Far Cry 5 is a solid entry in Ubisoft's open-world FPS series. But a plethora of issues hold it back from greatness. Some technical, some ancient design decisions. It also doesn't help that it overstays its welcome by a fair bit.
The Good:
- USA setting is a breath of fresh air for the series
- Villains are interesting
- Campaign is a great ride
- World feels dynamic; Random NPCs give out useful location infos
- Surprise and interesting ending
- A lot of things to see and do in the world
- Buddy System is greatly improved and adds a great extra layer
The Bad:
- Technically the game feels dated while still looking good
- Underlying design feels ancient due to it basically still being Far Cry 3
- Too much repetition in mission design and side tasks
- A lot of side activities are menial padding
- Open World isn't as well utilized as other games, e.g. RDR2
- Enemies only carry the same small pool of basic guns
- Weapon selection is bland; Too costly for a regular playthrough to experiment
- Map regions are too similar to each other
- While the campaign is fun, anything else feels decisively low budget
- No excursions to other maps is a letdown
In the end, I enjoyed my journey through Hope County and its many eccentric citizens, both good and bad ones. But while the first 20 hours were filled with joy of exploration, it immediately turned into tedium starting with the second region, as you are hit with a repeating template of design choices. Once I realized this, it became a slog to clear non-story missions and the only thing that got me going was the main story and its missions.
Ubisoft absolutely needs to change things up going forward. The Far Cry template set into stone by Far Cry 3 has long grown ancient. That's only ever exaggerated by the many competing open-world games that feel several generations ahead of Far Cry 5. Not sure whether the Dunia game engine is to blame, but while Montana's forests are lush in greenery at first sight and can impress at certain day times, there is no question that it ultimately looks and feels like a late-PS3/Xbox360 era game souped-up to an extreme.
A lack of meaningful dynamic world systems ranging from wildlife, NPCs, physics and more create a surprisingly dull and empty world. Systems feel not integrated or deep enough in this day and age. Don't take me wrong here, Far Cry 5 is still a solid game overall with solid shooting mechanics and a solid presentation. But just like junk food, if you only get the same stuff, it gets a chore to consume.
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