Far Cry 5 review roundup

Far Cry 5 released on the March 27, 2018 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, and has already stormed the charts claiming the top place in the UK games sales chart. Reviews for the game have been overwhelmingly positive for a number of different reason, let’s take a look at them now.

Metacritic – 81/100
The game currently has a Metacritic rating of 81 out of 100, which is a fairly positive response. Of the 69 critic reviews the game received 59 of them were positive, with only 10 mixed reviews and no negative ones. The majority of the mixed review discuss how initial bugs or disappointing story are the reasons this game isn’t as good as it could be, but there are many others which leave bugs out entirely due to the culture of Day One patches that remove them all anyway.

IGN – 89/100
IGN gave the game quite a positive review, praising it for making the transition from exotic locale to a county in America without losing the essence of what the series is about. Ubisoft have spent a great deal of time changing how the game works, meaning it differs greatly from previous entries in a number of ways. Some ways in which the game is different is more friendly NPCs, a host of new, more modern vehicles, and the ability to customise the protagonist. While the game isn’t as visually stunning as Assassin’s Creed: Origins, it’s still incredibly impressive when you take into account the amount of content on offer.

Gamespot – 9/10
Gamespot gave Far Cry 5 an almost perfect score, largely because of how much there is to do. This is one of the largest open worlds there has ever been in a Far Cry game, and the fact that every inch of it is packed with activities and items to find makes it feel even bigger. Gamespot pay particular attention to the fact that the entire Far Cry 5 campaign can be completed in solo or co-op mode, making for twice the madness on top of the new friendly NPCs players can recruit to help them lay waste to the religious cult ravaging the local population. Gamespot have also given the new Far Cry Arcade mode a spotlight, saying that it provides endless replayability as long as the Far Cry community has the level creators to fill it with content worth playing. After only a week there isn’t much there, but this library is expected to fill up over the next few weeks.

GamesRadar – 4/5
GamesRadar say that Far Cry 5 is a much more focussed game than previous titles. The missions, side missions, and other activities appear organically as the player encounters people who know about them, adding them to the map once they’ve heard them spoken about. This makes for a much less cluttered map, making the game feel even larger than it is. Not only is the new location great to explore for its familiarity and wildness at the same time, but the missions are far more varied and interesting which keeps the game engaging for longer. However, they add that the villains in the game are a bit underwhelming when compared to the raving lunatics of the previous two titles, and that there a too few of the most enjoyable side missions, hostage missions.

Eurogamer – Unscored
Eurogamer have yet to give Far Cry 5 a score on their recommended system, but their review makes some interesting points. While a number of prevalent UK Eurogamer staff have praised the Far Cry series in the past, with one video being created that shows how every game in the series is linked and in the same world, this review points out what could be a big problem for some players. From the word go the Eden’s Gate cult which has taken over Hope County are painted as cannon fodder, expendable soldiers in an army the player has every permission to slaughter. However, the story attempts to show how cults like this rise and fall in and around America, some which are still present to this day. The juxtaposition of trying to show the human cost of cults whilst also encouraging the player to murder them in as many ways as possible can make the story seem almost tongue-in-cheek at times.

God Is A Geek – 90/100
God Is A Geek give Far Cry 5 credit in most of the same areas as other critics, but even though the story can be a little hard to follow at times they say there’s no beating the ending. As players progress they must conquer regions of Hope County, each one run by a key follower of Eden’s Gate. It’s the combination of the fights with these bosses, and Joseph Seed the cult’s leader, that bring the story together in a finale that no one is going to forget. God Is A Geek also touch on the hunting aspect of Far Cry 5, something that’s been a core part of gameplay for past titles because players need animal pelts to craft upgrades. In Far Cry 5 hunting is much more a leisure activity, since the only benefit is being able to sell the animal skin for money to purchase new weapons.

Overall it seems as though Far Cry 5 has been well-received by those familiar to the series despite the sometimes big changes made to core mechanics. The new way quests are discovered and the removal of radio towers makes exploring much more interesting, and reading the map far easier. New friendly NPCs make the game feel much more like there’s a driving force the protagonist is helping, instead of being a one man army, and the addition of Arcade mode is likely to make Far Cry 5 a game that players can enjoy for years after the final piece of DLC is released.