“Unlike the chosen one sent before, God will never let you take me.“Words from the crazy cult leader Joseph Seed, your main target in Far Cry 5. Seed is unlike anyone you’ve faced before, he shows no mercy and believes he’s the new prophet of this newly established world. His word is law and the members of his cult act as judge, jury, and executioner. You’re not ready for this, you’ll never be ready for this but if you want to survive, you’ll better adapt and survive; step by step, bullet by bullet.
The Seed of evil
Joseph Seed is the main antagonist in Far Cry 5. If you’ve played other Far Cry games before, you already know the bad guys can act pretty crazy. It all started in Far Cry 3 with Vaas and now we’re stuck with Joseph Seed in Far Cry 5. If you thought the other ones were crazy, you’re in for a surprise. Joseph Seed is without a doubt the evilest and craziest person we’ve ever encountered in the Far Cry universe. He’s the leader of a cult and together with his two brothers and sister, he holds Hope County in a firm grip of twisted power. Joseph believes he’s the chosen one and nothing will stop him to end his Holy war. The best thing about him is the fact that he still remains human. The more you play, the more you’ll learn about Joseph and his past, it’s never an excuse for his actions but it’s interesting to see some kind of character development in a person so evil. Joseph Seed creates an unsettling atmosphere in Far Cry 5 since his cult is everywhere. Everywhere you’ll walk, you’ll see improvised shrines, frames of Joseph Seed, logos of the cult and people willing to kill you.
You, a rookie deputy tried to arrest Joseph Seed at the start of the game and now you’re forced to survive. Survive and start a revolution. Be brave and take everything you can get to stop this bloody war once and for all.
Freedom is power
The game shows no mercy straight from the start. If you were expecting to roll into the action casually, you’re making a mistake. Straight from the start, you’re forced to survive and it couldn’t be a better introduction to the actual game. Far Cry 5 is all about survival, whatever way suits you best. Your main goal is to take down the Seed family by liberating Hope County step by step. No need to worry, you don’t need to conquer high towers in order to do so. Far Cry 5 changes the formula and gives you the freedom to tackle the problems the way you want to. In order to liberate the poor County, you can destroy the cult’s property, liberate certain outposts, track down and save hostages or clear plenty missions. I really liked this amount of freedom and generally speaking, everything feels way more natural. During your quest, you’ll easily come across with different challenges, without actually looking for them.
Far Cry 5 obviously takes a different approach and follow the path of Assassin’s Creed: Origins. Instead of a small map, you’ll have a compass-bar on the top of your screen and some icons showing you the way towards main missions. Of course, you can easily open the map in the menu but everything is created to give you more freedom. Less information on the screen also means a better immersion in the world. Besides that, not everything is marked on your main map. Small events like hostages or outposts aren’t marked and can only be discovered if you find them during one of your many strolls in the gorgeous world. Thanks to this, you finally get the right amount of freedom to finish the game. Since you’re entirely free to go wherever you want and take down the enemies the way you like most (stealth or action), Far Cry 5 will truly become your own personal journey.
You’re not alone
Since facing a powerful enemy like Joseph Seed on your own is impossible, you’ll get a lot of help during your adventure. During the story, you’re able to recruit a lot of people to aid your cause. This is called ‘Guns for Hire’ and those people will really help you out in combat. The AI of your companions is strong and you can even point out where they need to go or which enemy they’ll need to attack. It’s great to see this system being implemented to this level of accuracy. To make things even more fun, not all of your companions are human. Working together with these characters is a lot of fun, especially when you manage to recruit ‘legendary’ characters whose skills in combat can really mean a different outcome. Not a fan of playing with computer-controlled characters? No need to worry, Far Cry 5 is playable in co-op, entirely.
That’s right! At any given moment you can invite one of your friends over to enjoy the crazy story together. It’s amazing how this drop in/drop out works. Without any lag, another player can join your adventure and just like the singleplayer, you’re free to go wherever you want. Messing around in this great open world together with a friend offers a crazy amount of fun. Start a race on quads, go hunt some animals or tackle some of the missions together, it’s all possible. Especially during the missions, it’s a great plus to have another human player by your side. You can easily discuss your strategies over the microphone in order to tackle the missions exactly the way you want to. Having a fluent co-op experience like this is without a doubt a big plus for the game and really elevates the overall experience to new heights.
Want to go to the Arcade with me?
Sounds like a lot of fun until this point? Well, there’s even more. Besides the main story and the tons of activities the game has to offer, you can also go all out in Far Cry Arcade, a mode to test your creativity. Far Cry Arcade consists out of two main modes: creating and playing. If you select create, you get access to a map editor where you can create your own map for others to discover. The goal of your self-made game can vary from taking down all the enemies to simply reaching the end of the leveL The amount of assets you’re able to use in this editor is simply amazing and covers more than just Far Cry 5 assets. Combining different assets from different Far Cry games is amazing and opens up for tons of creative maps. During my time with the game, I’ve played a lot of impressive maps created by Ubisoft or the Far Cry 5 community.
Playing these maps is the second main part of Far Cry Arcade and personally, I had a lot of fun doing so. Since I’m not really that creative, I really liked discovering the levels others created. I liked the maps where I had to take down a group of enemies, really testing my combat skills but I also liked the more abstract ‘journey’ ones where I just needed to reach the marked end of the level. Of course, the success of this mode will depend on the creativity of other players but I think we’ll see a lot of impressive new maps in the future. The possibilities of the editor are close to endless so that means the fun of Far Cry 5 will never stop. Also, note that Ubisoft created some new maps so you know you’ll play this game for a very long time to come.
Conclusion:
Far Cry 5 is everything you hoped for and even more. The story is one of the most brutal and interesting ones to date and will keep you hooked to your screen in seconds. The freedom found in the game is unlike anything you’ve seen before and it feels like the team finally figured out how to give the player the right amount of freedom without ever losing the goal out of sight. Combine this with the excellent co-op experience and Far Cry Arcade mode and you know you’re playing a quality product. Don’t hesitate any longer but take down that false prophet as fast as possible!
