Is Hope County the perfect destination for Far Cry 5?
I’ve spent the past few weeks playing non-stop Far Cry 5, clearing out outposts, killing cultists silently or going in guns blazing with either a bear, dog, an archer, a redneck firing rockets at anything and a few others. But after the dust has settled, how was my trip to Hope County?
You begin flying in to arrest the cult leader of Eden’s Gate known as The Father, but it goes wrong, and you are separated from your officers and are tasked with bringing down the cult, one region at a time. The Father’s family members run the other regions and you need to take over outposts, complete missions and just blow things up to get their attention, which ends up with you taking them head on. Though it’s never as simple as you would expect. Things can get pretty trippy…
The story is superb and gripping throughout, the Seed family are definitely the best bunch of crazies such Vaas from Far Cry 3. You may be overwhelmed by the size of the game when you first look at the map of FC5, which is the best map I’ve seen in a game. Luckily you can fast travel anywhere you’ve already been and after upgrades, you can even air drop there and glide with a wingsuit to wherever you want to go.
Missions vary from rescuing civilians, blowing up cult resources, collecting items and then you get random ones like gathering bull testicles for the Hope County Testical Festival or luring drugged enemies to a studio for a shootout based on Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon. You can also go hunting and fishing, which will net you plenty of cash for weapons, vehicles and ammo. The great thing about Far Cry 5 is that you will play it differently from someone else and finding the right weapon for you is not easy, but superb when you finally find it.
The main game took me a while, though I did spend a lot on side-quests of which there are a considerable amount and the fishing/hunting took some time too. You do get plenty of bang for your buck though and the Season Pass looks like a worthwhile investment of riches coming. Besides that, you also get to play the game co-operatively as well as play the Far Cry Arcade Mode…
Far Cry Arcade lets you play or design single player/co-op/multiplayer levels using assets from the game. It’s a bit rough around the edges, but it is fun nonetheless and gives you the tools to make your own Far Cry maps.
Visually, Far Cry 5 looks stunning in 4K HDR on Xbox One X. The character models are highly detailed, as is Hope County and I rarely saw a drop-in framerate. It’s definitely the best looking FPS I’ve come across so far and I rarely came across glitches, though I think I’m lucky having seen some quite funny ones online.
The Verdict
Far Cry 5 is the best in the series since Far Cry 3 and easily the best open world FPS out there. The game is a blast from start to finish and the Season Pass looks to be adding even more quality content to what is a superb game. Roll on the DLC!