Far Cry 5
Published by: Ubisoft
Developed by: Ubisoft Montreal & Ubisoft Toronto
Genre: Action-Adventure, First-Person Shooter
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Release: March 27, 2018
Summary: Welcome to Hope County, Montana. This idyllic location is home to a community of freedom-loving people – and a fanatical doomsday cult known by many as The Project at Eden’s Gate. Led by the charismatic prophet Joseph Seed and his devoted siblings, Eden’s Gate has been surreptitiously infiltrating all aspects of daily life. When your arrival incites the cult to violently assume control of the region, you have to rise up and spark the fires of resistance to liberate the besieged community. Freely explore Hope County’s rivers, lands and skies with the largest customizable weapon and vehicle roster ever in a Far Cry game. You are the hero of the story in a world that hits back with every strike, and where the places you discover and the locals you team up with will shape your story in ways you will never anticipate.
**For this review, Far Cry 5 was reviewed on the PlayStation 4 platform and was not provided to geekXpop by any entity**
I will say this right now, after playing the past few games in the Assassin’s Creed series, and Far Cry 4, I am happy to say that Far Cry 5 feels as though Ubisoft has returned to form with this new entrant into one of my favorite shooting series in all of gaming. Now, I am not say that Far Cry 4 wasn’t a good game, I just had a few hiccups about the experience as a whole. I think mainly because I was still on a Far Cry 3 high when I started playing it… and Pagan Min was no Vaas Montenegro; and something that I have realized with the Far Cry series of games, the antagonists are some of the main reasons that I enjoy the games as they add more to the story than most of the narrative found in the game. As for the Assassin’s Creed games, well… what can one say when you get games that are seemingly rushed into development and are released with numerous glitches that need to be patched for the game to be playable. I know they are eventually fixed, but why do I need to wait weeks to play the game properly? Thankfully, with Far Cry 5, I have been able to play the game fifteen hours in with no problems with the game.
But going back to something that I touched upon in that paragraph back there: I think that the antagonists in the Far Cry games are some of the greatest that we have seen in the past couple of generation of games and are one of the main reasons why I play these games. And Far Cry 5 is no different. The Seed Family, led by The Father, Joseph Seed, are some of the best villains I have seen in gaming in a few years now. There is something realistically creepy about the Seeds and their ideology – something that is unnerving and primal that it feels as though they could just leap out of the game and into reality and have you screaming in fear as they unleash they ideas upon your world. The Seeds, Joseph Seed in particular, just give me the willies. And the way they are presented in the game, the way their story about taking over an entire county in the US is the driving force behind the game, it just makes it so compelling, so engaging, so intricately personal, that the game feels as real as a game could be. And while I enjoyed my adventures on that tiny island paradise and in the tiny nation of Kryat, having the game set in Montana is about as jarringly realistic as you can get. Yeah, I know that Hope County is fictional, but the rest of the game, as well as some of the basic premise that Joseph Seed is working at in the game, make it a much more realistic game than I expected. And I know that has some people a bit uppity, but I like it.
As for the gameplay in Far Cry 5, I am absolutely loving it. Well, except for being ambushed by wild animals as I am trekking through the forested lands of Montana. But hell, even that is not as bad as I am making it out to be. I like the hunting/hunted aspects of the game – mainly because of the wonderful controls that the game features. I may bitch a few times at the slow reload times for some weapons, but once you upgrade your skills after earning some Perks, that is easily taken care of. Hmm, I guess you can say that is one thing that can be a bit of a bother: after you max out some Perks for your character, it almost seems as though your character can be a bit over powered compared to the rest of the games standard baddies. I mean, there was a point where I was able to take on an entire armored convoy of vehicles all on my own, without the need of a Guns for Hire comrade, and walk away pretty much unscathed. But the way that the gunplay and combat are presented in Far Cry 5, they make for one of the best control schemes that I have seen in a first-person shooter since perhaps Battlefield: Bad Company 2. (Hey, this is my review so I am going to use my points of references.)
And while I usually focus on story and gameplay when it comes to gaming, I will say that Far Cry 5 is one of the most visually striking games I have played that wasn’t named Uncharted. I mean, oh man, as I was making my way across the map, especially during times when I was on my way from locale to locale, I found myself marveling at the landscape and the sheer beauty that the graphics in the game were able to produce. Yes, I am playing this game at its best resolution and in 4K, but I think that even at a lower setting it would still look just as beautiful. And when you are in combat, it looks even more lovely, if only for the chaos that is presented in the game. Flashes of gunfire, laser scopes, flames, ricochets, fracturing wood and shattering glass – it creates a symphony of wondrous destruction in the middle of the firefights that you find yourself in. As you battle the Peggies that are constantly in your way, you will be just as much in awe during the fighting as you were with the static landscape that game’s setting presents. And, since I am on the subject of beauty, can I just admit that I was completely mesmerized by the character of Faith Seed and her beauty and mystique in the game? I mean, wow – she may just be a new video game crush for me… if she wasn’t absolutely manipulative and bat-shit crazy. But I seem to be attracted to those types. Anyway…
I knew I was going to enjoy Far Cry 5 from the get go, after all, as a huge fan of the series I knew I was going into this a little biased towards the game – but I never knew how much more the game was going to surpass my expectations of it in terms of story, gameplay, and visuals. There is a lot more to Far Cry 5 than meets the eye, and a lot more that I am not mentioning here. But when it comes to me and gaming, I mainly base my reviews on story and gameplay – the visuals and characters are just an added bonus in this game. If you ask me, Far Cry 5 is a far better game than I think most people expected it to be, even when you take into account the high level of anticipation that went into this game’s release. As for me, I can’t recommend Far Cry 5 enough. It has some issues, none that bothered me but I am sure others will find it a bit distracting, but in the end, I think it is the best AAA game to be released in 2018 and the one game that finally got me to take a break from Fortnite engross myself into another game.
