This week Ubisoft hosted a gameplay event near their headquarters in San Francisco to show off progress on their newest Far Cry game; Far Cry 5. Due out in March of 2018, Far Cry 5’s locale is perhaps it’s least exotic yet, but the series’ most beautiful.
Taking place in the fictional Hope County in the non-fictional state of Montana, Far Cry 5’s story revolves around a fanatical religious cult, Eden’s Gate. Their doomsday rhetoric and violent tactics overrun the rural and remote Hope County community. With little contact with the outside world, it’s up to you as a sheriff’s deputy to restore Hope County’s lifestyle to before the existence of Eden’s Gate.
I had a couple of hours of single player and co-op to explore the expansive world. The developers gave us access to a huge portion of the map and I by no means had enough time to explore all of it. I tried my best to dip my toes in as many features of the game as possible in the two hours I had. Here are five things that I loved in Far Cry 5.
The World
The most obvious and perhaps least surprising aspect I was most impressed with was the gameplay environment. There is something intangible about the world in the newest Far Cry — it’s the franchise’s most authentic yet.
This could also very well be a biased opinion. While I’ve never visited Montana, I am an American and have visited similar settings in my life. However, the developers clearly spent a lot of time mapping portions of real-world Montana so it could be seamlessly integrated into the game.
While this statement might come off as ridiculous, I immediately felt like I was exploring a real place while playing Far Cry 5.
No Towers
The developers explained that there are still some “towers” to unlock regions — but most exploration opportunities and knowledge is gained through socializing with NPCs. If you’ve never played a Far Cry game, towers were essentially checkpoints in the open world that acted like prerequisites for exploring a new region. It became a tedious and repetitive feature.
It’s a great change to further immerse the player in the game’s setting. Like previous iterations of Far Cry, being the protagonist entails speaking and acting on behalf of the community. Having a deeper connection with the game’s story and it’s characters is essential in a series like Far Cry. This subtle change has shown fans that they’re being heard and given the franchise a much needed respite from a tired feature.
Animals are Wild
I actually had quite a few jump scares during my short time with the game. “Damn nature u scary” is probably the best way to summarize my encounters with wildlife in Far Cry 5. Bears are fast, always pissed, and surprisingly stealthy. It also doesn’t help the fact that Eden’s Gate has been drugging some of the local wildlife and making them extra angry.
During my co-op playthrough, my partner and I had to explore an underground sewage system that bridged a pond with a larger lake. As we entered, a very upset badger was there to greet my buddy and sadly had to be put down. It was a bittersweet moment that resulted in us trespassing on a badger’s home and having a good laugh about it.
Even visiting some farms proved to be an eventful experience. A dog trying to corral a wayward bull caught my attention. I tried to intervene and help out — but I got the horns and was gored. Interaction with wildlife in Far Cry 5 seems to be a lot more unforgiving than I previously remember, and I love it!
You can pet dogs, too. There are a lot of doggos to pet.
Fully Co-op
Expanding on the Far Cry 4 feature of allowing friends to team up on certain campaign missions, Far Cry 5 boasts the ability for friends to play the entire campaign together.
It’s a pretty neat feature that can offer BFF’s the ability to experience a robust open world game together. I often find myself talking to my good friends on Steam about what game we should play together. Not everyone is fit for the competitive gaming landscape and sometimes you just wanna have a fun, intimate gaming experience with your mates.
From my brief time with the co-op in Far Cry 5, I liked what I experienced. It was simple, intuitive, and just plain fun to explore, loot, and shoot up Hope County together.
Weapons Galore
Far Cry 5 has the most robust weapon customization to date. Tricking out your assault rifles, shotguns, and other pieces of your arsenal will cost you, but it’s so worth it. The best part is that it didn’t take that much time to gather the appropriate funds to start making your weapons unique.
Besides upgrading your guns, the customizable loadout returns with more options. The prospect of crafting the perfect loadout with my favorite weapons and their attachments is salivating.
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Fans of the franchise should expect the newest Far Cry to possess all the necessary components to make this the best Far Cry ever. However, if you were looking forward to the series making some serious changes, you may be disappointed. It still possess many features from its predecessors, such as outposts, guns for hire, and endless amounts of missions.
You can expect to be playing Far Cry 5 on March 27 of 2018.
