Far Cry 5 (Playstation 4)
Developed By : Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Toronto Published By : Ubisoft
Category : First Person Shooter / Open World Sandbox
Release Date : March 27, 2018
Welcome to Hope County, Montana
Things are getting a little crazy in town. Well, it's been getting crazy for a while, but now it's overflowing. Hope County has been taken hostage by a doomsday cult known as Eden's Gate. Led by The Father, Joseph Seed, and his three Heralds, John, Jacob, and Faith, Joseph believes that he's been chosen by God to protect the people of Hope County from a collapse. Through manipulative method's, Eden's Gate has converted the residents of the County over to their following, and convincing them that contacting the outside world wouldn't be a wise decision.
Federal Marshall's, in tandem with the local deputy's office, have sent in a task force with an arrest warrant that's got Joseph's names all over it. Upon arrest, Joseph goes willingly, revealing that God won't allow him to be detained and taken away from his Purpose. Soon after, members of the Gate rise up and attack the task force, freeing Joseph and killing or kidnapping everyone but Rook, a fresh face on the team. Rook (short for "the Rookie") escapes before Eden's Gate can kill him too and is healed up by an inhabitant on a small island in the middle of Hope County.
Recovered, Rook must build a resistance throughout the County, assisting it's members in fighting back against Eden's Gate, finally ridding themselves of the burden of a cult, while simultaneously trying to locate and free the surviving task force members.
Build a Resistance
Players take on the role of the aforementioned Rook. After escaping the attack that freed Joseph, Rook get's nursed back to health by Dutch, a tucked-away survivalist with a distrust of government and authority figures that runs deep. Dutch informs Rook that there's a strong voice of a resistance that rings throughout the valley of Hope County. Before he sends Rook out though, Dutch wants to make sure he's ready.
The beginning island serves as the tutorial for the game. Here, you'll learn every aspect of what you'll need to do in order to give the Resistance some traction in eliminating Eden's Gate. You'll learn that there are four key ways to doing this : Completing missions, freeing resistance members that have been taken hostage, liberating outposts, and destroying cult property.
Once Dutch's Island has been liberated, the entirety of Hope County is yours for the taking. Joseph, Jacob, and Faith each have their own dedicated region, as well as methods in how they convert new followers. Jacob uses military style training combined with visual and auditory brain-washing. John takes a more direct approach, convincing others that he can see the Sin within them, before tattooing it on their flesh and (quite literally) ripping the Sin from them. Faith oversees the production of a hallucinogenic called Bliss, weakening the minds of those who come in contact with it and making them more susceptible to conversion.
Each leader will keep themselves sequestered off on their own, but they'll be hyper-aware of everything that you do. As you build up the strength of the resistance in each area, they will come after you in their own ways. Jacob sends hunters and forces you into his training program. John's followers capture you so he can tell you to your face that he knows what Sin resides in you. While Faith invades your mind, trying to alter your beliefs and reality.
Keep everyone fighting, pull more numbers over to your side of the fight, and eventually you just may get to liberate Hope County from Eden's Gate.
Strengthen Your Side
While fighting, Far Cry 5 gives you access to fifty perks you can obtain, as well as limitless companions to fight alongside you.
As far as companions go, Hope County has dozens of resistance members willing to take up arms and fight with you. A lot of these are more generic fighters, but there are nine specific companions that you can unlock. Each one has their own specialty focus that you can swap in and out to suit your play style. If you're more stealthy, take Grace and her sniper to get an extra edge on your enemies. Up against a lot of bodies? Call in Adelaide and her chopper to mow everyone down from the skies. There's even three animal companions you can save that will stick by your side as well : Boomer the dog, Peaches the cougar, and Cheeseburger the bear. Yes, that's his actual name.
Honestly, the companions are all so great it's really hard to choose which one is best. It really all comes down to how you want to play the game and adapting your two or three person/creature army to that.
The perk system is a lot of fun and incredibly helpful along the way. Here, you'll be able to extend your health, decrease the cooldown times for your companions, and increasing the speed or strength for some stats like ammo carrying capabilities or lock picking. All perks can be purchased with perk points, and players have two ways of obtaining these. One is by completing the in-game challenges. Depending on the level of the challenge, you can potentially earn up to three perk points.
Your other option for earning points is by finding PERK magazines around in the game. These are exclusively found in the County's Prepper Stashes (which I will explain in a bit) and are essentially free grabs for perk points. Technically, there is a third way to earn points, but it's via levelling up in Far Cry Arcade, the online PvP multiplayer area of the game. This might not be played by everyone, or it might not even be accessible for those that don't have Playstation Plus or Xbox Live Gold. So if you're only going to be playing this game solo, you'll be focusing on the first two areas to gain perks.
Every Resistance Needs A Break
Like always, Far Cry 5 offers plenty of things for players to bide their time with outside of main and side mission. Everything "extra" is able to be encountered at any point while you're exploring the games regions. Eden's Gate has a lot of territory and property, all of which can be either stolen or destroyed. Fellow resistance members will have Prepper Stashes in any number of locations throughout Hope County. These are actually pretty fun because they act like little puzzles, forcing you to figure out how to gain access to the hidden room. Once inside, you'll be treated to ammo, money, crafting supplies and potential PERK magazines.
Hunters will have plenty of fun as well, since there's more than enough animals to track down in all of the regions. Wolves, bears, cougars, all animals big and small. Let it be known, too, that no matter what animal it is, they've all got a mean streak in them. I've watched streamers playing this get mauled by some wild turkeys. I myself got mowed down by a pack of wild boar. So if you're going after some skins, be extra careful.
What I really enjoyed though, and it completely caught me by surprised just how much I enjoyed it, was Hope County's fishing scene. Yup, you can camp out on a riverbank, or head out on a lake with a boat, cast a line and wait for a nibble. There are tons of big water sources all over the County, with over a dozen different type of fish to catch between all of them.
It goes a bit further too, as there are fishing records to break. There are four fish that can be found in any and all of the regions. On top of these, each region has it's own exclusive fish as well. Once you start finding fishing locations, you'll notice some of them are listed as "Fish Type (hard)". These are the ones that are key if you'd like to become the fishing king (or queen). In each region you'll be able to find a champions board, marked with the fish type as well as the weight for the biggest catch for that type of fish. You don't have to do it, but if so choose, all you gotta do is go out, catch some bigger fish and you'll be the one to beat.
Final Thoughts
Right off the bat, while I was streaming this game I caught a lot of mention of "recycled" or "copy and paste" in reference to the game and a lot of it's mechanics. Is it true? I haven't played all of the games in the Far Cry franchise myself (yet), From what I have played though, this game does use the same formula. However, in a game such as this, for me the focus isn't solely on the mechanic of the game and whether or not they're carbon copies of things previous. For me, the focus is on the narrative being woven between those mechanics.
The story here isn't one of the all time greats, I will admit that. But, I'll also admit that it is great. The narrative here is incredibly strong, and I feel like it comes from the fact that it draws on something so real. Cults have been, and probably will continue to be, a very real thing that exists around us. Their leaders use these very specific methods to lure people into their "cause", and it's those exact methods that Jacob, John, Faith, and Joseph adapt. Propoganda, brain washing, manipulation, drugs. It's all been done, only now you have a front row seat at running these suckers down.
So yes, the formula may bring a lot of the "same old" back out for another lap, But it's fun and incredibly enjoyable. Whether you're mosying around fishing, or digging into the story there's always something to do in Hope County. One of the best parts is that the story is non-linear, meaning you don't have to take down Jacob, John and Faith in any particular order.
This game has been a ton of fun to play. Before I even finished the story, I was already contemplating starting a new game right away. I can't go on enough about how much there is to do in Far Cry 5. It may be chock full of recycled components, but it has been more than worth every moment I've spent in it. Definitely consider picking this one up and adding it to your library. There's a good chance that once you step into it, you won't want to step out.
Rating : 9.8 / 10
Also Available On : PC, Xbox One
