Far Cry 5 video game review (Plus Meteorette: Far Cry 5 and the Rejection of Absurdity)

Here's what you need to know; trouble's brewing in the quiet little community of Hope County, Montana, where a religious cult has taken up arms and begun enforcing its oppressive theocracy on the people. However, the extent of the damage isn't fully understood until a lone deputy, the sole escapee of an arrest gone horribly wrong, becomes Hope County's only chance of bringing down Joseph Seed and his army of cultists, and restoring American freedom to the people.
So how long has it been, I don't know, when did Gears of War 4 come out? I haven't done a game review in a long while, instead focusing pretty much entirely on Movies and identity politics, but the other night I completed Far Cry 5, the latest instalment in my all-time favourite open world game series, and it's been a while since a game has sunk its hooks into me like this one has, since I spent all of my Easter weekend playing it. Right there, I guess you know my thoughts on the game, but if you want detail, and gushing, and politics, do please read on, if not, do yourself a favour and buy Far Cry 5, just telling you now.

Far Cry 5 video game review

Far Cry 5, like literally every other Far Cry game, is a narrative and setting departure from the previous game; ditching the tropical islands and Himalayan peaks of Far Cry 3 and 4 and setting its vehicle of emergent madness in the vast hills and farmlands of Montana. What I was wrong to expect was that this setting would be less interesting and fun to explore, instead this is easily the most well realised and visually appealing world Far Cry has offered to date. Hope County, like Kyrat from Far Cry 4, is a mountainous, sprawling landscape of forests, rivers and small pockets of civilisation, forests that were, like the jungles of previous games, a complete pleasure to explore, hunt and fight in. also like those previous games, this world is alive; civilians are a common encounter in the game, usually driving on the roads or hiking through the hills, enemy patrols are an even more common encounter, and the world is further populated by a diverse and expansive ecosystem; you'll often run into deer, moose, bears and cougars on your quests. Like all Far Cry games, in fact like all open world Ubisoft games, the world is also filled with filler content; with side quests and mini games covering every square inch of the map, and some of them, mainly the stunt races and fishing, I literally never touched, so I can't comment on them, but they're there. Changes that this game makes to the formula of the series include doomsday bunkers which litter the map and are always loaded with loot should you figure out how to get into them, which isn't very hard. Bunkers, outposts and the specialists have effectively replaced the samey, repetitive side missions of before, and Far Cry 5 does a better job of making you want to find and do these side missions, with the overhauled perk system and the new Resistance levelling system, which I'll get to later. Far Cry 5's world is also absolutely stunning, with amazing water, lighting and foliage effects, not to mention the weapon models, elemental effects and sound design, which are top notch, so in the presentation department, it's Far Cry as usual; a massive, stunning, and dynamic open world that's full of shit to do and sights to see.

The biggest change Far Cry 5 makes from previous games is its complete abandonment of pseudo linearity; 3 and 4 let you do things the way you wanted, but there was always a linear series of story missions to keep the game moving and keep the perks and unlocks coming. In Far Cry 5, that linear series of story missions is completely gone, replaced by the resistance levelling system. Now, every task you complete in the game grants you resistance points, with story missions giving you the most points, and blowing the right shit up giving you the least points. Basically, how this system works is you do things to piss the Seeds off, with the resistance meter being how pissed off they are, and once you've pissed them off enough, they'll send a capture party after you and trigger a cutscene to progress the game's story. This system sounds strange on paper, and it is in practice, but I found myself liking the freedom it offers, as it gives you a reason to do whatever you want, whenever and however you want. This sense of freedom makes the game a blast to play, as Far Cry games are at their best when you're let off the chain and allowed to go crazy, but here, you're never on the chain to begin with, it's great. The sacrifice this system comes with however is a big one, and that's characters and story. Far Cry has recently become defined by its villains, and 5 is no different in that regard, but protagonists have always been a weak point for the series, and 5 is probably the worst offender of this. Far Cry 5's deputy has no character at all; no name, no face, no voice, they exist purely as a vessel for the player, in contrast to Jason and Ajay, which, while weak, still had some form of character growth throughout their games. This may be an extension of the freedom the game extends to the player, even allowing them to pick the gender, but that complete absence of character is felt in the game's supporting characters, which are hard to become attached to thanks to this game's relaxed approach to storytelling, so in the scripted sequences when horrible things are happening to them, it's difficult to give much of a shit. The game's companions are a slight exception to this rule, who are likable for the most part, it's also easier to become attached to them simply since you spend a good amount of time with them during the game.

Far Cry 5's abandonment of linearity leaves the story in a tight spot, as with no linear path to follow, major plot beats are delivered episodically, which is an interesting way to tell a story for sure, but it does make things a little predictable; every confrontation follows a similar pattern, you earn enough resistance points to trigger a scripted scene, the Seed sibling you're trying to kill spouts exposition for a few minutes, usually culminating in a brief encounter with the man himself, Joseph, there's an escape sequence, then you repeat a few times until you reach the boss fight, where you kill them and move on to the next sibling. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as again, the resistance system really means you can do whatever you want and still reach the endgame, but this style of storytelling is much less involved than Far Cry 3 and 4, 3 in particular, which I feel has the strongest story in the series. What is here is interesting enough; the Cult is interesting in a sort of sickening, barbarous way, though a fanatical, militarised cult torturing and enslaving people on American soil and the US army not going in and Freedoming the shit out of them is really stretching the boundaries of believability. The game, like 3 and 4, comes to be defined by its villains, the Seed family, Joseph and his generals; Jacob, John and Faith. The game makes numerous attempts to flesh out these villains, giving them reasons that they are the way they are, but that doesn't really change much, and none of them are as fascinating as Vaas or as likable as Pagan Min, with the exception of Joseph, though they do have a monopoly on intimidation, as each have their own special way of physically and psychologically mutilating their victims. The scenes where they capture and talk to the deputy are all suitably creepy, with the notable exception of Joseph Seed, the main antagonist, who is creepy for sure, and out of his mind for sure, but what's striking about him is his sincerity. Joseph may be insane like his siblings, but at no point in the game is he dishonest or violent to the player, like Pagan Min in Far Cry 4, his intentions aren't so blatantly villainous, though his actions are indisputably so. The game's villains also embody the game's deeper themes excellently, themes of faith, suffering, and the condition of the human soul, deeper themes delivered with excellent subtlety that give the game a more complex, more emotional undertone that's fantastic to see unfold. And the game's three endings each cast Joseph not as an insane monster, but simply as a man committed to his faith and capable of great forgiveness, it's strange, but I like it, it's why he's so memorable, and why he belongs within the ranks of the great Far Cry villains. About those endings; like 4, this one has a secret ending at the beginning that's technically the good ending, since the other endings are always dark and bleak in some way, but 5 takes that bleakness to new heights with a pair of endings that are positively haunting, and Far Cry 5 is very good at foreshadowing, making both endings satisfying in their own, soul destroying ways, it was in fact the 'resist' ending that motivated me to write a review of the game, because that shit is sticking with me.

Something I've always adored about Far Cry is the gameplay, I've always enjoyed exploring their open worlds, killing bad guys from the shadows with bows and knives, pimping out my guns, and occasionally going completely insane with C4 and rocket launchers, and for the most part, Far Cry 5 is more of the same, but is does make a few decently sized changes. As previously mentioned, the game completely overhauls its approach to storytelling, but Far Cry 5 also overhauls its perk system; in past Far Cry games you would earn XP from killing enemies and completing missions, and that XP would earn you perk points to spend on levelling your character up, usually by unlocking new ways to kill. But in Far Cry 5 you earn perk points by completing challenges, stuff like get X kills with a certain weapon or hunt X of a certain animal, there are dozens of these challenges, and none of them are very demanding, so getting perk points is still pretty easy. Hunting is still in the game, and you still collect animal skins, but the crafting system has been repurposed for crafting throwables like molotovs and dynamite, with upgrades like carrying more guns or ammo now integrated into the perk system, making animal hunting now just a quick way of levelling up and getting cash, while the ingredients needed for crafting throwables are ridiculously easy to find, which disappointed me at first, but I adapted. Exploration and combat still functions the same mostly, though climbing radio towers to unlock new areas in the map menu is gone, stealth still functions the same, with hiding in bushes making you magically invisible, and a white detection bar indicating your visibility that, when completely filled, instantly lets every enemy within a mile of you know where you are. This time though getting spotted is less of a death sentence, and flanking is actually possible since the AI doesn't magically know what direction you ran in like they somehow did in Far Cry 3 and 4, but avoiding detection and going in stealthily is still fun, and going loud is both easier to get away with and more fun to do. Another big change is the specialists, which function similar to the beasts in Far Cry Primal, letting you take a companion into battle for support, though all of these companions function differently and some are better suited to certain situations than others; with ones like Hurk and Nick being useful when causing chaos, and ones like Boomer and Jess being better suited to stealth, naturally I gravitated more to them, them and Cheeseburger, because what's more awesome than fighting alongside a grizzly bear, nothing, that's what. Weapon customisation is unchanged, you can still purchase and pimp out your guns, and you can also buy vehicles now, which also include planes and helicopters, opening up new options for world traversal, though like fishing and stunt racing, I didn't really use vehicles unless the game required me to, I much preferred sneaking through the trees and wing-suiting from place to place. This also increases the chances of finding random events; freeing hostages and blowing up supply trucks, which further immerses you in the world, and gives you more opportunities to earn resistance points. Far Cry 5's greatest weakness in terms of gameplay is, unsurprisingly, the boss fights, which aren't great, though credit where it's due, all the boss fights are unique, but I just didn't enjoy them, I say unsurprisingly because kind of like compelling protagonists, Far Cry's never nailed the art of the boss fight.

Meteorette: Far Cry 5 and the Rejection of Absurdity

Right, time for everyone's favourite part, identity politics. Obviously, I know that identity politics, or politics in general for that matter, aren't tremendously gripping subjects for the common normie, but one beauty of writing is that you can simply not read it, so no hurt feelings if you just skip to the conclusion. Something that's very funny is that Far Cry 5 isn't controversial in any major way, and that that lack of controversy is in and of itself controversial, that may sound insane, but bear with me. Times are troubled these days, Political divisions are more intense than they've been in decades, a chasm no better exemplified than by the 45th President of the United States of America, who depending on who you ask is either the Hero of the downtrodden and the saviour of America, or literally Hitler. It's very well-known at this point that the news media exists in a bubble, an echo chamber of progressivism that's become more and more out of touch over the years, and with this bubble being filled with the same progressive ideas being bounced around endlessly, it only makes sense that an in-group out-group mentality exists, and that political and social bodies outside of their in-group are hated and condemned, hence Trump is literally Hitler. Then along comes Far Cry 5, a game set in the heartlands of America where you're fighting a religious cult, marking the first time Far Cry hasn't been about killing minorities, as if that's ever been what Far Cry was about, as if they weren't slave traffickers or loyalists to a despotic king. But as I was saying, game journalism is very much trapped in the same ideological bubble as the rest of them, they eat up piles of shit like Gone Home and Sunset, and find reasons to hate games like Cuphead because it's too hard for them, because, as has been made very clear by games like Doom and Cuphead, but more importantly by Gamergate and the 'Gamers are dead' debacle, these game journalists aren't actually gamers, and they care more about their ideology than they do the games. They adore games that are political, because they care more about the politics, and a game that confirms their biases is deserving of praise, while games that challenge their ideological values are deserving of scorn *cough* The Last of Us Part 2 trailer *cough*.  So when Far Cry 5 drops the player in the middle of redneck country and tasks them with taking down a gang of bible-bashing loons, they saw what they wanted to see; a game that would provide relevant political and social commentary on America's horrible racism and sexism, and the evils of gun ownership and white supremacy in Trump's America, this wasn't reflected in the marketing at all, but it's what they wanted, then the game dropped, and it wasn't what they'd hoped at all.

Social Justice is the enemy of entertainment, I've made this very clear over a myriad of posts on this blog, but for the uninitiated, here's the rundown. Social Justice ideologies like Feminism are essentially religion, in it is a collection of beliefs and tenets, scary truths about the world that they fight or protect against out of virtue. Where this becomes religion is in said scary truths, things like Patriarchy and the notion of the progressive stack, ideas that are frankly absurd because they look at demographics as classes and deliberately confuse the individual with the collective; for example men as a class have privilege because they make the overwhelming majority of business and political leaders, they say while also being wilfully ignorant of how they also make up the overwhelming majority of workplace fatalities and homeless people, a lie by omission that, if acknowledged, would discredit their notion of male privilege. The progressive stack enables them to tilt the scales through their redefinitions of privilege and discrimination, putting women, minorities and the LGBTQIXL12345 community higher on the ladder of societal victimisation to justify granting them actual privileges in opposition to the preserved privilege of the bottom of the ladder; white, heterosexual, able bodied men. This rather horrific way of determining importance based on arbitrary characteristics that have been redefined into classes is the root of Social Justice in entertainment; male majority is interchangeable with male dominated, deliberately implying the existence of a power structure within these genres or medias, or in managerial positions and Presidents in the real world, one they can then say is unjust and must be changed, rather than the result of a free market. It's the historical oppression of women that makes Wonder Woman the best superhero movie ever, until Black Panther becomes the most important because of the historical oppression of black people, and because representation matters, apparently, but it's all just a Torjan horse; a way of praying on people's better nature in order to achieve the true goal, the propagation of the agenda. Social Justice doesn't have a grasp on subtlety however, and fiction that promotes Social Justice values almost universally fail, not because people are complicit in injustice, but because they don't like being preached to by people looking to victimise or villainise them. And the danger this poses to a game or movie, as is painfully observable in my favourite dead horse; Ghostbusters, a film that's very creation was spawned of Social Justice, entertainment embracing and flaunting its political agenda, especially an agenda as unpopular as Social Justice, is suicidal, to court Social Justice is to court a PR disaster.

Say what you will about Ubisoft, but with Far Cry 5 they no doubt saw that damaging their public relations wasn't a good idea when the goal is to sell millions of copies of a game. Far Cry 5 takes the bold stance of not taking a stance, it provides no social commentary on Trump's America or racism or xenophobia like the journos hoped, it has nothing to say, one way or the other. The closest that it gets to even touching real world politics is Hurk Sr's senate campaign, an optional couple of missions where you are tasked with disrupting the democratic process through gerrymandering, a mission that sounds political, but is played purely for shits and giggles, as you kill cultists and listen to Hurk Sr. complaining about "Obama lovin' libtards," almost like it was going out of its way to make a mockery of both sides of the isle. The game doesn't swing in either direction, it doesn't spout left wing or right wing politics, and it's actually quite impressive that the left wing journalists have made such an issue out of the game being politically neutral, almost as if they were expecting the game to confirm their biases, and are butt hurt that it doesn't. The developers of the game seem to have made a conscious effort to make Far Cry 5 as apolitical as possible, a move that may simply be to not piss anyone off like some journos claim, calling the game "sanitised" and "timid", but it may be far more than that. The story that the game is telling isn't one that concerns itself with the current, petty issues of our time, it has nothing to say on politics or race or gender because that's not what the game's about. The game, fundamentally, is a story about faith and suffering; Joseph and his family have suffered, and it's turned them into monsters who bring suffering to others, while seeking righteousness and purpose in faith, a road to hell paved with good intentions. Its most profound message is one of humanity, of how we are animals doomed to repeat our mistakes and create our own demons, and of how decadence has driven the world (as greatly exaggerated in the game) to madness. These ideas do not need an understanding of current events to pick up on, throughout the entire game there is a subtle but inescapable sense of dread, established through excellent foreshadowing, and that is something that anyone can get their head around, without being lectured about how racist rural America is, or how evil guns are. One of Social Justice's ultimate failures is its shallowness and its pettiness; making mountains out of molehills because it's easy while the world around them figuratively, or in the case of this game, literally falls apart, and Far Cry 5 isn't the first game to call attention to that through its refusal to be political, and its unflinching goal of just telling a story, because the people who wrote it aren't petty and shallow, they have something more important to say, a subtlety only noticeable to the people looking for it, and a subtlety that can and will be understood long after the political divides of current year have been consigned to history.

When the World Falls into the Flames
Far Cry 5 is a game that I will admit to becoming addicted to, I played and beat it in four days, across five six-seven hour sessions, and when the game ended, I couldn't think of words to describe how it made me feel. Like its predecessors, it struggles to create and develop meaningful characters outside of its villains, who are once again the standout characters, and who once again are more complicated than your simple baddie. A big loss for the game's storytelling is the complete absence of character for the Deputy, who is majorly lacking the subtle character arks that Jason and Ajay had in prior games, a choice that doesn't make a lot of sense to me, even considering the basic customisation you are given for them. But even without a character ark for the hero, the game still manages to convey deeper themes with admirable subtlety that give the game a great deal of depth for those willing to find it. But more importantly than all of that, Far Cry 5 is a really fun game, little has changed in the Far Cry formula that has persisted for the last five entries, but what has changed has been improved for the most part, streamlining the hunting, perk and exploration systems, while keeping the game's fun, if occasionally inconsistent stealth, and further facilitating the blowing up of shit through the specialists. The game also takes an interesting approach to storytelling that has its strengths and weaknesses, but the system works well enough to convey a decent story, while also allowing as much freedom to the player as possible. The game's world is also gorgeous, huge, and full of filler to keep you playing, it's just an all-round fun game to play, excusing the boss fights, it may even be the most fun in the series. The game steers clear of politics at every turn, and while that seems to be an issue for other people reviewing the game, I admire Ubisoft for that decision, keeping any politics or bias out of the product. It's biggest flaws for me are its weak heroes and non-existent character in the Deputy, but I can ignore that while shooting down helicopters or getting pecked to death by a pack of angry turkeys. Again, excusing the boss fights, I had a blast with Far Cry 5, and I can't recommend it highly enough, it's definitely worth playing.