REVIEW

Far Cry 5 Review

by Luke Walsh, April 4th, 2018

At the start of Far Cry 5, you are running away from the bad guys, a similar feeling of nostalgia sweeps over you as you remember many Far Cry games that come before have done the same thing. From there on through, Ubisoft seems to have listened to consumer feedback to try and reduce the same game formulas from cropping up that have descended their past titles into repetition machines.

In this most recent adventure, you play as the sheriff’s deputy kindly named “Rook” short for the rookie in the made-up town of Hope’s County in Montana. In the Rural parts of America, it may be a little different from the prehistoric era or epic mountains but Far Cry 5 has a giant world to explore and even more things you can blow up – including cultist followers trying to constantly murder you.

The key to Hope’s County being more immersive is finally taking away the mini-map and the millions of icons that plague the screen. This time around, a simple compass navigation has been included at the top of the screen, similar to Skyrim. Nearby points of interest and your current active mission or waypoint will show up, everything else is nice and natural leaving you to enjoy the scenery (until you get mauled by a bear).

Luckily though, you do actually spend more time exploring the world. Unlike the previous Far Cry games and other Ubi games, you no longer need to find towers to unlock parts of the map. Instead, you will organically find them by speaking to the locals, stumbling upon a note left behind or just casually rolling up to a location and triggering some sort of quest. It adds a much more fluid journey throughout the world instead of logically moving from location to location, outside the main story quests AI character helps point you in the right direction sometimes which helps you from losing track.

The story has also had a change of pace, making the evildoers a family. You still have the main antagonist Joseph Seed aka “The Father” but a lot of your adventure will be focused on overthrowing his lovely siblings Jacob, Faith and John, who each own a part of Hope’s County. Within each part of the territories, each sibling has a distinct feeling to them making the world a little more unique. Combine this with special enemies, questions and landmarks the three family members are more than a means to the end of the game but the bulk of it. There’s a lot to do and a nice natural build up to each of the three final fights making it not feel too forced.

Far Cry 5 being set in modern day America gives the story a creepy feel to it, being able to happen at any moment. Normal people rise up to become the heroes of the story, while your neighbours become intoxicated with the words of a “saviour”. This story feels closest to what’s happening in the world without actually saying anything to direct but rather playing in the real world. It does suffer by playing some bits too safe which can confuse the story, with the combination of the cultist groups vs the militia who are a bit mad in their own right. It does have a stronger story overall though, feeling more connected with what’s actually happening in the world and reacting to it, like watching your outposts get bigger stronger and more people take to the fight against Joseph and his followers.

All this combined though does make for an incredibly satisfying adventure with the interesting characters, different storylines and beautiful surroundings. We played the title on a regular PlayStation 4 but connect it up to a Pro or Xbox One X and it sets to get even prettier with tall green forests filled with colourful vegetation and wildlife.

Missions range from your main story missions, side missions and prepper stashes which help you unlock more skills more easily. Some of the missions are downright brilliant and tend to elevate the storyline, while others are great but in a more needlessly entertaining variety like when you can join the annual Testicle Festival or explore a haunted house. Like other open world games though it does suffer from repetition and this is in the form of side missions and the main story.

Everything you do in the world earns you Resistance Points which help further the fight between you and the cultist. The issue with that is sometimes it means constantly overtaking Outposts, destroying fuel trucks or completing the same sort of missions. Focusing on the main story missions, sometimes you need to do enough of these before you trigger the next part of the main story which can become a little dull trying to find that last silo or the next outpost. Overall it is more natural as you explore the world, i.e you just happen to come across a silo or a character you rescued mentions there is an outpost nearby but a lot of your time spend will be doing very similar activities in-between the memorable ones.

All open world games have the same problems with repetition and Ubisoft have tried to combat this by giving you more freedom on how you tackle each mission. Stealth works a lot better in Far Cry 5 and can sometimes be the only feasible options for missions, while others you can rely heavily on your companions or go in guns blazing. Entwined with an impressive arsenal of weapons and tools, it makes for a more immersive fight against the more unpredictable AI. Each outpost that I liberated even when taking similar approaches felt different because of my weaponry or what the enemy AI decided to do. Outpost terrain being different each time also helps to keep it fresh and makes for some of the best combat yet in the history of the franchise.

Combat is helped by the companion/specialist system that was brought in by Primal which allows you to recruit normal residents of Hope’s County and specialist companions which can be sharpshooters, hunters or even a few animals. Normal citizens have two different levels based on their number of kills and can add useful skills to your fights.

Specialists which are usually unlocked by completing story missions gain skills straight away and can help you further like Boomer, the trusty dog, who can sniff out enemies or Peaches the cougar that is able to stealthily take down enemies. Human specialists can scare off enemies with sniper fire or drop down bombs as air support. Every specialist has different traits that can help your adventure in different ways, swapping between them is easy and don’t worry if they die, after a cooldown they can join back into the fray. Better yet, if you are downed, they can also revive you.

Weapon progression is well thought out as you begin the game with basic weapons: pistols, bow and some dynamite etc. As you travel further into the game you’ll be greeted with flamethrowers, stick grenades, explosive arrows and much more. Pushing to make you try different weapons, perk points can be gained by killing enemies with the different array of deadly devices in your arsenal.

What this also means is a reduced need for hunting to expand your weapon and ammo limits as they are now perk unlocks instead of hunting requirements. No longer will you need to spend hours and hours looking for foxes, badgers. You still can hunt a collection of different animals in the wilderness but purely to gain more perk points that in turn can be used for unlocking weapon pouches or other skills.

There’s also quite a lot of different vehicles you can drive and fly in latest Far Cry with an additional set to compliment modern America like muscle cars, machine gun jeeps and lorries and your weaponized seaplanes. Completing side missions will also help you unlock some unique vehicles and paint jobs to give a little bit of flair. In the world, you’ll also find some racing challenges and base jumping which can be a nice change of pace from all the killing and looting.

The overall shift away from levels was something I was uneasy about at the start of my time in Far Cry 5 but as I progressed and realised I could do so many different things to “level up”, the adventure was more around exploring than it was XP point loops. Not having to worry about your level means spending a lot more time actually engrossed in the world and if ever needed, kill a certain number of bears, get perk points or kill 10 people with a flamethrower for some more. Finally, locate Prepper Stashes and get three apiece. Options were there but not a consistent need.

Even with all the shifting though, it still is more of the same in terms of the overall aspects of the gameplay. The scripted narrative and mission designs can be excellent, including some of the side missions and Prepper Stash puzzles. It’s not all rich and dynamic through and through, however, as a lot of repetition still fills the air. Destroying shrines, blowing up silos, taking out roadblocks and liberating outpost even if unique, are still the same quests over and over in the end. The travel through the game is more natural and so is the levelling experience but you’ll still get a feeling of the same Far Cry formula.

Far Cry 5 is at its best when the main bad guys come into the limelight, with all their different personalities and all doing things for their own gain or for Joseph. The story arcs are thrilling and challenging. John is the torture, who believes sacrifice is needed for salvation and sees you through some gruesome scenes. Faith is the angelic drug lord who looks to tempt you away from your mission and drown in Bliss. While Jacob tries to brainwash you with surreal missions breaking down your will.

The problem with it is the inconsistency over the entire campaign between the story missions and the day by day work in the world. It would be impossible for an open world game to maintain the correct level of intensity but Far Cry can feel a little drawn out for the sake of being drawn out. Being captured multiple times, drugged multiple times and coming close to death at the hands of the Family can make you wonder if he is the luckiest man or the unluckiest man alive in Hope’s County.

When you are in between the set pieces though Co-op can help you through the side missions and outpost taking when a friend is there to help. Two people are better than one to create some crazy scenarios you thought you’d never be able to create intentionally. This is helped by the sheer freedom of being able to tackle anything in an order of you want with a wide variety of tactics. With a friend, we went it guns blazing while trying to be stealth and saw our fair share of madness with people being blown across the map. With the Far Cry Arcade mode as well, you can build your own solo or joint missions. The level editor is pretty advanced but while you learn it there are some premade that Ubisoft has built.

In the end, though, Far Cry 5 is more Far Cry but in an improved way. It does do a job at being able to move away from the older formula to some extent compared in previous titles and other Ubi franchises that have been done again and again. The family in Hope’s County make for an enticing story with different environments and missions but could be pushed harder to break away from the repetition. It’s a brilliant open world that keeps getting better and better but the narrative and quest flow outside the main story could be more dynamic to bring the world truly to life.