Since its inception back in 2004 Far Cry has been a series about surviving the wild, saving people and blowing everything up as you do. Far Cry 5 takes a different approach and drops you firmly in modern day Montana ready to take on a cult, set the town free… and blow everything up as you do.
While the change in locale may not seem like anything major, it does showcase a shift in the development of the Far Cry games. Moving away from the ruggedly beautiful and yet hauntingly lonely locations of the Rook Islands or Kyrat and placing you in a much more recognisable landscape of Hope County, Montana. It may still be a fictional location but the level of detail and similarities to the “land of the Shining Mountains” more than grounds in it reality. It’s a bold move and its one that comes with a massive drawback. As much as the game looks and acts like a real town in the real world, you’re still solving every problem that comes your way by blasting it to absolute kingdom come.
Of course this isn’t a problem experienced just by Far Cry 5 but by all video games heading in the “open world” direction. With an unlimited playground of fun and action the question has to be asked: how do you keep the story relevant?
Far Cry 5 isn’t the game to answer this question, as you command airstrikes to carpet bomb the rural town, or send a bear to attack as you’re consecutively hammer bad guys with a near endless amount of shovels, but it is one that you can have more fun with than many open world games in recent memory. The graphics and power of the game in that respect definitely do help bringing a level of realism that’s hard to match, allowing you to see the whole virtual world as you would in real life. Jump into a plane and fly into the sky and you’ll be greeted to a rolling vista that showcases every landscape that’s in the game to a startling degree.
Gameplay as well is fantastic being the tried the true high octane thrill ride that the series has been known for since the third instalment and in many ways it plays just like Far Cry 3, only this time there are no towers to ascend. Most of the gameplay revolves around you turning everything red, whether that be by storming outposts, sneaking into bases or throwing a baseball bat at someone because they looked at you wrong. There is of course a whole host of other activities to take part in (most importantly fishing) if the sight of blood is a little bit too much for you.
The most important change to gameplay this time around though is the introduction of friendly allies you can have by your side to help boost your powers of persuasion. I won’t ruin anything if you haven’t played the game yet, but there’s some pretty BIG allies you can add to your team that make for some terrifyingly hilarious results. The other great thing about the allies system is that it doesn’t have to be a computer helping you as you can have a real flesh and blood friend help you in the game via the powers of the internet and like most games the amount of fun skyrockets when you do.
So for me if you’re a fan of the Far Cry series, open world games, or just larking about with a friend, then Far Cry 5 is something you should give a go.
Author: Hal, Plymouth store
