Available for: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Windows
Reviewed for: Playstation 4
Last year, I wrote an article concerning the controversy that came with
Far Cry 5's announcement. Folks were up in arms about the fact that the game would take place in America and that the villain would be a religious leader. In the article, I detailed how moronic such folks were and pointed out the fact that, though the ways of the evil cult were undoubtedly rooted in the protestant tradition, the members of this cult followed "the word of Joseph." I went on to detail how some of the characters on the player's side seemed to be religious themselves. Then,
Far Cry 5 came out, and I sat there as it installed and thought, "please don't make a liar out of me." Well, that's ultimately a discussion for later on in this review, but suffice it to say that the folks who were crying about the setting and villain are even bigger morons than I initially accused them of being. Let's get started!
From the get-go,
Far Cry 5 has a noticeably darker atmosphere than past titles that Ubisoft has put out, as it sports an opening that sent shivers down my spine. In this game, you play as a Sheriff's deputy in the fictional Hope County, Montana. As the game begins, you find yourself with some other local lawmen and a US Marshal on a helicopter making its way to the Church at Eden's gate in the dead of night. Your purpose? To arrest "The Father," Joseph Seed, the leader of the church and the cult that calls the church its home. Under Seed's leadership, the cult has allegedly been engaging in kidnappings and torture, but their presence has been growing exponentially, resulting in tension all throughout the county. The helicopter party continues discussing this, and the sheriff is noticeably terrified. He tells the Marshall, "Joseph Seed is someone you don't f*** with." Some time passes, and the camera is forced to look out the side of the chopper as the pilot says "there it is," in reference to a skyscraper-sized statue of the Father. Taking a step back for a second, I have to applaud Ubisoft here. There are a number of ways they could have gone about showing the player just how massive and influential the cult is. However, having the first you see of the cult be an imposing, colossal statue of its leader? That's
darn effective. The helicopter lands inside of the compound surrounding the church, and you and the party of lawmen start to make your way to the church. The sheriff, practically sweating bullets, hastily instructs the party to keep their hands away from their holsters and stick together. This is where the anxiety started to set in for me, as you and the party make your way along a path surrounded by heavily armed cult members that stare you down and whisper to each other but don't make a move. You reach the church and the soundtrack's low droning increases slightly in volume as the unmistakable sound of "Amazing Grace" flows from the doors. The sheriff once again panickedly informs the Marshal to not look like a threat and to just follow his lead. At this point I was actually starting to sweat a little bit. You enter the church and confront Joseph Seed, who doesn't put up a fight, but who declares that he's giving you a chance to walk away. You cuff him and he reassures his followers that "God won't let them take me." What follows is a sequence where you walk your newly cuffed prisoner back to the helicopter as the cultists who are
literally surrounding you on almost all sides start to get more restless and start closing in a little more, all while the sheriff continues to stress that the party not draw their weapons. Needless to say, shortly after the party leaves the compound, things go south. In a small plot twist that once again shows just how far Seed's influence goes, he escapes, and the party of lawmen are scattered to the wind. After being rescued by one of the cult's biggest opponents, you set out on a quest to liberate Hope County from Seed and his family. As far as stories go, this is the best one I've experienced in this series. There are essentially three chapters of the story (one for each of the Father's family members) before the finale, and there are some legitimately shocking turns of events as these chapters progress. This all culminates in a finale that the word "jaw-dropping" doesn't even begin to cover. The only issue is that there's a
lot of filler required to get to the next plot point. You have to do a bunch of less-than-inspiring character missions in each chapter, and for the most part I found them and the characters they came with incredibly boring. It's really a shame, because once you reach a story point, things really heat up, but until then you're stuck with what essentially amounts to poorly-disguised busywork.
Now, let's talk about our villains and the cult they lead. Before I begin, let me first disclose that I'm a practicing Christian who attends a Presbyterian church. You can do with that information what you will, but I'm putting that there so you know what angle I'm coming from as I perform this analysis. For those who have already played, did you notice anything missing from this religious baddie that would've been present in any other religious baddie character? Well, for those who haven't yet played, let me spell it out. Some characteristics of your bog standard religious villains that are
not present in Joseph Seed are: racism, sexism, homophobia, and perhaps most importantly,
hypocrisy. The cult is made up of men and women of several races, and while the cult does have rules against fornication, there are no mentions of homosexuality at all (not even in the speeches of Joseph's older brother Jacob, whose speeches are all about the weak versus the strong). Take a minute to forget about the fact that this cult is kidnapping and torturing people. All villains do things like that, but there's normally some ideology to go with it that we can point to to give the violence a more evil context. In the case of religious villains, this usually comes in the form of something like "God says to kill everyone who isn't white," or "The homosexuals are bringing this upon themselves." The purpose of this is to give the audience/reader/player a way to mentally distance themselves from the villain, outside of just the violence. We can always hate a violent villain, but it's more comfortable to have a violent villain that we can put in a separate mental space from us or people we know. It's less challenging to experience a villain to whom we can say, "You're homophobic and I went to a liberal arts college, so neither I nor anybody I know could be like you!" In the case of Joseph Seed, however, we're given no such reprieve. Right off the bat, Ubisoft takes away everything we could
possibly use to distance ourselves from this cult. In terms of ideology, there's no easy out for us. We can't give Joseph Seed realistic labels like racist, sexist, homophobe, transphobe, or islamaphobe, nor can we give him imaginary labels like whatever new things the blue-haired attention-starved teenage girls on tumblr have come up with lately. Why? Because Joseph Seed accepts
everybody. He demands that sins be repented, but to him there is
literally nobody who is beyond salvation. You couldn't even call him something like a kink-shamer, because even though he demands repentance of sin, he doesn't judge, and he welcomes with open arms no matter your past. There's one last aspect of your usual religious villain that is typically used as a mental distancing anchor, and it's the last aspect I mentioned: hypocrisy. There are, of course, a slew of religious villains who might seem like Joseph Seed, but who are really just using the faith as a money-making strategy (not unlike a certain heretic and con man whose name rhymes with schmol schmosteen) or who use scriptures to justify a secret love of violence, or who demand violence upon others as a rite of faith but exempt themselves. Joseph Seed is none of these. His body is covered with the same scars that he gives his followers as redemption of sin. He has undergone the same torments that he inflicts. But what's more terrifying is that he
doesn't love it. There's a sequence in the chapter of the story concerning his younger brother, John, that exemplifies this. Though John believes in their ideology, he obviously struggles with his love of inflicting pain. There comes a time when you are captured by John and are being baptized in preparation for torture, and because of your actions against the cult, John takes this opportunity to more-or-less waterboard you under the guise of baptism. Joseph shows up, and the conversation is as follows:
Joseph: Do you mock the cleansing, John?
John: *brief pause*....no...Joseph...
*Joseph walks up to John, closes his eyes, and puts his forehead to John's. There's a brief silence*
Joseph:...you
have to love them, John.
The tone of voice Joseph uses can't be emulated here, but it's completely sincere as both a reprimand to John and a statement of purpose. I got goosebumps as I realized, "he
means it!" After this exchange, Joseph walks up to you, looks you in the eye, and says, "Even with all you've done, you are
not beyond salvation." Your average religious baddie might've quoted the letter to the Hebrews and talked about how "sometimes punishment is an expression of love," as a way to hint to John that he should make you suffer more for your sins, but not so with Seed. He acknowledges that the path to salvation lies in pain, but he sincerely holds a headspace of love for the person, not love for the infliction of that pain. Not only that, but he stops and reprimands his own brother for causing you, someone who has killed countless of his beloved followers, more pain than is necessary. This is a villain who lives what he believes and doesn't have an ounce of hypocrisy to speak of. And that, dear reader, is
friggin terrifying. Not only can we not distance ourselves or our loved ones from Joseph Seed on the grounds of social justice, we can't even distance ourselves from him on the grounds of fervency of belief. Anyone you know could be a Joseph Seed, and indeed, some of the best, most tolerant people you know could be him as well. That, once again, is
friggin terrifying. While he certainly isn't as charismatic as Vaas from
Far Cry 3, Joseph Seed is far scarier, and that makes a world of difference when the setting is the country you live in.
As for the other villains, the members of Joseph's family, all but one of them are pretty well fleshed-out too. John (the younger brother) is a complete sociopath who tries his hardest to live the way Joseph decrees, and his philosophy of "The Power of Yes" is a mockery of the heretical (and legitimately harmful) prosperity gospel, so extra points for that. Faith (the adopted younger sister) produces the cult's hallucinogenic drugs ("the bliss," which essentially makes the user feel incredible) as an extension of the sense of self-worth that she never had until she met Joseph. Jacob (the older brother) is...well, the weakest of them, which is ironic considering that his entire character is "the strong need to cull the weak." In all three of these villains, most of the points I made about Joseph also apply. Though one could argue that John is a hypocrite, there's very little outside of the violence that the player can use to distance themselves from these villains. Ubisoft has really outdone itself this time, and I believe they deserve as much praise as they can get for these exceptionally-crafted villains.
One last note on the whole "controversy" aspect of this game: this is not an "atheists versus religious folks" kind of story, nor is it a "liberal populace versus conservative fringe group" kind of story (in case the above paragraph didn't make that last point clear). The resisting side of this conflict is as diverse as the members of the cult. You've got folks who are undoubtedly atheists as well as religious officials fighting. You've got folks who are probably closet socialists, libertarians who collect rainwater out of sheer spite for the federal government, and senate candidates who name their vehicles after Nancy Reagan and go on about "Obama-lovin' libtards" taking up arms to take their home back. I said something to this effect in the article I wrote when the controversy was fresh: This is an "America versus Terrorists" kind of story. I think Ubisoft was incredibly smart about this. For instance, there's a sequence wherein John Seed forces the priest character to perform a ritual. The priest has the bible in hand, and John smacks it to the ground and replaces it with the cult's holy book. Sure, the priest happens to keep a gun hidden in his bible, but I think the point of that sequence is pretty clear. Even though the traditions of the cult are definitely rooted in Protestantism, this cult actively goes so far as to smack the bible out of the hands of a priest and replace it with their own version. If anyone is still offended by this cult, you can stop now at any time, because I guarantee you'd be up in arms if some man bun-wearing cool youth pastor kind of guy rolled into town with his own version of the bible and took your family hostage.
But enough about the controversy, story and characters, let's get to gameplay! This is an area where opinions are divided. You have those who think that
Far Cry 5 is a fresh take on the tried-and-true formula, and you have those who think it's still pretty derivative. I believe the truth lies somewhere in the middle, and unfortunately, that's not really a good thing in my book. This is where my review is going to go to the completely subjective. I
love the Far Cry formula. It's something I never get tired of, so I've never minded that every game after
Far Cry 3 was mostly the same. In my book, the Far Cry experience has been about getting to experience the same excellent formula of stealthily liberating outposts, climbing to great heights to reveal parts of the map, hunting animals in order to improve my gear in true man-vs-wild style, and tracking down challenging collectibles with a different setting each time. I realize that having a complaint like "It isn't derivative enough" takes away some of my credibility as a critic, but it's worth noting that this is the first Far Cry title I've played that I didn't 100%. In fact, I wasn't even remotely compelled to 100%
Far Cry 5. The changes that were made to the formula just felt stupid to me. I get that crafting holsters and the like out of animal parts would make less sense in a modern America context, but unlocking an extra holster as a perk brought back unpleasant memories of hair dye colors or the ability to purchase property as a level up reward in
Fable 3. Really, in terms of upgrading and a lot of what used to make Far Cry fun, the phrase I'd use to describe
Far Cry 5 is "massively unrewarding." In past games, I'd have to earn a wingsuit or an extra holster by learning what skins I needed, heading to an area where I could find the right animal, and waiting patiently to hunt my prey. In past games, when I unlocked something, it felt like I'd done something specifically to earn that upgrade. In
Far Cry 5, however, it's just "hooray! You got 10 kills with the submachine gun! Here's two perk points! If you have enough perk points, you can get literally any of these upgrades with no other strings attached." Once I had my wingsuit, my grappling hook, and enough holsters to hold my usual slew of weapons, I just stopped trying to earn perk points because I found the whole exercise to be, as I mentioned, massively unrewarding. Like, really. You earn absolutely
nothing that you get in this game! You can stealth takedown heavy enemies right from the get-go, and you get every unique kind of takedown in one perk package! I approve of having the death from above/below takedowns from the get-go because those wouldn't require much dexterity, but with things like the weapon throw or pistol takedown (which would require a lot of practice to perfect in real life), it would've felt more gratifying to know that I could do them because I'd leveled up or something.
Along with the whole hunting and experience-based progression system, the radio towers are also gone. I'd say that actually is an improvement. In past games, my wandering would mostly be in the direction of the nearest radio tower so that I could unlock more of the map. In
Far Cry 5, however, my wandering was able to be more organic with the map being revealed as I went along.
Thankfully, the outpost liberation aspect (easily my favorite part of any Far Cry game) is alive and well, and it was in these sections where I had the most fun. Sure, as always it's easy to just grab a sniper rifle and put a silencer on it, but I always like to challenge myself to be up close and personal in my stealth, with the bow as my way of silencing enemies from a distance. If you've enjoyed stealthing through outposts in previous games, you're going to have a good time here. There's nothing quite like putting together a plan and adapting at the last minute to avoid detection while neck-deep in enemy territory.
A slightly-new-but-not-really addition to gameplay in 5 is the "Guns/Fangs for Hire" system. Essentially, you have a cast of 9 characters who can accompany you in your journey, each of which having a special ability or benefit that they bring to the table. Far Cry has always been a solitary experience for me (and that's the way I like it), and thankfully, it seems that Ubisoft knew that some folks play like I do, so 3 of these characters are animals (all of which you can pet at any time). I have to give Ubisoft credit for that, as it made me feel compelled to use a system that I otherwise would've just ignored the whole time. There's nothing on earth quite like trekking across the Montana countryside with your dog friend and bear friend in tow, not having to listen to another human being comment on everything they see, and getting the benefit of your dog friend pointing out nearby enemies for you and your bear friend killing enemies like there's no tomorrow. It was the dream team: Me, Boomer, and Cheeseburger taking Hope County by storm. An unstoppable whirlwind of friendship. Just a man and his dog and his bear. And no other people. Ever. Because people are what got us into this mess in the first place. Anywho, these guns/fangs for hire aren't available all the time. In every final confrontation you have with a Seed family member, you can't bring your dog friend or your bear friend along. But I guess that makes sense. It would be too easy, then. Joseph Seed would look out the window and say "S***! It's the whirlwind of friendship! They're here to take us by storm!" and he'd turn himself in, and that wouldn't be any fun at all!..........moving on.
You'll notice that while I've been talking about aspects of gameplay, I haven't yet touched on combat. That's because, except for a slight change to the health system, it's exactly the same as it has always been. You can expect the exact same expertly-polished combat you've experienced countless times, but this time you don't have a "snap your finger back in place" restoration system. Healing relies entirely on medkits, so if you're out of medicine, you'll need to take cover and wait for your health to regenerate a-la
Call of Duty. I can't say I enjoyed that new direction, but whatever, it's a small complaint that doesn't really impact much when you have the whirlwind of friendship at your back.
That brings us to the technical stuff. This being a Far Cry game, the production values here are really darn good. Stellar sound design as always, beautiful graphics as always,
really stable framerate for the first time. There's some detail pop-in when you're trying to land an aircraft, but that's about it from a problems standpoint. I never experienced any crashes, soft or hard, and I only saw one glitch in which an airplane was suddenly twitching on the ground. It's also worth noting that the world itself is really well put together from a level design standpoint. Montana is a mountainous state, and the game does a great job of keeping the verticality relatively smooth. This isn't like
Skyrim, where mountains just jut out of the ground. There's always a way up, but this doesn't diminish the sheer size of some of these mountains. In general, there's also a surprising amount of variety in the landscapes that makes Hope County's three regions seem distinct from each other while still feeling like they're a part of the same ecosystem. To put it another way, Hope County is rendered like a realistic Montana county, but it's also rendered in a way that makes for a more than decent sandbox playground. There isn't quite as much
location variety as there has been in previous titles, but that's more a limitation of the setting than the talent of the developers.
Folks, if you've enjoyed Far Cry titles, you'll probably enjoy
Far Cry 5. If you're like me, chances are you're going to find the progression system massively unrewarding, but the combat and the sandbox playground aspect of this game are both as satisfying as always. This is one of Ubisoft's strongest technical offerings, and not only that, but this game sports some of Ubisoft's best story moments and villains (which is saying something, given how many strong villains Ubisoft has created). Looking over this review, I thought for sure that it would end up being longer than it turned out, but in the end, the start of this paragraph is really all there is to say.
Far Cry 5 is objectively a good game, and chances are you'll know if you'll enjoy it from the name alone. If you're new to the series, I'd say this is probably a good place to start. If you're a veteran of the franchise, there's a lot to love even if you're tired of it at this point. As I've hopefully communicated by this point,
Far Cry 5 is far from the best installment in the series, but it's still solid.
Let us review:
-Massively unrewarding progression system - 1.0
-Lots of boring character filler quests - 1.0
The final score for
Far Cry 5 is...
8.0/10 - Good
Decent work, Ubisoft, decent work
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