14 DAY TRIAL // 
Far Cry 5 feels like an exploration into some of North America's deepest fears and anxieties, while still maintaining roots in real life. It’s a fantastic experience as an FPS, with few misses, and plenty of elements that we wish they had no basis in reality.
The theme of crazy preachers in the United States is not all that common in games, but it’s not unheard off. On the other hand, the scale in which is implemented in Far Cry 5 is mind-blowing, and that’s not even using a too powerful hyperbole.
The game comes from Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Toronto, so basically Canada. The problem is that even if we realize that it’s a really crazy scenario, we kind of understand it, and we realize that some of the things we see in the game are not so farfetched.
Benign cults have been around forever, but the same can be said about the real nasty ones. When the world combines a particular type of culture with religious extremism and almost complete freedom, you can get individuals that do believe in their own propaganda and which are dangerous to society.
The main villain in Far Cry 5 is over the top, for sure, but at the same time we can understand his motivations, wants, and wishes even if what he’s doing seems impossible. And that can only happen if we have a basis for that to happen. You can decide if it’s a worrisome or sad thing. Or maybe it’s both.
Story
The storytelling in Far Cry games is becoming increasingly better. I don’t know if the writers are finally honing in on their craft or if they got some new people, but the result in this fifth iteration is something almost akin to a book.
One of the biggest problems with multiple installments in the same series is trying to top the previous villain. We had lord Vaas in Far Cry 3, with his ramblings and memorable lines, and then we got a dictator named King Pagan Min. Interestingly enough, both villains were set up in fictitious places, albeit similar to the real world.
From the looks of it, Ubisoft is trying to be a little bit braver, and selected Montana, in the United States as the new location for Far Cry 5. It actually takes place in the fictional Hope County, but it still got a little bit too close to home for some Americans.
“We’re not like this” was one of the first responses after the initial trailer hit, but Ubisoft didn’t back down and continued with their portrayal of Eden's Gate doomsday cult. Like many other cults and militias across the US, they are armed to the teeth with some solid, military gear.
The cult is headed by a self-entitled preacher named Joseph Seed and his family. As is customary with such cults, he’s predicting the fall of civilization as we know it and puts himself in a position of power by offering salvation to those who follow him. If people don’t turn to his preachings and join the cult, they end up dead or converted by force (not going to spoil how, although you’ll find out pretty fast).
The story itself is interestingly enough to keep the players going, and the division of powers in the map make for a nice and smooth progression. What I enjoyed tremendously was the way some scripted events are built into in the game. It’s done organically so that you don’t really know that it’s part of the story and not just some random stuff that happens when you roam the countryside.
After you’ve done some damage to the cult properties, completed a few missions, and disrupted the operation, you’ll find yourself marked. It doesn’t matter where you are on the map because enemies are going to be converging on you. Even if you manage to evade them for a while, you will eventually run out of bullets, and running is not going to be enough.
Their orders are to capture you, and that’s exactly what they will do, even if it seems that you’ve failed and you have to restart from the previous checkpoint. A new script is triggered in the storyline, and some new characters are introduced. Fortunately, you get to keep everything, so you’re not starting over with just a gun.
The basic idea is pretty simple, just like in the previous titles, and that is to slowly liberate the county, and take down the family. The story interwoven within the open world and the fact that most of the encounters are procedurally generated helps maintain the illusion of a living ecosystem.
The charisma of the main villain is what keeps the players engaged, but it’s also what shapes the entire game and general uneasiness. You feel that you need to look behind even when you’re fishing as you never know when a mad cultist might attack you.
Gameplay
Ubisoft has polished a working formula in a way that’s not representative of the gaming industry. Studios usually want to introduce new features and all kinds of new stuff, but there is a good chance to break the game or to fail the expectations of the players.
On the other hand, Far Cry games are popular and pretty much everyone knows what to expect from them. Why break tradition to bring revolutionary new stuff that can alienate the players?
It’s also true that Ubisoft did make changes to the gameplay, but only to enhance it, for the most part. Don’t think that it’s a perfect experience because that’s not the case. There are plenty of bugs or gameplay elements that are not quite right.
For example, the enemies are way too good at spotting you, even when you’re in a moving car, and are super aggressive. It often happens to get sidetracked on the way to a simple quest by enemies running you off the road. The next thing you know, you’re facing armored troops, and waves of hillbillies trying to kill you.
It helps that you can get guns for hire, and they can be pretty useful in a pinch, but I must confess that I only used them for the upgrade points. Most of the time I have my trusty Boomer, a dog that’s both vicious and helpful. If you go down from too many bullets, he can revive you. He’s also excellent at marking enemies from a distance, and there are very few missions where he’s not helpful.
And there is no shortage of missions. With the exception of the scripted stuff that's already marked on the map, it’s also possible to find hidden stashes, to free people that were taken prisoners, destroy supply trucks, hunt, fish, and a ton of other stuff.
Of course, just like the previous Far Cry games, players will need to upgrade their character with the help of perks, but it’s a different system altogether. Now, all the points are awarded through various challenges that users have to overcome.
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Some are easy, like fishing or hunting turkeys, and only give one perk point, but others are way more difficult and will grant multiple perks. Since the upgrades for your character usually require more than one point, it’s a good idea to stock up on them until you need them.
One of the best investments early on is the addition of another slot for weapons. It takes eight points to get it, but it’s worth it. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that if you have the Gold or the Deluxe edition, you even get some powerful weapons from the start. They are somewhat well hidden but are present in all Gun Stores.
Multiplayer and the Far Cry Editor
These two components are tightly paired in the game, and with good reason. Ubisoft has been saying for a long time now that the included editor uses assets from multiple other games and franchises, and they know that the community can make some amazing stuff.
And since the editor works for both the single-player and multiplayer content, everybody wins. In fact, there are already hundreds of maps available, and many of them are quite good. Finding people to play with is not all that difficult, and getting a match together takes very little time.
Furthermore, the content that you unlock in the regular single player, along with all the perks, carries into the multiplayer matches. If you’re just starting to play the game right now, it might feel that you’re a little behind, but it seems that people don’t might that all that much.
The multiplayer is a fine addition to Far Cry 5, and if Ubisoft keeps this up, it might prove to be even more fun than the single-player campaign, and much more long-lived.
Graphics, music, and sound
Far Cry 5 is built on the Dunia engine, the same one that Ubisoft has been using since Far Cry 2. It’s been a long time in development, and it’s been improved over time a great deal. It’s also the main reason why it runs beautifully on the PC, even if you don’t have an up to date system.
Players will be able to push 60FPS in 1080p with an older i5 Intel processor and a Geforce 970 GTX card, with everything set on Ultra. It’s that well optimized.
As for the music, there isn’t much to tell. The radios available in the cars play music specific to the overall mood, which means there is a lot of religious songs, peppered from place to place with some rock.
On the other hand, the voices and action for the main characters are great, and it certainly feels that a lot of effort has been put into it. I would mention that the dialogues for some of the secondary quests are sort of bland like they were done in a hurry, but it's not that big of a deal.
The Good
I loved almost everything about it, included the feeling of uneasiness that’s constantly present. That feeling that something is wrong or that something can go wrong at any minute. It’s something that you can’t shake no matter how many weapons you carry.
Also, the fact that it runs perfectly on the PC is a major plus. We tend to forget that most games today are ported to the PC, and many times that implementation is poorly done. Not for Far Cry 5, which goes to show that you can focus on the PC.
The Bad
The big issues have to do with gameplay balancing. This is one of the things responsible for that feeling of uneasiness I was writing about. Sometimes the game is easy, and five minutes later you’re lying dead because an enemy hopped up on drugs decided to attack you with a shotgun.
It takes a lot of damage to take him down, even several bullets to the head, and that’s very distracting because it doesn’t match with everything else. I can understand that an armored enemy, with a helmet, can take a few bullets to the head, but it should not be possible for regular humans.
Another problem is that the AI has an uncanny power to see you from long distances, in moving trucks, and even from planes and helicopters. I get that the cult is looking for me, but that’s ridiculous. I’m always getting distracted on the way to a mission by minor skirmishes with various low-rank enemies who just happened to see me from half a mile away (an exaggeration but you get the gist).
The Good
- Massive, living open world
- Over the top villain
- Dog companion
- Great graphics and low PC requirements
The Bad
- Difficulty spikes
- Some minor physics bugs
- AI is too quick to discover you
Conclusion
Like I was saying at the beginning of the review, Far Cry 5 is like a fun exploration of the human psyche and that of a possible scenario that’s not all that impossible, especially today. With a villain that believes his own madness and a rhetoric that’s good enough to convince you that he might be right, Far Cry 5 can’t lose.
Even if we ignore the ridiculous quantity of content, and we focus only on the main storyline, we still get an amazing experience. Far Cry 5 is not the game we expected, but it’s exactly what we should have wanted in the first place.
