Giant Bomb: 3/5 = 6, Polygon: 6.5

@theht: Having played a few hours of it now it's not really that complicated. The game isn't about politics, it's about fanaticism. It's not about gun-toting right wing separatists hating the government, it's about a fanatical cult following their grandiose leader.

The cult leader in this looks like Dan.

Yeah...that's not many. You should really look harder.

Not trying to be a jerk, but as someone who is from the American South, if they had set the game here I'd be extremely irritated with their portrayal of the area. We "rednecks" are already the butt of Hollywood's jokes; we don't need a bunch of Frenchies and Canadians using us as their next big bogeyman. We've already got the media acting like everyone down here is an ignant skinhead, we don't need your help Ubisoft. Thank goodness I'm not from Montana.

Personally, I wish Ubi had gone full-teeth on the cult, just so long as they had gone all-in on humanizing your redneck allies as well. Showing that you can be a white rural religious conservative and still be a decent person would have done the world some good right now.

Sorry, I know none of that's directed at you personally, but after reading the reviews 'round the net and seeing your mistake all over the comments I wanted to get that off my chest.

Only played 1 hour so far. I thought the opening was poorly done, the dialogue and voice acting just feels off to me. It tries to be tense and cinematic but it just comes across as forced to me, that's how I feel.

That said, I'm really enjoying exploring the world and finding secrets and different things to do. The gunplay feels good and satisfying, that is when you're not stuck in some dumb scripted action scene. However I have had the game crash on me 2 times now and I have been playing for an hour. That is not good. Playing on PC.

@gundamguru: Sorry! I didn't know where in America it was set, just that it was rural (and presumably Christian) America. I guess that led me straight to the Bible Belt.

Oh okay. So it's not so much that it stays neutral in a "both sides" kind of way, saying something like "hey, maybe fantacism has a point." It's neutral about American politics the same way it's neutral about, I dunno, Discovery vs. The Orville, in that it doesn't even broach the topic.

@sasnake: i was just explaining to you where that person being quoted got those 2 review scores from.

@dystopiax: yeah, i'm with ya. story is so bad i'm already just skipping every cutscene after 2 hours of play. the world is gorgeous though, and if I just put on music and tool around in an ATV or helicopter I have a pretty good time.

there's something really satisfying to me in throwing the shovel or baseball bat or tree trunk at people
am I weird?

As someone who loved Far Cry 3 and was psyched for this, I am really glad I decided to rent and not pre-order. After playing for a few hours, everything feels so shallow. The gameplay, the story, the world. I see they tried to put some effort into the world building with the small town areas and various characters you meet, but it all comes off as super fake and uninteresting to me. I just don't care about anything that is happening at all.

I thought worst case scenario, I would care less for the story and just enjoy the gameplay, but that isn't really happening either. Playing a FPS on a console is definitely not helping, but I just came off Titanfall 2 on console and that combat was incredible. Maybe that is why this seems so uninspired and downright boring.

Also the AI seems really fucking abysmal. I really don't remember FC3 being this bad, but it's been a while.

Quick look made the game look like one of the most boring things imaginable. Arcade mode could have potential though, but it seems buggy atm. I haven't played a far cry since 3 but maybe i will be better off getting 4 next on sale one day instead?

sadly it is. I'm about 4 hours in.. and it was painfully boring. I just alt f4'd in a middle of a fight..

The AI in this game is batshit fucking insane. Friendly allies you meet in the world will do the weirdest shit like jump onto an ATV for no reason and just run over each other, or freak out about enemies that are not even remotely close. I tried for 10 minutes to get one NPC to give me intel on a location, but he kept getting cut off mid sentence by random shit happening around us like random cult members and wildlife attacking. In the end a bear just came out of nowhere and killed him.

All that chaos can be fun, and I have certainly had some cool moments happen, but it also starts to wear a little thin pretty fast.

Played about the 3 hours last night. If you liked the other recent FC games, you will probably like this one. The world is beautiful to look at and discover. The gun play is satisfying. I would agree that the story is not great; it is just kinda there. However, I would preface that statement by saying I did not think the stories in the other FC games were all that great either.

I have already had my first "FC moment": I went to recon an outpost before I took it over and noticed a hilly area where I could get a better vantage point. I started making my way to that area when, after coming up a different hill, ran into a bear. Needless to say, in trying to escape the bear, I ran right into the outpost. The bear started attacking the cultist, and managed to take out a few of them before it was killed. I went in a mopped up the remaining cultists. Good times.

This is what Far Cry games are really about

Yeah, for me, that is what the Far Cry games have always been about.

I'm really enjoying what I played of it so far. It probably helps that this is our first Far Cry game, but my buddy and I did co-op last night and we had a blast. My only real complaints so far with the game are that the pick up weapon and loot actions are the same button (which leads to the occasional "I didn't want to switch out my gun" annoyance) and that the prologue before you unlock the world to be able to play co-op is needlessly lengthy, but things really picked up once we got to play together. I was terrifyingly and unexpectedly mauled by a cougar, a cow got t-boned from both sides simultaneously by our truck and a cult truck in a head-on collision, my buddy punched a hired ally in the face for "not helping enough" on an outpost, etc. I think co-op is definitely the way to play it because it increases the chances of silly shit happening, which is where the game is at its best.

It seems like the people down on the game largely are either mildly fatigued with the Far Cry series itself and/or wanted the story to be more daring than it is. While that's understandable, as someone coming in fresh who's making an effort to view the game for what it is instead of what it isn't, I'm having a good time. It's proving to be the kind of dumb fun I hoped for, although I could see where someone hoping for something more serious would be disappointed. It is a looker on the One X as well. I'll probably post a more long-form review of it later on, but thought I'd share some brief (mostly positive) thoughts for now.

Okay, been playing this on PC....and I don't like it.

It just seems way too chaotic for its own good. I was growning at the into sequence b/c it feels so lame and tame despite there being explosions and screaming. I also really dislike the progression and felt like they were trying to do what AC: Origins did in a Far Cry setting, but half assed the context given for quests and gave everyone a poor fo-edgy attitude that is really offputting. The game also seems to be harder, which is fine, but those elite enemies that take 4 clips of ammo to beat can fuck.right.off. It feels lifeless and lame. My fault for getting it as I knew how I'd feel about it, so shame on me.

It runs really well on PC, tho. My old i5 and gtx 1070 maxes it out with a good framerate at 1080p.

Kinda seems like FC5 needs more time in the oven, but I'm sure I'll get it some day.

The Xbox store has Far Cry 4 Gold on sale. Bought that instead.

I am actually coming around on the story a bit right now, the first area I did (John Seed) was.... really jarringly dark and I was totally seeing what everyone was criticizing about the tone. But now I am about 75% of the way through the Faith Seed area and I.... kinda love this shit? It is goofy and dumb and suddenly it seems to know it? I highly doubt it will continue this way and I bet knowing what details are in the game about the final area that its going to be more like the first one, but man I kinda love the stupid hippie nonsense shit that is happening right now.

The marshal being all drugged out and going on about how the real world sucks while constantly putting his hands together and bowing is fucking killing me. Also I find the whole "Why are you fighting us? We mean you no harm, you are hurting innocent people!" shtick to be highly amusing in how silly it is considering they are kidnapping, heavily drugging people, and turning people into mindless zombies.

I will say that I came in with no expectations of enjoying any of the main plot, and have been looking at it like I am watching a cheesy B horror movie so your mileage may vary there.

So far I'm having a lot of fun with this on PC; it seems to run really well even at 21:9. I haven't gotten far enough to get past the first set of guns, but I'm looking forward to finding something more accurate. I've found a couple of rifles with a scope that can be pretty ok at medium range, but there's such a kick when you fire that it becomes really difficult to line up another shot quickly. Hopefully I'll find a sniper rifle soon, though.

Sooo.....I am about 6-7 hours in and.....maybe it's just me, but this seems to be one of the most frustratingly glitchy/buggy mainstream AAA games I've played in some time. Like, as in bugs that prevent game progress and/or hinder it. I really want to like FC5. I was enjoying it a lot for awhile, but...

1. On more than a few occasions, I have fast traveled only to have crazy amounts of enemies spawn INSTANTLY at the location I traveled to, all knowing exactly where I am, effectively making it an instant death. At higher resistance levels, this basically ensures you will die since helicopters and mounted guns get put into the mix.

2. "Specialist" companions go down in combat, like, instantly. Enemies have insanely perfect aim with rifles and my companions keep getting headshotted almost immediately once combat begins. They are basically useless in firefights. Companions in scripted missions (where you HAVE to use the character) seem to be either invincible OR they die, like, immediately and game over. Not sure what's going on there.

3. In one mission that involved "tailing" someone, the game kept failing me for being either too close or too far from the tail, even though they were not moving at all, just stuck in a glitch AI loop where they kept walking in a circle and repeating their "I might be on alert" dialog. Eventually the target did what they were supposed to, but, only after about 6 fails on the mission for no logically apparent reason.

4. Not sure if this is a glitch or what, but on two missions that involved required companions, the companion instantly died while we were being chased in a vehicles, and then they mysteriously fell out of the car at whcih point I got a game over for "leaving them behind." This happened 3 times in one mission.

5. In one mission, I failed, then when I re-spawned, my required companion/story companion, got back into the vehicle we were using and drove off out into nowhere leaving my mission goal unable to be completed. I couldn't find them and have no idea what happened and only hard-quitting out of the game and coming back in fixed it, but doing so set me back several quest steps.

6. I had a VIP target somehow get inside a building that is inaccessible making a mission unable to finish

7. One time I was killed by a friendly NPC. I was in an outpost that had already been taken over and took a few potshots at a bear that was in the distance, and a nearby random NPC vendor turned instantly hostile and machine gunned me to death.

All of this is making the game....really hard to play, let's say.

I've been playing for the last couple of days. First time playing a Far Cry game.

It already feels like a 'podcast game'.

Man, i just really love the gameplay loop of far cry games. I do like the changes they've made to the perk system. I can just do stuff around the world and invest in the things I want without having to go down a tree. I also like that they expanded a bit on the Primal pet system

There are a few things I don't like though. The character customization is pointless for single player and just makes you a lifeless mute which is my biggest pet peeve with first person games. FC has never had strong main characters but at least AJ felt like he existed in the world. I also don't like the weapon variety. It seems to mostly be stuff that's been in FC games for years.

Overall though I'm loving the game and the setting

I’m almost at the end of John’s region and have been taking my time with it. I’m really enjoying it so far but I really don’t like how at set points in the progression of a region they will make you stop whatever you’re doing and force you into a mission.

Also, does anyone know if any story missions are missable? Like I said, I only have about 100 resistance points left until I reach the confrontation with John but I still have plenty of story stuff in that region and I’m irrationally worried that I won’t get to see it all. It wouldn’t make sense to just get rid of all of those missions but they all seem related to that region so once I take John out there would be no story reason to do them?

If anyone can shed some light on this, that would be great. Also, I hope they don’t force you into the final confrontation as soon as you fill up the meter but I’m sure they do.

I've put in about 5 hours on the PC and really like what I've played so far. Granted, my expectations when it came to the story were set very low knowing the level of writing in the previous Far Cry games. The caricaturisation of US culture and stereotypes is quite tame and nothing new to what the series has done in it's previous locales.

The guns shoot good, the vistas look good, and running around the mountains in an ATV is a lot of fun. The progression is not quite as engaging as in Far Cry 4, but I'm hoping that once the in-game income stream ramps up it'll allow for more freedom.

Far Cry 5 is not some sort of masterpiece of the videogame arts, but a simple and mindless yet atmospheric game like this is just what I've been craving for.

I finished the first region and missions are still available. I'm 95% it's safe to progress, I am after a night shift though so it's possible I might have overlooked something. Seemed ok though!

feeling a bit more positive about the gameplay after getting 2/3 through the game now. but one thing I can't stand, as @stanleypain hinted at, is the unnatural spawning of enemies. There have been times when I've cleared an outpost/building and then been told to secure the spot as more were on the way. I got in a small building with only one door to snipe and at one point an enemy had somehow spawned in the room behind me. How are we supposed to make an intelligent decision on positioning when reinforcements materialize out of nowhere as opposed to coming from a nearby area like Phantom Pain?

@stanleypain:

That sucks to hear the issues you are having with the game. I am also about 6-7 hours in, but have not encountered any glitches (PS4). I am sure I will eventually see/experience some, as this is a decently complex open world game.

I just bought a fishing rod and am enjoying the fishing in this game. FWIW, I do not enjoy fishing IRL (much to the disappointment of my father and my uncles). I like the way the line changes colors as you are reeling in a fish to let you know when it is about to snap.

I'm still having a blast with this. I was playing solo last night, mostly just fucking shit up using my chopper with guns and rockets on it. That thing is stupidly fun to use. I was doing strafing runs along the roads and put on some Creedence for full effect. (I also may have yelled "it'll be just like Saigon!" out loud to no one.) Soon after, I organically encountered my favorite thing in the game so far, and I'll spoiler tag it because I hope people discover it for themselves as I did.

You know that giant Rio-esque Joseph Seed statue on the map? Well, being that I was in "blow shit up with my chopper" mode, I decided to go see if I could take that fucker down. It turns out you totally can, and blasting pieces off it was awesome. Better yet, the resistance started indirectly cheering me on via the CB in a neat little report about "someone's destroying that fucking statue!", and once I fully destroyed it, it triggered a mission where you have to climb the framework of the broken statue and destroy their "holy" cult book. I don't know if this is a mission that is given to you later (it probably is), but the fact that I just flew my chopper up to it and discovered this whole sequence of events on my own was really damn cool.

I am nearing the finish line on the main story; I am guessing that I have put about 20+ hours into the game. I am still having a blast messing around in the world, doing side missions, cleaning up some of the challenges, etc. The story has not gotten better, but that doesn't surprise me. I wished they would have leaned more into the cult thing. There is precedent in the US for cults almost taking over entire towns, but Far Cry 5's attempts to justify the takeover seem lacking.

Concerning performance (playing on a launch PS4), I have not experienced any game-breaking bugs (**knocks on wood**). There have been times, while flying aircraft, that the frame rate took a nosedive into the single digits. Other than that, I think this game runs really well.

@notnert427: that totally is a mission in Faith's region, but that's awesome you can do it beforehand.

I figured, but I have done next to nothing in her region yet, so that was pure whimsy that turned out awesome.