Far Cry 5 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is the standalone successor to the 2014 video game Far Cry 4, and the fifth main installment in the Far Cry series. The game was released on March 27, 2018.
The game takes place in Hope County, a fictional region of Montana, United States. The main story revolves around the Project at Eden's Gate, a doomsday cult that has taken over the county at the command of its charismatic and powerful leader, Joseph Seed. Players control an unnamed junior deputy sheriff who becomes trapped in Hope County, and must work alongside factions of a resistance to liberate the county from the despotic rule of the Seeds and Eden's Gate. Gameplay focuses on combat and exploration; players battle enemy soldiers and dangerous wildlife using a wide array of weapons. The game features many elements found in role-playing games, such as a branching storyline and side quests. The game also features a map editor, a co-operative multiplayer mode, and a competitive multiplayer mode.
Announced in early 2017, development on Far Cry 5 was extensive. The team explored several concepts before settling on an American location. The game was heavily inspired by several socio-political events in modern history, such as the Cold War and the September 11 attacks. The development team sought to capture the despondent social climate after the events and re-purpose it for the game. Developed and published solely by Ubisoft, its competitive multiplayer mode was also created in-house, with the company's worldwide studios gaining more creative input for Far Cry 5.
Far Cry 5 was met with mostly positive critical reception upon release, although was the subject of controversy after being announced alongside a period of heightened political conflicts. Critics praised the open world design, visuals, and soundtrack, but directed criticisms towards its story and some of the characters. The game was a commercial success and became the fastest-selling title in the franchise, grossing over $310 million in its first week of sales. Several downloadable content packs have been released. A spin-off title and sequel to the narrative, Far Cry New Dawn, was released in February 15, 2019.
Gameplay
Similar to its predecessors, Far Cry 5 is an action-adventure first-person shooter set in an open world environment which the player can explore freely on foot or via various vehicles. Unlike previous titles in the series where the player takes on the role of a set character, the game gives the player the opportunity to customize their character's appearance. While the player has a variety of ranged and explosive weapons to fight against enemies, the game places a renewed emphasis on close-quarters combat compared to previous Far Cry titles by introducing a wider range of melee weapons. In addition, Far Cry 5 features a new weapons ballistics system that includes elements like a bullet dropping over a distance to make it more realistic.
Creative director Dan Hay described the design of the open world as being modeled on the outposts from previous titles in the Far Cry series. These outposts represented a small section of the map occupied by enemy forces and the player was tasked with liberating them by killing or neutralizing the enemy presence. The outposts were designed with multiple approaches for the player to take and it was this element that the development team tried to recreate in the wider game world of Far Cry 5. The player is dropped into the game world with little context, direction or objective markers and is instead required to navigate the world on their own. Hay expressed a desire to create what he termed the "anecdote factory", a game where two players could venture out from the same point in opposite directions and have entirely different experiences that they would then share with one another anecdotally. To assist with this, most of the game world is accessible to the player after completing the game's introductory missions and they are free to advance through these areas as they choose; by comparison, previous titles in the series gradually opened up the game world to the player with story missions guiding their progress through open areas. Completing actions within a region earns the player "Resistance Points" which cumulate to trigger major story events. These Resistance Points also contribute to the "Resistance Meter", which divides each region into three tiers represents the region's relative level of difficulty. For example, on entering a region for the first time, the player will encounter basic enemies; however, as the Resistance Meter increases, the player will run into a wider variety of enemy archetypes, culminating in aerial patrols and airborne assaults.
The game also features a recruitment system in which the player can recruit locals in the county to fight alongside them similar to the "Buddy" system used in Far Cry 2 or the "Guns for Hire" system in Far Cry 4. In this Guns for Hire system, the player can recruit locals to join their cause at which point they will fight alongside the player. In addition to these Guns for Hire, the game also includes "Specialists" or non-playable characters with their own unique skills and personalities. The recruitment system replaces the beacon system used in previous titles. For example, Far Cry 3 featured radio towers and Far Cry 4 featured bell towers that the player had to climb in order to open up parts of the map and various activities in the region. Far Cry 5 removed this system and instead relies on the player forging relationships with other characters to discover story missions, events and other characters.
The player has the ability to tame wild animals through the Specialists, which is based on a system that was previously introduced to the series in Far Cry Primal. The tamed wildlife will assist the player in combat and follow the player's orders. Different wildlife have different combat patterns. A fishing mechanic was also introduced and a variety of fish can be caught. The campaign can be played individually or with a partner through the game's cooperative multiplayer mode known as "Friends for Hire".
The game is set in the fictional Hope County, Montana, where a preacher named Joseph Seed (portrayed by Greg Bryk) has risen to prominence. Seed believes that he has been chosen by God to protect the people of Hope County from "the Collapse", a global catastrophe that will see the collapse of society, and to this end has established a congregation called the Project at Eden's Gate. Ostensibly, this is to fulfill his mission of leading the people to salvation; in reality, Seed is a radical preacher and Eden's Gate is a militaristic doomsday cult. Under his rule, Eden's Gate has used both coercion and violence to forcibly convert the residents of Hope County, and intimidation to keep them from contacting the outside world for help. Seed has assumed the title of "the Father" and maintains control over Hope County with the aid of the Heralds: Jacob, "the Soldier" (Mark Pellegrino), a former United States Army sniper and Joseph's older brother who oversees the training and deployment of the cult's armed soldiers; John, "the Baptist" (Seamus Dever), Joseph's younger brother and a lawyer who has been able to acquire much of the land in Hope County for Eden's Gate and who leads the forcible conversion of residents; and Rachel Jessop, also known as Faith or "the Siren" (Jenessa Grant), a botanist who acts as a pacifist to bring the people to trust in Joseph, but uses a powerful hallucinogen called Bliss to run forced labour camps for residents who resist the cult. The Heralds have converted a series of decommissioned missile silos into fortified bunkers where they intend to wait out "the Collapse" with the cult's followers.
