After really diving in and playing Far Cry 4 and Far Cry: Primal to completion, I was excited about getting the chance to play Far Cry 5. I was excited to explore the mountains and woods of the Montana wilderness, but the game's story and lack of new features left me wanting more. It's hard to put my finger on exactly what I didn't like, here's some random thoughts about the game.

As far as the map goes, its a fairly large map with plenty to explore. There are a lot of collectibles to be found, with plenty of places to hunt, and now fish -- a new "feature" that didn't really add a lot of value for me personally, even though there a few missions revolving around catching certain fish.

The game play was pretty typical to Far Cry, and I still enjoy scouting Outposts for enemies and stealthily taking them down by sneaking up on them, or from a distance using my compound bow or other silenced weapons. I also maintain that the wing suit is still one of the coolest features in any game. There weren't many new features here, except for the ability to hire up to two allies at a time to fight alongside with you. This feature came in handy a few times, but for the most part, I found my ally messing up my attempts to be stealthy, so I didn't use it often. You can also play the whole campaign in co-op, but I stuck to solo play.

Another new feature was the Far Cry Arcade mode. I didn't dive too far into this, but in short: this mode is basically for those who like to create levels, and those who like to play levels others have created.

I felt like the story had a ton of potential: You're tasked with stopping a cult leader and his family as they are terrorizing the Montana countryside. But the story felt like it was caught between trying to be something serious and trying to be something satirical. It made references to many things that are happening in the world today, but did so in a way as if to tip-toe around making any one group of people upset. The ending was also not really much to write home about.

Overall, I'd say if you're a fan of the Far Cry series, this game is at least worth picking up, but not until the sales prices hit. It just really left me wishing there was more to it, and I think a more compelling story line would have helped.

I had a lot of fun with Far Cry 5 and enjoyed killing lots of religious cultists. I also very much enjoyed stealthily taking down cult outposts especially with Grace and Jess by my side. It was also great bringing out Hurk for rocket launches and lots of laughs.

The story, I thought, had very, very good potential. A Doomsday cult taking over some of the countryside, brainwashing their citizens with a strange religious drug, the Bliss? A charismatic leader with no doubt a tortured background with three close followers who each have their own characteristics and backstories? Sounds good.

Unfortunately I don’t think the story was well executed. Joseph Seed, John, Jacob and Faith were all quite shallow characters. Faith was definitely the most interesting and I felt like we got to know her a little bit more than the others, but not that much more.

John just came out like a psycho who liked to brand people with sin words and was obsessed with the word ‘Yes’. Would’ve been great to know his backstory more, especially since he apparently used to be a hotshot lawyer. Jacob just seems like a depraved person who liked to kill anyone who he deemed weaker. Yes we know that he came back from the war but what exactly happened there? Faith is more interesting: a teenager who turned to drugs and then turned to Joseph Seed for salvation.

What very much annoyed me about the game was that the character that we played, Deputy, did not say a word. And I really think this hindered the story, the emotions it was apparently supposed to carry and also the development of all the evil cultists characters. If deputy actually spoke to the antagonists, not just let them ramble on in monologues, I felt like we would’ve got to know everybody a little bit more.

The Guns for Hire aspect of the game was cool. However, the characters kept saying the same thing over and over again and once again, Deputy didn’t say a word. So the whole interaction between us just looked stupid.

And all the cultist minions we kill? They all look the same! I thought that was some lazy animation.

There is also some weird random stuff in the game that I thought, why is this here? Waking up after getting drunk and seeing party hats on pigs? Weird.

The way the story ended, however, blew my mind. I did not see it coming and I thought it was a great ending despite the shallow characters.

This game is still very fun - do not get me wrong. Taking down outposts and exploring pepper stashes. It’s all great. I love the open world style and the beautiful animation of the countryside. I also love getting into helicopters and blowing the smithereens out of people. However, there is a lot to criticise in this game - The only Far Cry game I played before this was Far Cry Primal. And, to be honest, I think Primal is a bit better.

I was pretty excited for this game because I've played 3 and really enjoyed it. I really hoped that this one would be good too, and at first it was.

I loved the open world madness on display although I didn't really care about what I was doing. The cult wasn't interesting me at all and all of the side characters got really samey with no one standing out.

So after a while I got fairly bored with it and was just playing to beat it. The combat and exploring remained fun but I didn't see any substance for a little while.

And then going through Faith's missions got me more interested again. I liked her character. She wasn't just a throw away villain although she didn't feel that important in the story by the end.

And then I started to get bored again and kept pressing on.

Getting to the end and just expecting a final showdown with the main bad dude, Joeseph Seed, seemed inevitable. I was totally sure that I would beat it and then move along, but that didn't happen.

The ending blew my mind. I'm not going to spoil it, but it changed the way I thought about my whole experience. Only some of my favorite games have done that like Bioshock Infinite and Silent Hill 2.

Now that's not to say Far Cry 5 is on the same level as those, because it's not. But thats still a great achievement.

-Cons: -missions/activities can get repetitive -no friendly npcs stood out (except Herc and the pilot dude maybe 😉) -glitches

-Pros: -refined minute to minute gameplay/combat -lots of exploration -beautiful setting and graphics -a story worth completing

Overall, it was worth it for me because I loved that ending and the steath/combat mechanics. Those things made some of the more repetative and boring things bearable. But some people hated that ending so your mileage may vary. Also, I think I might be good on Far Cry as a series for now, theres still a loooot of busy-work activities in the series and its tiresome. So unless I hear that the next one is superb, I might just skip it.

I'm going to lay out my cards early, this game was targeted to me as a good ol' country boy. So, let's start with the world of Hope County.

UbiSoft did their best to create a real backwoods community. The Montana landscape is beautifully rendered & it feels like a real slice of America. Things like having a national park, the small town of Fall's End, which is a bit too small; and outposts like breweries, truck stops, & churches feel real. And there is something really relaxing about taking a boat out and doing some fishing among the still mountain pine forests.

Even though the world feels real, Far Cry's people are a bit more absurd as the series is known for. They don't go full absurd satire like Rockstar, but they don't play it straight. Characters like Hurk & Sharky are stereotypical rednecks, but damned if they aren't funny when you have them together, and Hurk Sr. is a fun, little Republican spoof. And, as this game is set in the West, there are lots of preppers, which those people are my kind of crazy. But luckily, the world isn't full of the expected stereotypes, cause I would definitely not like this game as much. There are just plain folks like Mary Mae, Grace, & Sheriff Whitehorse. I liked the character of Mayor Virgil. He feels like the real kind of person you would see in a crazy situation. A poor guy over his head, who tries to keep everyone safe and foster community. Though I didn't get very much time with these characters. They advertised Pastor Jerome as a big character, but with the way gameplay is set up, I spoke to him once.

So, the gameplay is set up in a Just Cause style, you destroy things and do side missions to rile the cult up until a story mission happens. This style of play does also serve the community feel, to an extent, as you learn about missions by talking to people in the world. It gives the game a better open-world feel as you explore around more, but does weaken the story a bit. The shooting took a little getting used to for me. It seemed a bit floaty compared to other FPS. However, the driving & flying was really solid. I did wish there was some type of option to have a car delivered to you.
They also got rid of leveling up and instead you get perk points for completing challenges, which again, encourages you to try all the game has to offer, from different guns to hunting animals. This is cool, but you don't get any points for doing the main story missions, which is a bummer.

Finally, we move onto the story proper. The Cult has taken over Hope County and you have to cut down the Seed family. There's a bit of an 80's movie vibe, switch the Cultist for Commies and you've got Red Dawn. Now with the Just Cause style, the story does have some flow issues. The only way you move it along is being continually captured and escaping from the Seeds. It gets a little predictable after a while, and since you can complete all 3 of them in any order, they can't really build up the tension and plot, as you just start fresh with each new region, still each region's self contained story is good on its own. One memory that will stick with me is riding in a sedan with Hurk and Jess, listening to CCR, as we drive to an outpost. It's both absurd, but also feels like you're just a bunch of dudes having fun fighting the Cult.

I started with Jacob, then John, finishing with Faith. I found John's story the weakest. Jacob's schtick was psychological warfare and Faith had the whole hallucinogenic magic powers, whereas John was just a very vigorous televangelist. He didn't have any special enemy type either. Matter of fact, the Cultist goons are the same in every region. I think it'd be a nice touch if Jacob's were dressed more in fatigues, while Faith's had more tattered rags. I also hated all the bunker levels. You don't have your friends for back-up, the level is stingy with health packs, & they toss a bunch of deadly enemies in a small tube.
As I played through, something the Father said after Jacob's death tipped me off to a theory. If I may be a bit pseudo-philosophical, with all the game centering around the apocalypse, I think the Seeds represent the 4 Horsemen; Jacob=War, Faith=Pestilence, John=Famine, and Joseph=Death.

And one of the "controversies" of this game was the supposed demonizing of Christianity. I think UbiSoft handled it well. The Cult does have a vague basis in Christianity, but is much more "new age spiritual" in feeling. And Joseph Seed is a great villain, a great character in general. He plays the country preacher well, and I've a love for the archetype of the Bible quoting villain, especially since most the quotes are from Revelations, which is just an intense book. He also sings "Amazing Grace", which is beyond cliche though, why not something less well-known, like "Onward Christian Soldiers"? He's very well-spoken and charismatic, you almost feel if you listen to him enough you'd start to agree with him. His message is just enough real problems mixed in with the crazy that you could see how he gained a following. The Cult also has a great soundtrack, I'm a sucker for southern gospel. UbiSoft didn't just make the Cult radio a mix of old hymn, they wrote new songs that could stand on their own as decent gospel songs, which may say more about me than the game. I was disappointed there the regular radio channel had no Johnny Cash, Hank Jr, or nothing in the classic country vain.

Spoiler time, I'm talking about the ending now (skip to All in All). What the Heck? In an otherwise decent game, this was way outta left field. While it is cool you take on the Father with all your friends. If you do the right thing and take Joseph Seed to task for his crimes, he nukes the whole state, nation, world! He starts the Fallout world basically. While the bunkers are assumed to be old military installation, there were no hints the Father had nukes up his sleeve, unless it was in one of the random notes laying around I missed. Speaking of Fallout, I remember a story from Fallout 2's development that dealt with how choices worked. The summary was that, "If the player chooses the seemingly right option, you get the good ending, and vice versa." And sure, games like the Witcher subvert this by hanging in a gray area, but the options of "Stop the Cult" or "Let the Cult Win" should be a pretty black & white option. It was still a well done ending, but didn't feel it matched my choice.

All in all, I really, really liked this game. I will go back to just explore the beautiful Montana country side & go fishing. Honestly, I may even replay it some time soon.

Far Cry 5 has somewhat disappointed me.

I have always enjoyed Ubisoft's formula for Assassin's Creed and Far Cry, two of my favorite videogames series. The way you slowly uncover the open world while doing missions at your own pace, and, in this specific case, like it was in Far Cry Primal, in your own chronological order, will make these games playable for me for several titles to come. While they radically moved away from their natural formula in Assassin's Creed, Far Cry still seems to mostly carry it. With a few changes here and there, but generally Far Cry 5 is not so different to Far Cry 3 (the best title of the series, hardly disputed) in that regard.

But while Far Cry 3, even though I haven't played it for years, would probably get five stars from me (definitely would have gotten them back then), I'm not incredibly satisfied with Far Cry 5. I cannot quite put my finger on it, maybe it actually is the repeated formula that I am getting tired of, but I cannot know for sure; here something I definitely didn't like:

Mission balance. In normal difficulty, most of the game is pretty easy to play through. Especially once you've unlocked the right perks and specialists, for example a woman with a chopper and a plane pilot, all while you're sitting in your own chopper that you automatically repair while flying. That's three people in the sky liberating cult outposts with minimal effort. Just fly through the map and liberate the sh*t out of it -> half of the game beaten. A lot of missions seem to ignore you can just get into a chopper and do them much more easily. Most of them are obviously designed for a boots-on-the-ground experience, but only a few really restrict you to it (like when you have to get into buildings). Especially frustrating are those (partly forced) story missions where you have to break into someone's bunker and you can't call a specialist to assist you, nor can you get into your overpowered chopper of course. That's where it gets a little harder, but even this stuff is mostly manageable. However, John Seed's bunker was so difficult compared to all other missions, I nearly gave up at some point. But where I really nearly gave up was when Jacob Seed hit me with a forced "ooonly youuuu..." mission for the fourth time. Seriously, Ubisoft. Get your act together. Three times would already be too many, but at least you'd then think "uf, finally over". But nope. For a fourth time you have to run through the same nasty parcours in a short amount of time. Every time you fail, it just starts over, with Jacob whispering into your ear "you are weak".

I was so frustrated at that point that I just spent half the day rushing through the rest of the story, only doing as many missions and liberating as many outposts as I have to unless I can finally end this game. And the ending was disappointing, too. I really don't look forward to playing New Eden, but I will still give it a try.

I might update this review with some additional positive and negative points about this game, but for now this is the main stuff I wanted to get off my chest.

I am not unhappy with Far Cry 5, just disappointed by some negative changes.

There is no doubt that this is a Far Cry game. If you've played at least one you pretty much know what you'll be getting yourself into.

With that said it is probably the prettiest game of the series. With the action set in a fictional county of Montana - it is quite a good setting. With a lot of forests, rivers and plenty of wildlife it's a joy to simply explore the area. And it looks amazing.

The story tells of a cult of some sort that you try to take down. Let's be honest - the story of Far Crys is never the selling point. It changes at times from being completely serious to completely nonsensical without a warning or justification. It's just a reason to do things you can do and so far (I didn't finish the game yet) I enjoy the side missions and activities a lot more than the main story missions.

As per activities there's a lot to do and a lot to shoot. And it's really well done for the most part. Driving is fun - with added auto-drive for shooting. Shooting, climbing, sneaking - all done really well. The flying feels really bad on the opposite side but you don't need to that much.

They've added a companion system where you can hire a sidekick or an animal as your companion that does your bidding. Interesting addition for sure but for the most part I prefer solo play - which I did.

Plenty to unlock and level up. Fine I guess but until you unlock perk to hold more guns you're limited to a pistol and additional gun. This means you can't have a rifle, bow and sniper rifle at your disposal for quite a while and it's annoying as hell as it limits your choices.

While I enjoy it quite a bit - Far Cry 3 is still my favorite in the series and that's because this one comes with quite a few annoyances.

First of - story missions. The number of times the main character gets kidnapped is too damn high. And he falls for it in such a stupid way it's annoying. Even worse at one point a "you will be captured" triggered when the enemies just simply tracked me down regardless of what I did - and just like - a cut scene - all tied up, evil dialogs etc... until you get out yet again.

Secondly - there's just too much to do. It looks like they've added so much content that it doesn't fit well on the map. What it means is driving between missions you'll get so many events that if you take part in them - a short drive ends up in a chain of submissions without end. Even more so - the random events can get in a way of your missions. I was doing a stealth mission - sneaking and rescuing hostages and suddenly hell broke loose. Turned out that some NPC wondered into the enemy camp and started a firefight. Enemies started shooting hostages and most of them died - and I had no way of preventing it and was very displeased. And it happens way more often than it should. An enemy plane comes out of nowhere and ruins your next 5 minutes. Enemy truck comes from nowhere and joins firefights - it's very annoying.

With that said - it's still a very fun game as long as you don't take it too serious.