Far Cry 5 Should Be Dumber

So I've Finally Played Far Cry 5…

I'm not sure if I'm going to play more of it.

In just four hours of playtime, I feel like I've gone through a positive first encounter which then Time Travelled into a bitter divorce relationship with this game. Witnessing the game's opening and thinking "Man, this music is really good," quickly evolved into "Oh good lord, shut up and give me the quest already!"

Not to suggest my only issue with this game is the narrative, I'm not enjoying it so far, and will likely write something about how it might just have the biggest example of an inappropriately silent protagonist in years, but my main point of contention with this game today is the burning core of why I believe this game not only wasn't a step forward for the franchise, but was in-fact, a step backward.

Generally, the debate surrounding Far Cry is which is better, Far Cry 2 or Far Cry 3, and virtually anybody remotely dissatisfied with the direction of modern games will speak in favor of Far Cry 2.

I've always said I want to prefer Far Cry 2…

But I can't.

Not while I'm actually playing it.

The ceaseless driving, one-note missions, tedious objectives, horrendous voice-acting, all start to take a toll on me within probably the same amount of time as… Far Cry 5 come to think of it.

The reason I find Far Cry 3 to be a more enjoyable game is because it's got an excellent flow with its Ubibox formula. The gaps between charging into an outpost, driving along the roads, and capturing towers, was a simple but effective chain that was fun to engage in, whether in minutes or hours.

What Far Cry 3 sacrificed however was its predecessors commitments to immersion.

Gone were the long travelling distances, in-universe map and compass, low resource management, weapon jamming, buddy system, or vast fires. I wouldn't label Far Cry 2 as an immersive sim like the original Deus Ex, but it was definitely devoted to immersion whether you were in a gunfight, or going to rest.

Far Cry 3 brought it back to being a game.

A really fun game, one of the best of its generation, but a game about nailing high-scores in ridiculous challenge levels, using a wingsuit five feet above the ground, and stabbing somebody with enough armor plating to waddle like an Elephant.

Far Cry 5 is much the same way.

It's got zombies in American Small Towns, Semi Trucks with duel-mounted infinite ammo machine guns, and Bears for pets. Yet, simultaneously, it adds so many things which on paper are meant to help immerse players in this world.

Outposts aren't labeled on your map, you have to talk to people in the world to get intel on them first. The buddy system is back, with a variety of characters to select who are always at your side during battles, assisting via their unique traits. You've got to rescue people from this religious cult, and recruit them, with the option to also have them fight alongside in battle.

That all sounds amazing in concept…

But this isn't a sequel to Far Cry 2.

It's a sequel to Far Cry 3.

So by "talk to people in the world to get intel" on Outposts, it means literally trigger one prompt from a random NPC when an icon appears over their head to get the location.

The buddy system is identical to any other AI teammate in a video-game. The main character I used, Grace, had the same abilities and behavior as Quiet from MGS5.

And recruiting people isn't reflected in the sandbox gameplay, it's just a meter that's filled up to trigger the next major story mission.

I really, really, don't mind the lack of gameplay immersion here. I'd love more games to strive for the goals of Far Cry 2, but I understand that it's not in the business interest of Ubisoft to spend millions and millions of dollars for a hyper niche sub-genre of games talked about 20 years after they barely sold, and are mostly known via Youtube essays that people watched without ever playing the original games, and are never going to.

I don't want a radical industry game changing product.

Just give me an open map with some guns that are fun to shoot and locations that are fun to blow up. Yet Far Cry 5 repeatedly impedes that, in the name of mechanics which neither improve the game's flow, nor immerse me in its world.

Why are you giving me tactical options in a game where you crouch walk at 60mph, carry 10+ explosives, and hip-fire M60s, with enemies whose only counter are laser-beam turret gunners and bullet-sponge cultists?

It's obvious to me that modern Far Cry doesn't care about making an immersive open-ended tactical shooter, yet it insists on making a show of caring…

Personally, I think there's a reason Far Cry Blood Dragon is still talked about.