[ENG] Far Cry® 5 - Review

(Polska Wersja Dostępna Tu! - [PL] Far Cry® 5 - Recenzja)

(Minor spoilers ahead. You have been warned.)

I think the Far Cry franchise at this point is so recognizable that I don't even have to talk about who made it or what game type it is, but – just to get the formalities out of the way, let's do this.

Far Cry 5 is a first-person shooter released in 2018 on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 by Ubisoft. It's a seventh installment in the series, which makes sense when you look at the 5 in the title, obviously! (Correction – it's in fact fifth installment in the main series, but if we count two spin-offs – Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and Far Cry Primal, then Far Cry 5 turns out to be seventh installment overall).

Far Cry franchise is known for it's remote locations and sick antagonists. I have played through the most of the Far Cry titles with the exception of Far Cry 2 and 4 so I guess I have a pretty wide array of knowledge about the series overall. And now that the Far Cry 6 was announced, I noticed that FC5 is available to purchase for mere 10 bucks and... I will say now – I do not regret a single buck. In Far Cry 5 we aren't sent to some very remote location like mysterious tropical islands or Himalayas, this time we are sent to a Hope County in the state of Montana (Of course, all these places like islands, Hope County etc. are fictional... I just wanted to clarify this one thing). As with all Far Cry installments, things quickly go haywire and we are forced to run for our lives.

(Hope County)

In Far Cry 5 we play as nameless character, only referred to either as Rook/Rookie or Deputy (We can mildly customize our character, like choosing what he/she will wear or the gender of our protagonist). The game starts with a relatively simple task – we have to apprehend Joseph Seed who's been terrorizing the Hope County and forcing people to either join his sick, religious cult or die. On our way, we realize that there are few members in the Seed family. Once we handcuff Joseph (also referred to as 'The Father') and take him to the chopper... The very same chopper crashes soon and we need to escape from the cult. Aaaand after that the prologue and typical Far Cry gameplay starts.

(Fun Fact! I may have not played Far Cry 4, but I know few interesting facts like that you can end the game in several minutes if you wait patiently for the main antagonist to return, well – in Far Cry 5 you can decide to NOT handcuff Joseph and the game will also end quickly).

From this moment on, we take the fight to the Eden's Gate, the cult, and after the short prologue that introduces us to saving people, liberating camps and prepper stashes, we are pretty much free to go and decide which region we want to start liberating first. 

(The game is pretty self-aware when it mocks the trend of majority of Far Cry and Assassin's Creed games - radio towers/high buildings climbing. Plus, it makes few references to Blood Dragon)

Whitetail Mountains, ruled over by Jacob Seed where he trains an army; Henbane River, ruled by Faith Seed where she produces the drug called 'the bliss' which in effect turns people into mindless husks or Holland Valley, ruled by John Seed where he brutally forces people to confess their sins (It may sound pretty 'normal' at first, but... You'll quickly realize it's really not.)

(Fun Fact – when loading after death or when fast travelling, we are greeted with one of several quotes from the ruler of said region).

We can go anywhere, after all we need to liberate all of the three large regions in Hope County before being able to finally confront Joseph Seed, The Father.

(And yes, this cult is so religious that all members of the Seed family have names relating to Christian religion – Joseph, Jacob and John. Aaand Faith which basically is one of the foundations of every religion).

(Joseph Seed. Faith Seed in the background, everything happening when our protagonist is engulfed by the bliss)

Each and every one from the Seed family is twisted in their own way, and when you think you have seen the most disturbing stuff in this game... The chance is, you still haven't seen nothing. Eden's Gate is brutal to say the least. By saving people, doing missions, liberating camps we slowly but surely fire up the Resistance to fight against the cult and, at the same time – pissing off certain Seed more and more until they have enough of us. Each region is divided into three 'checkpoints', and after every checkpoint the cult is more and more devoted to killing you. So much so that they even send specialized pilots just to mow you down from the sky. And around each checkpoint we are 'kidnapped' by region's leader and witness the story segment, revealing more and more about the twisted nature of the cult and the Seed family.

(The final confrontations with each member of the Seed family are really well-thought boss fights that keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the entirety of – what I like to call – the final region liberation mission).

If I had to say, I'd tell that the Far Cry 5 is the second best Far Cry I have played, only beaten by Far Cry 3 in terms of our main antagonist. Don't get me wrong, The Seed Family with Joseph on top of them is really well-made and interesting, but... They still lack something for me, they lack the pure insanity and charisma of Vaas Montenegro from Far Cry 3. And... However weird it may sound (mostly because I want to avoid too big spoilers) – Joseph Seed has a point and isn't necessarily the bad guy. Yes, the things he and his family do are insane and questionable, but... After finishing the game, one can't help but ask themselves – 'Have I been doing the right thing...?'

(Liberation of each region is always finished with a blast and a celebration!)

Hope County is massive and beautiful (as you can see on screenshots which I took with Photo Mode), there are a lot of ways we can move around – cars, boats, helicopters, planes, grappling hook and even fricking wingsuit!

To unlock things like grappling hook, wingsuit, air drop (possibility to drop from the sky when fast travelling which in effect allows us to traverse great distances with wingsuit and parachute) and much much more we need perk points which, in effect allow us to unlock perks. Perk Points are unlocked by either doing challenges (Like kill x enemies with that weapon or traverse x distance in a certain way) or by looting prepper stashes – these are short missions that basically ask us to look around and find a way to a certain place or building where the goods in form of money, perk points and ammunition are stashed.

Next to the resistance, there are soldiers, guns for hire and fangs for hire. To put it shortly – we can take a small army with ourselves when fighting Eden's Gate. Soldiers are normal resistance members we can recruit to go with us, where as guns and fangs for hire are specialists, we need to perform a mission or two for them before they'll be available for us but when they are... Oh boy, hell can be let loose – helicopter and plane shooting down a covering fire when you run past the enemy defenses? Check! Sniper and a panther in perfect sneaky synergy? Check! - There are 9 of these specialists in total and with appropriate perk we can have two of them at the same time. Of course, nothing prohibits us from playing alone, but these specialists are a nice add-on that can make our lives a teeny tiny bit easier.

(The Battle for Holland Valley)

Just like in majority of Far Cry installments, there are a lot of weapons and customization. Bows, rocket launchers, LMGs, shotguns, pistols and much more. Duh, you can be like me and attach a silencer to a LMG to be able to both mow enemies down and not draw their attention by gunfire. RPG with heat-tracking which is able to take down planes, helicopters and other vehicles quickly? Count me in! With appropriate perks we can have up to 4 different weapons.

Speaking of perks – whereas things like 'Heavy Takedown' or 'Takedown from Below/Above' had to be unlocked – here they are unlocked by default which... Is pretty nice.

Hunting animals isn't such a big part here like in other installments, we can get bigger backpacks and ammo capacities just with perk points so... Hunting animals is only profitable if you are really low on money. Duh, there is even fishing here (And there are quite a few missions involving fishing!)

(Man vs. Wild)

By zooming out the entire map we can clearly see how well we cleared out the region – how many specialists we recruited of these available / how many missions we have completed / how many camps we've liberated and how many cult's structures (like altars) we have destroyed. It's a good way of tracking what we need to do to clear out the entire region, for example I have been looking for the last altar in the Faith region for longer than I should have been.

And as always with Far Cry – you're free to play however you want, silently, loudly, fast, slow – everything is fine! You can rush missions to quickly bump up the Resistance meter in certain region and get rid of certain Seed quickly, or you can be like me and take your time with said meter because... Well, the game has a problem. Either there are way too many cult members everywhere when Seed is alive or there barely are any when Seed is finally dead.

Completing the entire game, whilst cleaning out every region took me around 25 hours which... Is a decent time if you ask me. The game can be probably completed in something like 8-12 if you're only interested in getting rid of the Seeds.

Audio design is pretty decent. Voice acting is quite good when it comes to important story characters (Although our protagonist is mute), soundtrack is enjoyable and finally the gun and world sounds are pretty on point. I mean, there isn't really much to say about the overall audio design – it's not terrible nor amazing, it's just pretty good.

(Ripping the Eden's Gate from Hope County, piece by piece)

So, to summarize. Far Cry 5 was better than I expected and it almost stole the title of best Far Cry from the third installment. I enjoyed the story, resistance and the twisted nature of Eden's Gate and Seed family. Will I get the Far Cry 6 when it comes out as the ninth installment of the series (because between FC5 and FC6 we also received a Far Cry: New Dawn, an aftermath to the events of Far Cry 5)? I don't think so, sure – I will give this game a shot when opportunity will present itself, but it's really not on my list of priorities. And after playing through majority of Far Cries and Assassin's Creeds I think I know what I can expect from Far Cry 6 (Unless they will do some drastic changes like between AC: Syndicate and Origins).

Is the Far Cry 5 worth the price of either 10 or 60 bucks? Definitely. It's one of the best installments in the entire franchise. But remember, even though Eden's Gate are your enemies, it doesn't mean they are the most dangerous enemies. Fear the wildlife... Fear THE WILD TURKEYS! Aaand possibly buffallos and moose.

Of course, there are things I haven't mentioned due to my inexperience or low significance like Far Cry Arcade or Clutch Nixon Challenges but – they are a fun add-on to the overall experience and I admit that they are worth a shot.

Pick up the weapon and bring the hell to Eden's Gate, but remember - ”Sometimes the best thing to do... is to walk away.” ~ Joseph Seed

Kind Regards,

Wing.