Far Cry 5 Xbox One X Review

Far Cry 5 opens to an exciting adventure, with The Father and his cult demonstrating their devotion to follow, obey, and kill without a second thought if ordered to. Journeying throughout Hope County I encountered a myriad of distinct characters, both friendly and hostile that made treading through this 20-hour adventure worth the technical issues and bland protagonist. Far Cry 5 has a lot of amazing moments, and most of them are tied to the excellent antagonists.
 

Far Cry 5 has you taking on the role of Rookie, a custom-made deputy. You choose the character's gender and look than forget about it. There's little reason to customize your look or care what gender you choose since character's act the same way and the protagonist doesn't talk throughout the adventure. Like past Far Cry games, it's the antagonists that steal the show.

Joseph Seed, also known as The Father, leads a violent and powerful Christain cult called Eden's Gate. Members either are voluntary or force into the cult by brainwashing and drugs. This is where you come in, after attempting to arrest The Father you're allies are kidnapped and you must save them from Joseph's family who now control all of Hope County.

Hope County is separated into 3 regions, each controlled by one of 3 different family members and with each area focusing on a distinct theme. For example, Faith Seed's region heavily focuses on the drug Bliss which causes hallucinations and is used by Eden's Gate to force people into joining the cult by altering their brain chemistry and turning them into mindless slaves.
 

Facial animations and voice-acting are outstanding. Each character is distinct with unique personas that not only showcase their devotion to The Father but provide insight into their own lives. Jacob Seed is loyal to Joseph but exhibits and primal hatred for weakness while Faith may seem innocent but she's just as ruthless as anyone else in Joseph's cult.

Unfortunately, the main character doesn't share the same level of quality as Jacob and his family. The deputy is a mute vessel for the player to take control of. The standard, jack of trade hero who possesses the ability to save everyone from Joseph's murderous cult.

You can tackle any region in any order you wish. The leveling system complements this structure by providing perk points for completing challenges such as killing enemies with specific weapons, performing tasks, and completing side missions. Since this isn't a generic leveling system you cannot farm experience and challenges cap after a certain amount. You can invest in different trees that offer specific boosts such as improved weapon handling, better supplies at vendors, or increase crafting space.
 

Since leveling works differently so does combat. Enemies are easy to kill but so are you. Using the various weapons and tools at your disposal you're encouraged to think methodically instead of just running and gunning. If you do die checkpoints are unforgiving and will transport closer to the start of the mission.

Speaking of missions, Far Cry 5 is packed with content. Everything is linked to Resistance Points, adding more to the meter for each mission you complete. Each meter has 4 parts, with each level adding more difficult challenges within the world's regions. As you slowly take away control from one of Joseph's family members they become increasingly angrier and add things such as specialized soldiers, roadblocks, or helicopter attack squads to try and kill you. Each section of the meter also ends with a small cutscene.

Side missions and optional objectives are littered everywhere. Fishing, racing, hunting, and more are available for the player to enjoy. It can get annoying when talking to an NPC and suddenly they stop to engage an enemy target. At times the NPC would run across the settlement to engage a plane that was over 100 feet from them, forcing me to go out of my way to eliminate it.
 

Far Cry 5 has a lot of content and Joseph's family offers an enticing adversary to face, however, the game suffers from a multitude of technical issues that broke the experience on several occasions. While the game never crashed I experienced over a dozen missions where the NPCs wouldn't move, pass through objects, or simply disappear. I had to perform a hard restart each time this happened to fix the issue.

Weapons and options are diverse and plentiful. You cannot carry everything and must swap out between different types, and Far Cry 5 gives you a lot of options. You get your standard assortment of firearms but you can further customize them with attachments or different variants of similar weapons. Since enemies only carry the standard type without attachments it's advised to remain loyal to your loadout since a modified weapon gives a better chance at survival. You can go with melee weapons if you want but from my experience, despite the increased options of melee weapons, the open spaces encourage guns and explosives. The developers take it a step further from weapons by allowing other ways to customize your offensive options.

You can further enhance your abilities using drugs or use heavily weaponized vehicles to plow through enemies. Allies are available ranging from pilots to animal buddies, each with unique talents. You can only take 2 at a time, after upgrading, and are competent enough to handle basic orders but you'll still have the occasional moment where they get in your way.
 

You can play the game without having to invest in it but the premium currency can be used to purchase not only cosmetics but weapons as well. Silver Bars can be found in the game but by the end of the game I only collected 80, and I actively did all optional missions.

Money can be earned through selling items and completing missions to purchase new weapons, vehicles, and cosmetics but the grind to obtain everything will require a lot of dedication. The average amount I earned from missions alone was between about $700. To put things into perspective powerful weapon variants can cost up to $9,000 or 500 Silver Bars which cost $4.99. This is not counting the custom options such as camos and upgrades.

Multiplayer is available but it's mostly an assortment of modding tools. Players are given a collection of options to choose from and can play other creations. The entire interface is set up like a retro-90s video game, which is amazing to look at. However, it's appeal depends solely on how much of a fan you are of user creations and building your own content. There's a lot of options stretching multiple games from Ubisoft's library so the choices are there.
 

If you prefer playing the campaign you can have a friend join you for the entire experience. However, those seeking trophies or achievements won't get any for playing in cooperative since they're all tied to solo accomplishments.

Far Cry 5 has a lot to do, with many objectives to complete throughout Hope County. The technical issues can lead to a lot of vexing moments and the multiplayer doesn't have enough depth for competitive players to keep playing. Where Far Cry 5 does shine is its excellent cast of characters. Like Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4, you'll remember less of who you were playing and more about who you were fighting.
 

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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