Far Cry 5 is a Hot Mess

I’ve been a massive fan of the Far Cry franchise for the better part of a decade. I have fond memories of Far Cry 2 being one of the first things I bought on Steam, plowing through Far Cry 3‘s immersive, fantastic narrative with Jason Vaas. I also remember having an especially-joyful time with the short but sweet spinoff, Far Cry: Blood Dragon. I wasn’t big into Far Cry Primal as I’m more accustomed to guns-blazing gameplay, but respected it for its effort (even if it mirrored 4‘s map).

So, I decided to grab Far Cry 5 from the Ubisoft Store at ~$11. I’d seen footage of a shovel launcher and knew it was home to yet another compelling antagonist in Joseph Seed. I had high hopes for this game to be a blast, as I tend to love rummaging through a large open world and can’t recall the last time I’ve played a game with the setting of Montana, of all places. Unfortunately, after the opening hour, I ran into a cavalcade of issues.

First and foremost, there are way too many enemies spawning at any given point. While they go down with one well-placed headshot, the quantity of the spawn rate is an absolute annoyance for a few reasons. It’s truly a challenge to have a conversation with a friendly NPC that functions from start to finish because enemy trucks will drive by legitimately every 20 to 30 seconds and force the NPC to stop talking and engage. I have to wonder how this didn’t come up during QA, as it’s been an issue with almost every single NPC near a road with more than 10 seconds of dialogue and never fails to break my immersion.

Past that, Far Cry 5‘s Guns for Hire are a test of patience. Your companion truly is a benefit in combat situations, as they pull their weight and hit the majority of their shots. However, they were only given a handful of lines of dialogue, and will spout them every minute or so at random. So, if I wanted to have a conversation with an NPC near a road and I had a Gun for Hire, there’s a miniscule chance I’ll absorb their dialogue. It sucks because these characters are interesting individuals, but I’ve grown to resent them after hearing the same line verbatim for the fifth time. It’s Bubsy levels of absurd.

So, past this, how’s the gameplay? For the most part, pretty good, thankfully. It’s what kept me playing past these issues. It helped that my Ubisoft account was present, as it gave me a Rainbow Six Siege outfit and high-level, tricked-out guns for a nice head start. Unfortunately, if I wanted to upgrade my character, the new system relies on random goals to acquire upgrade points. While most weren’t locked behind progression, I had to put some aside due to their high point requirements, making tracking these points a slog. Overall, Far Cry 5 is a departure from the norm in all the wrong ways, and I hate that I want to keep playing to progress in the great story. I’m going to grin and bear it to squeak out enjoyment in other facets. Buyer beware for this entry!