I recently finished playing Far Cry 5 on the PS4. Far Cry 5 is the first Far Cry I have ever played, and the story’s concept is quite intriguing. As a rookie deputy, the player journeys through Hope County, a made-up, rural area located in Montana. The villains are the members of the Seed family, led by oldest brother Joseph Seed. Joseph and his three siblings are doomsday cult leaders who have taken over and brainwashed much of Hope County. Each cult leader owns a region of Hope County as the protagonist leads the rebellion against them.
Far Cry 5’s biggest strongpoint is the scale and the breadth of the game. The map opened up to beautiful scenery. The game allows players to ride vehicles like helicopters, trucks, and cars to either reach mission locations or just explore the wide world. Further, the game lets players build up their reputation in a variety of ways. These methods include completing missions, destroying cult property, and liberating cult outposts. Each cult outpost had a slightly different feel from the previous one. The player could either maneuver stealthily through the outpost as he/she silently knocked out enemies for a strategic liberation, or hit the military camps with rockets and heavy fire for action-packed combat. The game provides side missions that allow players to find “specialists” to add to their roster. Each specialist holds unique abilities, and the player can use their specialists in different situations to suit his/her playing style. The game’s concept was fulfilling as it mixed together aspects of a FPS and an adventure game.
Despite the upsides, I had major problems with Far Cry 5. First, there was a lack of fluency between each mission. Not only was the content of each story mission often unrelated, but also, the game did not incentivize the player to actually complete the story missions on time. Rather, the player could complete the story mission whenever he/she wanted, while the lives of the rest of the rebellion was not on the line. Without a sense of urgency, the missions, and thus the story, seemed to get lost in the gameplay. Further, the enemies’ skill set became monotonous at times. Like in many other games, the enemies became too predictable, and performing silent takedowns or avoiding confrontations altogether was way too easy. Finally, while I won’t give away any spoilers, my ending (there are apparently three potential endings) was not one I hoped for.
Overall, the lack of continuity within the story, as well as the predictability of the enemies as the game progressed, rendered the gameplay rather dissatisfying at times. However, the beautiful graphics and the extensive possibilities for combat made up for some of the game’s flaws.
FINAL SCORE: 65/100
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“Far Cry 5 | Xbox.” 2018. Xbox.com. Accessed April 29. https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/far-cry-5.
Akira's Analysis 