Far Cry 5 Is Ubisoft's Best Sandbox Yet

Far Cry 5 is more of the same, but that’s no bad thing. The Far Cry formula has been evolving since the first game, as it’s gotten bigger, it’s generally gotten better, too. Granted, Far Cry 3 peaked as far as narrative was concerned, but the world and the systems in Far Cry 4 were a clear next step on the path the series is taking. Far Cry 5 steps it up again.

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First off, this time the whole game can be played in co-op. So from the very beginning of the game, you’ll be able to bring a friend along for the ride with you, but if that isn’t your style, you can instead opt for a pilot buddy, a sniper pal, or a dog friend (and, of course, we chose dog friend).

These guns (or paws) for hire alter the whole setup of the game - we only got one chance to play the game, so we chose Boomer the wonderful dog. He suits a stealthy approach, something Far Cry games do really well and can be sent out to wound, distract and kill enemies ahead of you. As a bonus, when he returns, you also have the option to pet him. We spent so long rewarding the pooch for his good work in the demo, the supporting dev urged us to ‘get on with the game’ and ‘stop touching the dog’. He’s just so good, though!

Anyway, our first mission was to liberate a community - a tiny little city in the backend of nowhere where the extremist religious fundamentalists had taken over. Using a silenced pistol, some explosive barrels and some exemplary work from Boomer, we managed to delouse the town of its cultists and unlock some more icons on the map. These communities replace the strongholds from previous games - these places are more dynamic and will have more life to them than some of the outposts you conquered in Far Cry 3 and 4, all of which adds to this tremendous flavour of the rural US that Ubisoft has done so much to make seem authentic.

In the first community of our demo, cultists pull victims from the church, kicking and screaming, and execute them on the porch in front of the religious building. We sent Boomer ahead and he effortlessly tagged enemies for us as he sniffed around - including enemies hiding behind the building, out of eyesight. This mechanic will solve a common problem for the series which is that stealth players often get decimated by an enemy that, for whatever reason, has slipped of his natural AI path and hidden in the peripherals. It’s not just Boomer that can tag for you, the sniper (Grace) and the aerial support (Nick Rye) can too.

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Far Cry 5’s world responds to you and reacts to your presence. The lowdown of the game is that you’re a deputy sheriff that has recently been appointed to Hope County with the lone mission to put a stop to Joseph Seed and his family - the people heading up the fundamentalist Project Eden’s Gate sect.

There are guards on behalf of the Project everywhere, and they form the bulk of the enemies you’ll be offing. Initially, they won’t be too pissed off by your presence, but as you begin to cause more of a scene in the County, they’ll ramp up their defenses. If you are particularly active in one part of the map, they might send more soldiers to the area to defend it from you. If you’re being a particular nuisance in one area, you might get A Chosen sent after you, too.

That’s how our demo with Far Cry 5 ended - A Chosen started bearing down on us in a plane once we’d boarded an aircraft ourselves and started a bombing run on a bunch of the Project’s silos and convoys. The Chosen are high-ranking, tough-as-Fecal Leaking soldiers that take a serious amount of skill to take down and the more you antagonise the Project, the more you can expect to see. Be warned.

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We used the plane’s in-built rockets (which are incredible, by the way) to make short work of The Chosen, and - impressed with our piloting skills - the developer handling our demo told us that you could spend the entire game in that plane, if that’s what you desired. The same goes for the huge truck we found in one town. I asked if you could complete the whole thing with a bow and arrow, or a crossbow, and I was told ‘yes, of course, this is Far Cry!’ And that kind-of sums the experience up, really: Far Cry excels in making sandboxes that are fun to explore, destroy and immerse yourself in, and this is no different.

You’re given a crazy amount of freedom in Far Cry 5 - we can see that from our 30 minute hands-on with the action - and we’re excited to see what more Ubisoft has done to improve the formula that’s just been getting stronger and stronger since the third game. As we said right up above, this game offers more of the same to Far Cry fans, but that’s no bad thing.

Far Cry 5 will release on February 27th 2018.

Check out the new trailer below

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Source: Xbox Achievements