There is one section in Far Cry 5 I really liked, to not spoil much, it plays on your Pavlovian instincts as a gamer pretty well. It was very shocking, but upon looking at online discussion for the game, I realized that most people were disappointed with it, they were not necessarily missing the point, but frustrated as the game handled this unique section the same way as the rest of the game. There was no surprise because the game was a mess of narrative design, forcing players who want to play the sandbox stuff into mandatory turret sections, walk and talk sections, and bad boss fights. And it made me think, "man I would have loved that sequence in a better game." If someone has to say that about your game, chances are that you have put no substance into it whatsoever.

This game had the potential to prove itself with amazing sandbox variety and some of the most engaging emergent gameplay in the series, yet it had to ruin itself with one of the most gutless, jaw-dropping immature narratives I have had the displeasure of playing.

Far Cry 5 is a mechanical improvement above all else. Most of its gameplay takes place in the stunning fictional Hope County, Montana. It is diverse geologically and rich in its own lore and cult-y culture. You'll hear cult chants and strangely catchy religious tunes on your car rides constantly. The new Specialist system is fun to interact with for the most part. The moment to moment gameplay is pretty great at the start, and the game shows promise of threading its narrative fully with the open world for once, but its only promise. Soon you realize most of the game is just doing the same objectives over again for 20 hours with little story interaction... but that story... oh do I have a lot to say about it.

The game starts with a strong, haunting opening. Despite it showing some of modern Ubisoft's ridiculously amateurish storytelling (seriously the sheriff is named Whitehorse... wow so creative), it still struck a nerve with me making me compelled to play and take it seriously... and then the rest of the game happens. What follows is a 20 hour quest where the main story is both undercut by aggressively bad campaign design, characters that have either no impact on the story or have to be stupid to advance the plot, and eye-rolling nihilistic writing while also trying to tackle real world problems. It reads like a jaded 14 year old wrote the story, no scratch that I actually think teenagers would have better and more empathetic writing chops than the writing team for this game.

The games themes are about American Fanaticism and Liberty. It is a story about getting your own back and fighting for what is yours. But that is on the surface level, and anytime the game asks a question, it does one of two things. One: it stays on the surface level and uses the most insulting and predatory logic to never interact with itself, or two: it tries to drag real world rhetoric into the game, only to meander on it rather than investigate on it further. It is shockingly bad.

I say predatory because this game goes to really shady lengths to portray some elements of the United States. The main faction you side with are doomsday preppers in this game, and I have to say that portraying the mentally ill (hoarder syndrome, possible personality disorders) as these mega bad-asses that are the top of the line, the wolves of America, is utterly patronizing. It glorifies a serious issue in USA culture and uses it as set dressing only, not bringing attention to the actual issue.

Lets not forget when this game tries to bring real-world discussions into the narrative. The game will call out something happening in modern America, like Christian Fanaticism or the Religious/Cult grooming, yet will diminish its villains to just buzzwords and finger-wave any attempt to actually say something. Fuck it even brings up the Trump Administration, but what does it do with it, it makes a couple of gross jokes at the expense of real world problems, and finger wags at you saying "look we brought him up yes him ha ha aren't we so smart and cutting edge." A truly smart narrative that wanted to tackle the problems of a post-2016 USA would have actually interwoven it into the plot rather than having the outlandish and so far separate from reality villain and setting elaborate on the problems rather than throwing in a reference to earn short lived brownie points. Fuck it you could have sided with the guy and that would be more gutsy than whatever fence sitting crap that these conformists wrote.

Not to mention the notoriously fart-smelling ending. Everyone knows it, I know it, the ending fucking sucks. It says that the only way to resist is to be utterly gutless and walk away from people actively getting hurt, it puts the blame of a nuclear holocaust on you. My immediate reaction to this was wondering if the writing department actually ever grew out of their edgy 15 year old centrist phase. "he he he you are an idiot for even trying to help he he he" Like shut the hell up, you aren't as smart as you think you are. You are telling players around the world, especially in the United States to ignore the world and be selfish, what a terrible way to end your game on.

Far Cry 5 is Ubisoft slop at its worst most of the time, playful some of the time, and at its peak of its game design precisely once for ten minutes. With a narrative so insistent of it's childish beliefs and views of the world and gameplay that gets dry pretty quickly because of inherent lack of difficulty curve, I could not recommend this game at all.