Far Cry 5 Review

The latest Far Cry game launched a few months back and its it’s well past time to do a review. The game takes place in Hope County, Montana and follows a sheriff’s deputy, controlled by the player character, as they attempt to arrest Joseph Seed, the leader of a cult known as “The Project at Eden’s Gate”. After the arrest fails and the other law enforcement agents who went with you to arrest Joseph are captured, the player character teams up with the resistance, made up of the people living within Hope County who hate the cult. After liberating Dutch’s Island, the player is then sent out to go and liberate the other three regions and defeat the cult leaders in each area: Henbane River, controlled by Faith Seed, Whitetail Mountain, controlled by Jacob Seed, and Holland Valley, controlled by John Seed. Defeating the three cult leaders will force a confrontation between the player and Joseph Seed.

Below, I will discuss some functions of the game, the story, and other features in the game.

Story

The story sounded promising. Taking down a cult that is terrorizing a whole region? That sounds great and while the game is loaded with activities in order to cripple the operations of the cult, it fails to go much further past basic “go here, take out these guys, rinse and repeat” actions. There are several cult strongholds and checkpoints that can be taken out for the Resistance, but the means of getting them are all the same: eliminate the cultists at the checkpoint, blow up this, and so on. After a while, it isn’t fun anymore. It just seems like endless grinding in order to get to the end of that section of the game or the end if the game itself. That isn’t to say that the game itself isn’t fun to play, but the mechanics of grinding through missions that are very similar in design in order to force confrontations between the cult leaders and the player character is a little frustrating and irritating to say the least.

John Seed

Arguably the most charismatic of the Seed Family is John Seed, who is in charge of the Holland Valley at the start of the game and has a tight grip on the area. Through the efforts of the player, the region can be liberated from the cult and John will capture the player character a few times before a final fight occurs at Fall’s End, a town that the player can liberate and is prompted to liberate upon reaching Holland Valley. Part of John’s character is “the power of yes”, a saying he utters numerous times throughout his storyline. The meaning behind it is that John believes that everyone’s sins (one of the seven deadly sins) can be forgiven by saying yes to the cult cleansing you of the apparent sin. The cleansing involves having your sin tattooed onto your body, sweating on the “book of Joseph” (the cult’s bible essentially), and swear to atone for the sin. After which, the tattoo is them forcibly removed from your body.

According to John’s past, he was psychologically tortured by his adoptive family and forced to admit sins he himself never committed, which is why he is good at manipulation and hiding who he really was, showing people what they wanted to see in him.

While fighting against the cult, one can help Pastor Jerome Jeffries ( a pastor within Fall’s End), Mary May Fairgrave (a bartender in Fall’s End), and Nick Rye (a pilot who has a newborn child with his wife). During the final confrontation with John, he arrives at Fall’s End, taking all of the locals and rounding them up for atonement, including the player character. After a firefight, John flees and takes a plane. Nick and the player character then fight John in the sky, taking out his plane before heading to John’s bunker and finally killing him, ending his reign of terror in the Holland Valley region and allowing the player to access John’s bunker and free Deputy Hudson.

Jacob Seed

Jacob Seed is the leader of the cultists occupying the Whitetail Mountain region. Jacob uses a method he calls “culling the herd” in which he conditions those he captures into becoming killing machines. Jacob is easily the “strongest” of the Seed Family in terms of brutality and mindset when it comes to conflict and fighting the player character as Jacob has prior military experience. Jacob uses his method to not only convert captives into becoming trained killers but also uses it in an effort to kill off the weak, as they won’t be able to survive his trials and conditioning. The player character helps the Whitetail Militia build up their forces and take on the cult. During one of Jacob’s trials, the player character is conditioned and accidentally kills a man named Ely, the man leading the Whitetail Militia.

According to Jacob’s past,

During the confrontation with Jacob Seed, the player character must take out several cultists before finally being able to take him out for good. Upon his death, players gain access to his bunker and are now tasked with freeing Deputy Pratt.

Faith Seed

Faith Seed uses the chemical drug called Bliss, which the cult developed to take control of the Henbane River. Bliss is essentially a hallucinatory drug that has nasty effects on people exposed to it, turning some into what the cult calls “angels” and turning once wild animals into cult controlled animals called “judges”.

According to Faith’s past, she was abused by her actual family and turned to drugs for comfort as a result. Eventually she met Joseph Seed and he welcomed her to the Project at Eden’s Gate and helped her break her drug addiction.

In the final confrontation with Faith, the player character is forced to deal with a bliss-induced hallucination that causes the character to see Faith numerous times while trying to engage her in a firefight along with several of the cults “angels”. After defeating Faith, the player is then prompted to go to Faith’s compound and destroy the compound in order to save Sheriff Whitehorse, who has been exposed to the bliss drug for a while now and is on the verge of suicide, and to stop more bliss from being created.

Joseph Seed (“The Father”)

After taking out John, Jacob, and Faith, the player can now meet up with Joseph Seed in a final confrontation.

According to Joseph himself, his pregnant wife was killed in a car crash and his child survived. He describes his daughter as “a pink bundle with tubes”. Believing he heard the voice of god, Joseph sadistically killed his own daughter in order to “prove himself” as being willing to do whatever god asked him to.

During the final confrontation with Joseph Seed, it is revealed that he has captured most of the people you have helped along the way to this point and is controlling them with bliss. Joseph gives you the option to take your friends (Deputy Pratt, Deputy Hudson, and Sheriff Whitehorse) and leave or you can choose to deny his offer and resist. From here, there are two options that allow for different endings, which is what will be discussed next.

Endings

Option 1- Resist

If you choose to deny Joseph’s offer, he lashes out and orders your friends to attack you. You must then take them down and get them back on your side. Once you get them all back, you can take down Joseph Seed… or so it seems. Before anything can happen to Joseph, some explosions are heard: nuclear bombs of course. The player, Joseph, Deputy Pratt, Deputy Hudson, and Sheriff Whitehorse head to Dutch’s bunker from the beginning of the game, dodging trees that are falling and explosions on the way there. Before they arrive, the car collides with a tree and Joseph escapes, bringing the player to safety in Dutch’s bunker after killing Dutch and leaving the others in the car to die. Joseph talks about how the player is his new family and that they will rebuild the world.

Option 2- Accept

Joseph allows the player and the police officials to leave, but not the others. They leave in a car and Sheriff Whitehorse talks about getting the national guard to come in and help clean this mess up. Whitehorse turns on the radio and the song used during the players conditioning plays and the player seemingly attacks the others in the car.

Neither are great endings, as it essentially means that no matter what the cult wins as most of the character are brainwashed by the bliss.

Secret Ending

In the beginning of the game, if the player character decides not to try and arrest Joseph in his church, the player and the other arresting officers will leave, with the US Marshall threatening the player for his actions but Sheriff Whitehorse assures him that it was a trap.

Rating

I would give Far Cry 5 a 4/5 star rating. The game, while it does fall into some repetition problems in terms of some of the story mechanics, is worthwhile and does provide some entertaining experiences for players and additionally, it includes some cultural reflections on current, past, and potential future events without being totally politically charged at the same time. The antagonists are entertaining and fun to watch and there is a clear path to success in terms of trying to take down the cult. Despite its downsides, the game is still a good one.