Today (perhaps wanting to cleanse my palette due to recently cutting a terrible person out of my life), I finished the story in the latest installment of Ubisoft’s open world action game series and have a short review for anyone wondering what the experience of playing the game was like. I rescued the people in distress, defeated the big bad guy and brought hope to the fictitious Hope County, Montana. Though I had fun, towards the end of the game, I started to have issues. So, with this now known, here’s what I thought was good and bad about Far Cry 5 (we all know I was a bit bothered by one actor in the game) and how the game is on an overall level. For those unfamiliar, the story centers around stopping an evil cult in the Big Sky state, which is massive.

The Good

Ubisoft really listened to fans of the series who felt the last couple of games (4 and primal) were too similar to Far Cry 3, gone are the exotic locales (past games took place in Asia and Africa) and in their place is good old fashioned American territory. Driving around Montana is a kick, the land is beautiful and not having to climb towers to reveal anything anymore is a nice change. There’s a broad array of activities aside from shooting and the missions where you recreate the famous adventures of Evel Knievel-like stuntman Clutch Nixon were my personal best moments.

The Bad

However, in spite of these changes, the formula for this series is beginning to grow stale and a mismatched tone made me wildly disinterested in the overall story. Running around and clearing bases and taking down the monologuing lieutenants of a main monologuing bad guy can only be so fun before you start to feel like you’re playing a shooting game developed by one of EA’s sports game developers. It’s repetitive and only good for a few hours, not hundreds or more like the French publisher is hoping for from their fans. Throw this in with a game narrative which tries to be serious…and then has you go and collect bull testicles for people to eat alongside a bear named Cheeseburger while Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing plays in the background, and you’ve got something where (much like Grand Theft Auto) it becomes more about the carnage than the content for many players. Future games need to be either serious or silly and not a mix.

The Verdict

I like Far Cry 5, but I’d like a leaner and less conflicted version of it even better. Solid gameplay is present in this entry, but over time becomes stale and is smothered by a story where silly side moments undercut any drama the developers wanted the player to feel. If you haven’t played a game in the series, pick this one up. If you have, you’ll like some changes, but may get bored.