World series has been out for a while now and I’ve finally played through the main campaign – clearing all the side quests in each region. I’ve not jumped into the Arcade Mode though, so that won’t feature in this review. Without further ado, let’s get into it …
- Platforms: XBOX One, PlayStation 4, PC
- Developer: Ubisoft
- Publisher: Ubisoft
- Platform Reviewed: XBOX One
Far Cry comes to America in the latest installment of the award-winning franchise.
Hope County, Montana, has been overrun by a fanatical doomsday cult – The Project at Eden’s Gate. Upon your arrival, you must spark the fires of resistance to liberate the community. Fan the flames of resistance and fight to free Hope County from the grip of a deadly cult. Beware the wrath of Joseph Seed and his cult followers as you support the resistance in small-town America. Explore Hope County and discover the Montana countryside, its wildlife, and its inhabitants in an exciting open world. Play your way. Build your character, make your own allies, and watch the world change as you progress.
If you’ve played the third or fourth instalments of the franchise, then you know what to expect in this game. Ubisoft have switched up some game elements for Far Cry 5 – gone are the skill trees; crafting has been greatly reduced; radio towers don’t unlock area icons and the game is truly open from the get go. These changes aside – and I’ll go into more detail later – the core gameplay will be very familiar, which I found to be both a pro and a con for the game.
I say con, because although Far Cry games have always had solid gameplay mechanics, there’s an element of stagnation and lack of innovation that shows here. For example, rather than introduce a more comprehensive climbing mechanic, the game only allows climbing in spots signposted with blue ropes. Similarly, lootable objects are all yellow. And indicated by an icon. Personally, I dislike these “gamey” indicators, especially when there are alternative methods of indicating these things to players.
That said, the core mechanics do work, and they are greatly enhanced by the refinements that have been made. Far Cry 5 includes aerial vehicles – Helicopters and Planes that the player can utilise in addition to their parachute and wingsuit. The flying vehicles handle intuitively – especially the helicopters which is something of an achievement in a video game.
Character progression is streamlined and merged with the crafting system. Rather than having skill trees, upgrades can be obtained in any order (with a couple of exceptions) if the player has enough “perk points” which are obtained by completing in-game challenges, playing the Arcade mode and through completing side-quests and exploration.
Almost all perks are available from the start
Exploration is a bit more player-centric than map-icon-centric in this instalment of the series. Once the brief prologue is completed, the player can explore the entirety of Hope County in any manner they wish. Side quests are found by talking to characters, reading notes or listening to answer-phone messages. These can also give some local lore to the player to help build the game-world. Overall, this works, although I did find that by the time I’d left the first region, no wandering NPC had any details of side missions for me. I’d already obtained them all by this point.
As the player progresses in a region, the number of enemies will ramp up – after key milestones (triggered by story missions), a region will become more dangerous – with patrols actively searching for them and helicopters and planes taking to the skies overhead to locate and murderize the player. Once a region has been completed, however, things turn sedate. I’ve seen online that some people found the game too hectic before a region was cleared – they barely had time to breath between enemy patrols and airplanes buzzing overhead but this was not the experience I had. I walked (and ran) pretty much everywhere and kept off the road when possible. I slid under bushes to avoid helicopters and took out the odd convoy here and there. Once I’d completed a region, I found it … dull. The relative quiet did mean I could leisurely explore the beautiful vistas that Far Cry 5’s Hope County offers, and finish up any side-objectives in peace.
Speaking of side objectives, Far Cry 5 offers plenty to do, from stunt races to fishing to collection quests as well as a number of hunting and other challenges to complete. The challenges are all available from the start of the game and it’s by completing these that the player will amass a sizable amount of perk points required for upgrading themselves. I didn’t complete every challenge and didn’t play in the Arcade but still managed to completely upgrade my character by completing the “Prepper Stash” side missions – which offer some great little puzzle and exploration missions and are undoubtedly the best set of missions in the game.
Rural Montana offers some beautiful vistas
Story wise, Far Cry 5 has a very bizarre tonal shift which comes from two sources. Firstly, the way the main story progresses is both a great idea but also jarring. To progress the story, players complete missions, save civilians and so on to progressively annoy the region’s boss. There are three mile-stones, each of which trigger a mandatory mission followed by a ramping up of the threat level in the region. These forced missions are functionally great for progressing the story but also cause one of the most annoying features of Far Cry 5. I hit some of the milestones while performing other missions. As I moved to my next objective, the story mission would trigger. I’d then spend a bit of time completing that before being allowed free-reign. On the opposite side of the region. Annoying.
Most of the serious or grimmer missions come from these story missions. The side missions range from the serious to the not so-serious to the downright ludicrous. This mis-match of consistent tone in Hope County meant that I went from organising the town’s “Testi-Festi” (testicle festival) by killing bulls in specific ways before … looting … their parts, straight into a mission in which an in-game acquaintance has a large section of skin forcibly removed from his chest. It was an odd shift of tone that sat with me the rest of the game.
The Seed Family are the leaders of the Eden’s Gate Cult
It’s also hard to rationalise the bigger picture of the game. I didn’t let the massive holes in logic affect my experience, but the story doesn’t hang even by a thread. For a start, the reason the player is in Hope County is to arrest the leader of the cult. This is all well and good, but the Law-enforcement officer we embody makes no effort to arrest any other member of the cult. Even the members of the Father’s family who control each region must be killed to progress the game. Even when it’s clear that they probably need serious psychiatric help and the chance to change the course of their life in a correctional facility. Also: There are planes and helicopters galore in Hope County, but no-one (including the player) seems to think about high-tailing it out of the county and getting backup.
Far Cry 5 offers the beautiful landscapes, solid gameplay and non-sensical story we’ve come to expect from the franchise. It makes changes to the formula, but not enough to make the game feel totally fresh. Recommended as a game to unwind with mindless fun after a long day in the office.
Rating: 3.5 / 5
Reviewer: WedgeDoc