5 Ways Far Cry 5 Could Be Amazing

We’re a sucker for the Far Cry games having been a fan since the original graphics card-busting island romp through even the sadly boring Far Cry Primal of 2016.  Hell, with the right drink in hand we’d even give Uwe Boll’s film adaptation a shot. This is especially true ever since Far Cry 3 which set the pace of taking over enemy camps, unlocking combat abilities, and hunting for animal skins to barter for better gear which has dominated just about every Far Cry game since.  Far Cry 5 is no exception.  The game is good with a healthy offering of coop and user created levels which means we could potentially be playing this game for months if not longer.

But after a few dozen hours so far we can’t help but feel like the game is missing a few things.  Yes, it’s a great experience we’d recommend to anyone, but if we had our druthers, we would have loved a few more additions.  Here are 5 Ways Far Cry 5 Could Be Amazing.

5. Random roll weaponry

Far Cry 2 is a polarizing game largely because it’s challenging.  Yes, you’re highly infected with malaria and you’re on a fatal trajectory the entire game, but overcoming those obstacles as well as an omnipresent enemy force can be enormously satisfying.  One element we actually kind of liked from Far Cry 2 is that weapons would, in fact, jam.  You didn’t have much warning, but eventually your gun would backfire or stop forcing you to toss it to the side to scramble to find something else. Fights were improvised and interesting as you didn’t know how good a gun would be until you started firing.

All of that is gone in the latest Far Cry games. You’ll get exactly one of every type of gun instantly retrievable from the store anytime you need to change your gear. You could argue this allows gamers to customized and predictable loadout for any mission, however we feel this robs the gamer of a chance of unpredictability.  You’re not going to find a slightly better, stronger, more reliable gun of the one you’re holding.  Random rolls and, well, loot are outstanding motivators to stay with an open world game like Far Cry and to see Assassin’s Creed Origins embrace this idea but Far Cry 5 miss it seems like such a missed opportunity.

We do want to thank Far Cry 5 for introducing us to thrilling world of shovel hunting.

4. Real character progression

The world is vastly more intricate and richly designed than previous Far Cry games but somehow it feels like leveling up hasn’t really evolved in the past 6 years since Far Cry 3 of 2012.  You’ll unlock chain takedowns, repair torches, superior swim skills, etc. which just seems so redundant after doing this so many times over in previous Far Cry games.  We miss the nuanced design of a game like Borderlands 2 which offered very unique skill trees as well as small incremental upgrades via the BadAss points system that made every play session an opportunity to grow. Far Cry’s world would be that much more enjoyable if we had the chance to tweak and tailorour character as we see fit instead of just unlocking the same powerups again and again.

In another game, this might seem strange.

3. Stop pulling its punches

We remember how fitting this game looked in early trailers considering the political climate of a post Trump, post truth world. American Horror Story leaned into this idea with the latest AHS: Cult series which started with good intentions but spiraled into lunacy quickly.  The stage is set for a tremendous Far Cry game to poke fun at an alt right, gun crazed America and early previews seemed inclined to do exactly that.  But, alas, no.  It’s toothless.  We get occasional references to modern politics but those take a back seat to nonsensical rhetoric from John Seed that wouldn’t motivate the guy next to him at a bar much less an entire community. Xenophobia, the military industrial complex, fundamentalism, these are the foundations of a cult and a much more interesting game.

John Seed needs to preach about attendance. We’ve killed WAY more of his followers than those that actually bother to attend his service.

2. Define your protagonist

Far Cry 3 was a fantastic entry into the franchise going back to the exotic island locale of the original game, setting the pace for most of the games to follow, but also providing a pretty interesting story – no, not around Vaas or Citra (which were indeed fascinating), but Jason Brody.  Towards the final chapters of the game as you step over the dead bodies of the hundreds of men you’ve learned to kill since parachuting onto this island, you’re given a choice.  Do you save your friends and escape, or, do you send your friends away and stay behind to continue to make the world burn?  It’s dark but kind of makes sense.  It’s fun to be an effective killer in Far Cry 3.

“I’m definitely hitting my body count quota this month!” Seriously, I have to just assume I’m Maniac Cop at this point.

Unfortunately the lead of Far Cry 5, “rook” is given no room to grow.  There’s no ambiguity about your mission, about you, about anything really. There’s some room for interpretation in the ending and your role in all of it, but that’s extremely limited and doesn’t affect the game.  How much more interesting would this experience have been if the cult actually presented an attractive option?  Maybe you accidentally kill someone during the initial arrest attempt and the Seeds are offering you a way out.  What if your superiors were giving you questionable orders (especially coming from a Trump nation)?  You can argue John Seed is “would you kindly”-ing you to the ending but it doesn’t change the fact that “rook” is one of the least interesting protagonists we’ve ever seen in a game. We’re given very little reason to care about our character and no reason to care about this world other than the fishing is pretty decent.

1. Where the f@#$ are the horses? 

I don’t know how team Ubisoft missed this one.  The game includes rich wildlife, animal partners, multiple means of transportation, but somehow they never thought to give us horses.  The game seems designed for this and we can’t think of a more definitive Montana experience than that.  Hell, even the map doesn’t reveal unless you’re on land making horses the perfect means of exploration.  This seems like a complete miss, even for the potential microtransactions. The game actively encourages you to purchase your wardrobe but gives you zero opportunity to see yourself.  Third person horseback riding would easily solve this.  We don’t get it, especially since Assassin’s Creed has had this for years now.

Such a missed opportunity…