Far Cry 5 is the latest in the Far Cry series. FC5 is a first-person shooter that takes place in Hope County, Montana. This is the first Far Cry game to take place in the good ole’ US of A. You find yourself fighting a crazed cult who believe the end of times is coming. They are well armed, and organized. The player character is called Deputy, or Rook, and is a new Sheriff’s Deputy in Hope County.

Without giving too much away the Deputy and crew find themselves in hot water. The cult takes over the county and blocks the exits in and out. You find yourself as a one-man wrecking crew against the cult armed to the teeth and partnered with everything from a Mountain Lion to a foul-mouthed helicopter pilot.

Story

The setting, characters, and gameplay are interesting. The downside is your character is not. This is the first time the player basically customizes their own character. Your silent protagonist has no history and in a  lot of ways no motivation. There are tons of planes and helicopters and your character can fly both so why not just leave? You get the impression from the townsfolk that they want their county back so you see their motivation. Your character’s only motivation is your motivation as a gamer. Let’s shoot stuff for fun!

The cult’s charismatic leaders and vicious underlings are all interesting. The voice acting is superb, and the main bad guy Jacob Seed feels like an evil man who doesn’t think what he’s doing is evil. That being said he feels a little lackluster compared to the villains from Far Cry 3 and 4.

The Montana setting is gorgeous, and between the hills, mountains, and rivers you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere.

Far Cry 5 Gameplay

Like any first-person shooter you run around, use cover, and try not to get shot. The gunplay is fun and you can choose to go balls to walls combat, wielding an M60 and some grenades, or silent and stealthy with a compound bow and MP5SD. Far Cry 5 rarely tells you how you have to approach a mission, although stealth often offers the most rewards.

The vehicular combat is a lot of fun. There is something satisfying about chasing down an enemy vehicle, pulling along beside him, and giving him a load of buckshot from a sawn-off double barrel. There is the same degree of satisfaction of snapping necks silently to clear an entire area.

You have a bevy of different vehicles to use, including planes, helicopters, cars, ATVs, and even Semis in Far Cry 5. You can also go it on foot, and make heavy use of a wingsuit. There is almost always something going on on the map. From random encounters with baddies to vicious animals. I found the fishing and hunting aspects to be entertaining and challenging. Especially trying to use something like a compound bow to take a grizzly bear.

The biggest flaw is that none of the missions feel really different from the overall gameplay. There are a few standouts, especially the plot based missions, but other than that it’s a lot of the same. Explore an area, kill some cultists, and retrieve something. The gunplay does help keep it exciting and the ability to approach missions differently does add some variety though.

I never felt bored playing the game, but I also never hit a “Holy crap” moment.

The Guns

Like any video game, there is a lot of factual errors with the firearms involved. The biggest being ammunition is broken up between classes of guns. So your 308 Win M14 fires the same ammo as your AR-C AR/AACR hybrid. Other flaws include the AK 47 being more powerful than the M14. These are the things you come to expect from video games.

Handling the Guns in Far Cry 5

Outside of the big glaring flaws, the gun gameplay in Far Cry 5 is great. You can use the iron sights, or upgrade to numerous magnified and non-magnified optics on most guns. You also have a degree of firing modes you can switch between. Going from full auto to semi is a nice touch I always appreciate.

Handling the weapons is also a ton of fun, mixed with a little realism. My favorite sidearm is the double barrel sawn off shotgun. If I fire only a single barrel and reload, the reloading animation only reloads the one barrel. With the M14 models, your character rocks the mag into place. The AK reload is the fancy speed reload where the player character uses a fresh magazine to hit the mag release and do away with the old mag.

Recoil and muzzle rise are handled well. Some guns have more than others. For example, the Tec 9 stand-in is much harder to control than the AR 15 stand in. Accurately shooting the 44 Magnum is much harder than shooting the SIG P226 or 1911.

 

The Little Things

 

The guns in Far Cry 5 can be upgraded and some guns have more than others. You can choose between optics, extended magazines, and suppressors. The guns themselves features some interesting design choices. For example, while it’s never mentioned the main assault rifle in the game sports a Daniel Defense MFR rail, and what looks like a Radian Arms Raptor charging handle.

Little things like this please me greatly. I like seeing the little details that are added to Far Cry 5 gun wise. It does show the folks making these games try to go for a degree of realism in their design.

Choose your Weapon

The gun selection in far cry 5 is a little bit of a disappointment. When compared to games like Ghost Recon Wildlands the gun selection is small. There is even some padding in gun selection. You’ll have two models of what’s basically the same gun with some minor external changes. For example, the M14 has two variants. A standard wood stock rifle and the shorter polymer stock Trooper model. They are the same gun with the same stats and they just look a little different.

 

This is the first Far Cry to take place in the United States so it’s nice to see a healthy dose of ‘Americana’ style weapons. The game takes place in Montana and there is a healthy sum of ‘Western’ style weapons including several S&W 29 models of different sizes, two double barrel shotguns, and a Marlin 45-70.

Outside of that, you have some standard machine guns, Submachine guns, sniper rifles, and much more. Guns like the AKM and SPAS-12, of course, make an appearance. On the flip side so does the MP40 and what appears to be the Gepard GM6 Lynx. There is a good mix of different guns and it was a highlight to unlock a multitude of them.

There are also lots of prestige guns that feature unique paint schemes that follow a theme. Some of them are cool. I mean who doesn’t want an American Flag P226 or a P-40 painted M-79. Some are cool, but most are cheesy and gawdy and never made me want to actually purchase them.

 

Here Comes 5.11

Like ghost Recon Wildlands you will see and can wear, a variety of products from 5.11. This includes the Sidewinder shirt, the Station Grip gloves, the Defender jeans and more. Some NPCs are rocking the All Hazards Nitro bag. This is part of the continued partnership between Ubisoft and 5.11. From my perspective, this is a pretty cool little add-on. 5.11 was even nice to send me the outfit my character wears in Far Cry 5. So look out for reviews coming soon of the Sidewinder shirt, the Station Grip Gloves, and the Defender Flex Straight jeans.

 

Buy it?

If you are a fan of the Far Cry series I’d jump on it. It has some flaws but is ultimately a fun game that changes the Far Cry formula around a little. If you want a super realistic FPS this isn;t it. It’s a game that lets you patch bullet wounds with First Aid kits so realism take s back seat to entertainment. As a gun guy, I loved the gunplay and was impressed by the little details in how the guns functioned and some of the accessories they wore. Plus this is the only modern FPS I know that lets me take on assault rifle-wielding crazies with a Bow, Lever action 45-70, a 44 Magnum, and a Double barrel shotgun. There is certainly something to be said for that.