Far Cry 5 – Review

The first Far Cry game was released in 2004, and was developed by Crytek and published by Ubisoft. It made processors of computers burst into flames and gamers weep tears because their rig could not play it without melting down. It was a benchmark to test your PC with. Ubisoft has moved on from that engine and currently uses the ‘Dunia’ Engine, which isn’t as taxing as the previous one. It’s a way of making the games get decent frame rates on consoles, too. This way you won’t have to sell an arm and a leg to play the game at a decent double digit frame rate.

Story

Far Cry 5 had a lot of backlash when the first trailer launched. It was a political minefield that Ubisoft braved by setting the game in rural Montana which has been overtaken by a religious cult, forcing everyone to live by the word of Joseph Seed. Those that don’t are either coerced into doing so, or killed outright. The game seemed to have a very strong political undertone, and seemed to target the more right winged politics by making the antagonist seem like crazy cult leaders that use religion to brainwash people. So Jacob Seed, Joseph Seed, Faith and John Seed are the main antagonists you’ll have to stop to liberate the region and give the free folk their land and rights back.

What everyone expected, for Far Cry 5 to bash on the right wing politics and really make them look like asinine over the top cartoony villains, didn’t happen. The game does make the antagonists seem like they are out of their minds when they spout their religious banter, but when the player comes face to face with them, you’ll see, – thanks to some stellar writing –  that they are just humans, nothing more. This feeling will work its way under your skin when you come to think of the fact that they are just flawed beings trying to make the best of things and that their vision of what they want to happen for the people of the region isn’t that crazy. With every step you take to liberating the people, your conscience starts tugging at you. They aren’t insane, they are broken. When you finally kill the first leader of the region, the bigger picture of who he/she was will come into focus and you’ll feel like a dick.

Graphics

The Dunia engine has been used in Far Cry 3, Far Cry 4, Far Cry Primal and now Far Cry 5, of course the engine has been added onto, to make the graphics pop more. It makes the facial animations really, really beautiful and fluid. It doesn’t really make hair look like a part of the face and more of an ‘add-on’, so the beards and hair sometimes make the picture look less convincing.  When you look at the faces, you’ll notice that there’s a lot of detail in making them look genuine, the eyes aren’t exactly the same, some character faces are marred with scars. It tells a story by showing, not telling, which is a very powerful way to tell a story.

Far Cry 5 looks beautiful. It isn’t however without its flaws as there are graphical glitches where characters are propelled into the air and start having spasms or they’ll get stuck in terrain or objects when they are killed. The glitches are few and far in-between and shouldn’t throw out the average gamer, immersion-wise, but might make them chuckle.

Sound

You can tell that the voice actors put their all into emoting their lines. The music is really cool, but it’s also licensed. So like Grand Theft Auto 4 having to pull a lot of their music when their contract ended, Ubisoft will also have to pull the music somewhere along the line. Like Grand Theft Auto, it’s fun to tune the radio until you’ve listened to every station, trying to find one that suits your needs. The weapons have some really good audio, and it’s really satisfying to bludgeon someone over the head with a metal bat, pipe or shovel, as it has just the right amount of ‘oomph’ behind it.

The ambient sounds can be called warnings, if you pay attention, you’ll be able to dodge some dangerous wildlife, like snakes that’ll sink their teeth in your arm if you come too close, skunks that’ll spray you with their stink, or nests of bees, that you can use against the enemy or will turn on you if you are too close.

Gameplay

Far Cry 5 is an action/adventure open world game. Your mission is to liberate regions from the Eden’s Gate, a cult that wants to dominate and keep their followers docile while controlling everything. You liberate the regions by blowing up structures that Eden’s Gate controls, liberating outposts, freeing civilians and killing certain enemies.

Far Cry hasn’t really changed things up since Far Cry 3, making players do these same things in the last 3 games. It would be stale if it weren’t for the fact that the gameplay is reminiscent of Dishonored or Metal Gear Solid V. You can tackle an objective any way you like, giving the player full control. Emergent gameplay sprouts from this and even if your first approach of sneaking it up blows up in your face, you can still switch weapons, blast their faces off and sick your own dog, cougar or even bear onto them. This ensures that no playthrough will be the same for any player.

At first you’ll feel weak and underpowered when weapons are expensive and you have little to no tools at your disposal, as you play the game you’ll earn skill points that you can earn to unlock new skills like an extra gun holster, being able to carry more loot and ammo, turning a car into a time bomb… So while it’s slow going at first, soon you’ll feel like a one man army trampling down the oppression.

There’s also a multiplayer so players can co-op and have some fun together and an arcade mode, where you can play player created levels.

Conclusion

Far Cry 5 doesn’t change things up too much, but there are some subtle differences that make it a different enough experience for player and fans to enjoy. It’s more of the same, but there’s enough emergent gameplay and things to do, so players won’t get bored. With the inclusion of the ‘Arcade’ mode you’ll get to play even more content. A must buy for fans and newcomers. Unless you aren’t a dog person, then again, you can always sick a cougar/bear on someone…

Q

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First game ever was Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped, ever since then, gaming has been something that I've gravitated to. Reading's fun but not as interactive. Always up for a bout of online multiplayer. If that multiplayer is co-op. So if you are up for a friendly co-op session, hit me up. Rahenik's the name to search on PSN.

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