FAR CRY 5

Review

The Hope County, Montana has been taken and cut off from the rest of the state by a cult named the Eden’s Gate! His fanatical Leader Joseph Seed lives in a compound right in the middle of the County while his brothers and sister have divided the region into three equal parts. Each of them are controlling their sectors by fear and terror. Anybody who doesn’t join the cult and its ideology will end up dead! This status quo has to end - NOW! Deputy, we are sending you and a few men in with a warrant to arrest their lunatic leader, Joseph Seed!

FAR CRY 5 is an action / first-person shooter game where you play a deputy who is sent by the United States Marshall Services to arrest the leader of the Eden’s Cult and free the population of the County.

And here you are, in a helicopter with your colleagues on the way to arrest John Seed. This 15-minute or so introduction is absolutely extraordinary, from the start to the end, where you find yourself hanging upside down in the cabin of the helicopter after the crash, supported by a security belt. Only you and another Marshall will successfully escape the burning chopper; the others will be taken prisoner by the cult and its members. Your first mission is to regroup with your fellow Marshall, equip yourself with weapons and try to escape the County. The battle will be epic, but unfortunately for you and your colleague, it will not be successful, and both of you will be taken away. The good news is that you will end up at Dutch’s place, who is part of the resistance. Your first big task will be to eliminate every single enemy on Dutch’s small island. After you’ve done that and gained his trust, you’ll access the map of the county and you’ll basically have to free the three regions that are occupied and controlled by Joseph Seed’s siblings. What you’ll have to do is to liberate infrastructures such as outposts and towns, and destroy shrines. The other way to help the resistance is to free civilians, who will then join your cause. Occasionally you’ll be able to recruit some of them, which will be very handy in fights. Some civilians will give you the location of the starches they know about, as well as enemy outposts that are not visible on the map as yet. All the starches (bunkers) will be represented by blue diamonds on the map, and you’ll usually find weapons, ammunition and perk magazines there. Each magazine you collect will give you one perk point and you can use these points to get new abilities for your character.

What I really like in this game is that you can choose to either follow the story missions, or just do all the side missions, or find the starches in order to accumulate as many perk points as possible and make your life slightly easier. There are also challenges to complete, which are marked on your map with a start icon. The only thing I don’t like about these is that if you choose to accept one you must successfully beat the challenge in order to return to the map, and it can be a bit annoying at times.

There are plenty of weapons in this game; you can buy them at shops which are usually in every outpost you liberate, or simply pick the ones which are on the floor next to a fallen enemy. Oh, and by the way, you can loot these buggers and you might find some money, ammunition and other items too.

The graphics and scenery are simply superb and you’ll encounter plenty of wild life. If you are not armed you could risk severe injury from a cougar, a bear or a bison, but birds and snakes can also inflict some damage.     

The combat phases are smooth and so much fun to play! You can run behind someone and take them by surprise, or just run right in and shoot at everything that moves! You’ll probably find it easier as you go along especially if you have an automatic rifle with a silencer in your arsenal. The other aspect if that you can call on the people you have hired too. Remember you can hire one person at any given time, and two if you unlock the ability to do so.

There are stacks of vehicles to drive and fly in this game, but as much as I enjoy flying the helicopters,  I must say that I really don’t like the planes - they don’t feel right to me. The other thing I don’t like with the vehicles in this game is the auto drive. I know that you can disable it but boy, this is a pain in the bum!

Despite having a heavy storyline, there a couple of funny moments. The one that made me laugh was the sideline mission when you have to cut the balls off a bull right after he jumps on top of a cow, to the background music of “sexual healing”; very funny, I must say!

I did encounter a few crashes here and there, and find that very frustrating when it occurs on an AAA title.