It is the fifth installment to Ubisoft’s popular Far Cry series and the stand-alone sequel to the 2014 game, Far Cry 4.
Set in the fictional town of Hope County, the plot of Far Cry 5 centres on Joseph Seed, and his doomsday cult, the Project at Eden’s Gate. In the game, players take on the role of a junior deputy sheriff, who must work together with various resistance groups in Hope County to take down Seed and Eden’s Gate. Unlike previous Far Cry games, Far Cry 5 allows players to customise their characters, which is always fun to do.
Combat, particularly close-quarters combat, plays an important part in gameplay as players are able to utilise a wide variety of weapons, including melee weapons, to defeat enemies. What makes gameplay more fun is the ability to recruit the county’s locals, NPCs (non-player characters), to fight alongside and assist in liberating Hope County from Seed’s tyranny. The ability to recruit characters was of great help in my play-through of the game as fighting numerous enemies was a little daunting and rather challenging for a noob like me. Having a ‘buddy’ made all the difference.
The main game centres on taking down Joseph Seed, however, in order to reach him, players must first defeat his siblings. Progressing through each sibling in order to get a step closer to Seed felt like a typical boss fight of going through each boss until you’re able to get to the final boss. In order to defeat each sibling, players must do a number of things in order to earn Resistance Points. Such activities include freeing captives and liberating outposts.
There’s a lot to do in Far Cry 5, with the game featuring a fairly large open world environment which players are able to explore, as well as some side activities that players are able to engage in. While many will find this large map and side activities to provide endless content, I personally struggled with having such a wide area to explore, far too many things to do and the repetitive nature of the game.
It didn’t take me long to realise that Far Cry 5 just wasn’t for me. Whilst gameplay was decent, I struggled to stay engaged with the story. The open world concept wasn’t something that captivated me as it didn’t help with the progression of the narrative they way I had assumed it to be and after a couple of hours of roaming around, I got easily bored.
Visually though, the game was outstanding. The in-game graphics really personified the American ‘dream’ so to speak in the countryside with some life-like looking landscapes. It was easy to be enthralled by nature’s beauty in the game, which made it tolerable to travel from place to place to progress in the game.
Overall, Far Cry 5 was a tad on the challenging side for me, making it a rather tough game for beginners of the franchise. However, whilst it was a challenge for me, seasoned gamers and fans of the Far Cry franchise will get a kick out of the game, not only due to the main story mode but also due to the many in game activities that players are able to participate in.