It took me a while to decide how I felt about Far Cry 5. I can’t tell you how many times I flipped back and forth on scores and talking points during my time with it, but what I can tell you is that, moment to moment, it’s a fun game. It really is. But it’s also a game that Ubisoft didn’t seem to trust to stand on its own feet.
You can tell that some very talented people worked on Hope County, and they nearly broke through the barrier from “very good” to “great”. What really holds the game back, though, seems to stem from an unwillingness to run risks on a big-budget project. The same things that make Far Cry 5 so grand in both scope and detail also serve as its anchor, making sure it never strays too far from the path.
Over the last few years of covering games for Co-optimus, I’ve learned that one of the key differences between a solid experience and a bar-raising landmark only fully reveals itself after the credits roll. It comes when you’re talking with a friend over drinks and, when the game comes up, the two of you spend half an hour recounting shared memories. It comes when you’re sitting at the bus stop and, apropos of nothing, you’re reminded of a vista, puzzle, or boss battle. One of Far Cry 5’s attempts at delivering such an experience is a mechanic Ubisoft calls “The Anecdote Factory”. In theory, this means that the game is generating unique scenarios that result in pure, chaotic sandbox goodness. My experience, however, was more akin to drowning in a never-ending sea of armed cultists. It turns out that Far Cry 5 interpreted “factory” a bit too literally. More often than not, the anecdotes are, “I killed so many cultists at once that even I started to feel bad for Eden’s Gate”.
This in and of itself isn’t a horrendous offense, but it can quickly delve into frustration once the cult gains any real awareness of your existence. In standard sandbox game fashion, a number of passable-to-enjoyable side objectives can be happened upon as you explore the countryside, but at higher levels of “Resistance” (Far Cry 5’s abstraction of your regional notoriety), I often found myself harassed out of doing them for any significant period of time by the cult’s foot soldiers or air force. On the surface, this constant flow of threats aligns with Ubisoft’s hope for the aforementioned wackiness, but the more I encountered it, the more I realized that the game never quite seems comfortable with giving you a moment to yourself. Instead of allowing the world to breathe and gradually immerse you, the developers overload you with limitless, shallow interactions, as though in fear of a hint of boredom.
It’s a shame, because Hope County is absolutely gorgeous. Were you granted a meaningful amount of peace and quiet, you could really come to appreciate the amount of detail that’s gone into every nook and cranny of the environment. The land itself genuinely feels like a once-peaceful region, with the stark contrast between serene countryside and retrofitted barracks serving as a constant reminder of the cult's occupation. One solid point in the game’s favor is its take on revealing objectives. Whereas previous Ubisoft sandbox titles have employed the notorious tower-climbing sequence (or something similar) to reveal a region’s side content, Far Cry 5 takes a far more organic approach. As you wander, you’ll come across civilians, resistance members, and various signposts that will each reveal an individual marker on your map. It’s a very clever mechanic that legitimately serves to immerse you into the world and gives you another reason to not simply Fast Travel from mission to mission. Through aesthetics and organic interaction, the environment tells its own story, and it’s often leagues better than the story that the game actually wants you to remember.
Do I think it’s realistic to expect a nuanced, poignant tale on the current state of the world from the same company that holds the Tom Clancy license? Of course not, but I also think it’s completely fair to be critical when it doesn’t even come close. Moreover, the tale being told is nauseatingly bland and tone-deaf, but doesn’t seem to know it. A number of times, the game drags you out of the action to beat you over the head with a cutscene. It’s frustrating when you’re inexplicably given a front and center seat to the main villain's ethereal monologues. It’s straight up infuriating when the game decides it wants to show you another cutscene, then literally comes through and plucks you from the world, regardless of whether or not you were in the middle of actually enjoying it. Far Cry 5's confidence that you’re just dying to see the next explanation of “why being in a militant death cult is actually kind of understandable, when you think about it” is the worst kind of immersion-breaking. Even if the story wasn’t quite as difficult to ingest, it’s constantly being undermined by the actual gameplay and cast of minor characters. I found it difficult to invest myself into a minor villain’s morality tale of cannibalism and desperation when, just minutes ago, I was torching dozens of nameless cultists while a well-meaning redneck fired a rocket launcher at a bear.
Speaking of - the minute to minute gameplay feels substantially better than earlier entries in the series, at least for me. Controls are tight, gunplay is deadly, and for the most part, the vehicles serve their purpose well. The Skill Tree comes across as a disjointed compromise of ideas, but doesn’t get in the way of enjoyment. In fact, it felt entirely possible to get through the vast majority of the game without giving that particular submenu a second glance.
One mechanic I found quite a bit of joy in was the Guns for Hire, at times despite itself. As someone who usually takes a stealthy approach to combat when it’s offered, I found that whenever I tried to sneak my way through an encounter, the AI either physically got in my way, unwittingly called attention to themselves, or just flat out ignored orders. This became especially frustrating when clearing outposts, as a single mistake could quickly snowball into an alarm being set off, triggering endless waves of reinforcements. However, even when it would’ve been advantageous for me to simply dismiss my digital companions, I found myself keeping them around. Listening to the random or named characters as they conversed provided a much-needed feeling of companionship and felt crucial in keeping me immersed when the game’s edges would’ve otherwise begun to slip away. I suspect this will be a common feeling among cooperatively-minded players.
As we all know, though, even the best AI partner pales in comparison to having an actual human inhabit Hope County alongside you. Luckily, this is where many of Far Cry 5’s issues begin to fade. Exploring the landscape with your partner of choice lends itself to ignoring whatever nonsense the story tosses at you, and while the alleged “Anecdote Factory” doesn’t necessarily adjust itself for the better, the situations you find yourself in typically feel more memorable when shared with someone else. The game’s co-op restrictions are also a marked improvement on its predecessor, which effectively allowed you to do little more than futz around in the world until you got bored.
Unfortunately, there’s a minor catch. While Far Cry 5 does allow two player online co-op for the entire game, story progress is only kept for the host. It’s understandable, given the developer’s desire to provide a unique progression for each player, not to mention what I assume would be a nightmarish amount of work reconciling co-op and single player save data, but it’s a tad disappointing nonetheless. In the end, it feels more akin to something like the Souls franchise, wherein full co-op playthroughs are generally rare, and allies are called in more often to assist with tough areas or bosses. That’s certainly not to say the game doesn't allow for a full co-op playthrough, but it would require one of the two players to accept a nearly complete lack of progress on their personal save, which I could see being a bridge too far.
So, do I think the game’s worth a purchase? Yes, but only as long as you know what you’re getting into. In spite of its flaws, Far Cry 5 is mostly a goofy, good time, and it even manages to cement a bit of progress into the design of sandbox games. It’s also simply beautiful in parts, and I could honestly recommend playing it for no other purpose than a chance to exist in that world for a few moments. Among other things, Ubisoft’s frustrating attempt at engagement and disappointing story prevent the game from reaching greatness, but you probably already know to what degree those items will bother you. If you’re full-up on games right now and only a modern classic will move the needle, maybe wait on a sale (it is almost summer), but if you’re looking for a good way to spend a few dozen hours goofing around with a friend, it’s tough to argue against Hope County and its unwelcome inhabitants.