When Ubisoft Games Embraced Being Work (FarCry 5 Review Pt. 1)

Publisher: UbiSoft
Genre: Action/RPG
Rated: M
Available: PC, XB1, PS4
Far Cry 3 was described as “Skyrim with guns.” When I first heard that review I joked that calling anything “Skyrim with guns” clearly hasn’t visited the mod community. The bigger draw, however, was its villain, Vaas, voiced by Michael Mando, whose performance has put Vaas on “Best Villain” lists since the game debuted.

Far Cry 3 was innovative, critics said, because of the open world, the creativity allowed to the player, and the numerous tasks, collectibles, and multiple ways to traverse the islands, as well as multiplayer and co-op modes. Setpieces were the norm for story missions, as well as heavy drug use for magical realism, trips, and flashbacks. Oh, and the main character has been to the shooting range a couple of times so he knows how to handle a .50 rifle and a light machine gun.

Essentially, it was Assassin’s Creed done in first person with a lot more White Savior cliché. It introduced series characters Willis Huntley, a maybe-government agent and kind of a dick, and Hurk, a bro-tastic good ol’ boy that loves blowing shit up.

Far Cry 4 continues the saga, which features a Asian lead, an openly gay villain who is just done with everything, and factions that, in the end, are both sending the country to hell in a handbasket if you side with them. The game even offers you the opportunity to win the game in a walk if you’re able to sit still for 15 minutes. Also, Willis Huntley returns as a maybe-government agent and kind of a dick, and Hurk comes back as a bro-tastic good ol’ boy who loves blowing shit up. It’s not “Skyrim with guns”, it’s “Far Cry 3 with… pretty much the exact same guns and gameplay,” except this time at least it’s not a white dudebro blundering into a culture he doesn’t understand and assuming that he knows better than everyone else, so everyone’s trying to use you. Instead, you’re playing a culturally appropriate main character who doesn’t understand the culture, so everyone’s trying to use you except the villain. Oh, and the main character was in the military, we guess, so he totally knows how to use all of those weapons while riding an elephant.

This brings us to Far Cry 5.

The main character is… whatever the Hell you want, really. Your character is from Hope County, Montana, so you understand the local culture… we guess. You’re playing a Junior Deputy to a County Sherriff, a position that is appointed, not hired, so you don’t even need law enforcement experience to get the job. Also, you’re a rookie, a “probie”, actually, a probationary member, so you don’t even really have the job yet and you can use apparently proficiently utilize a plethora, a PLETHORA, I SAY. OF EXOTIC HEAVY WEAPONS and…

Okay. Deep breaths. Happy place.

I had to tell myself that my protagonist was a refugee/former freedom fighter to maintain suspension of disbelief. I don’t recommend it, it makes the villains even crueler.

But Far Cry 5 is beautiful. I’ll say that off the bat. It’s a gorgeous game, I could drive around Hope County looking for fishing spots all day. The game even has NPCs that advise you to take a breather every now and then, look around, see the majesty of Montana, the beauty of the valley, and take a minute to appreciate what it is that you’re fighting for.

And I would, if not for, you know, the rampant domestic terrorism that you can hear going on at all times, the kidnapper vans full of citizens taken by the cultists that drive by every 90 seconds, and the cultist 178m away that’s trying to “baptize” a woman against her will who will likely kill and/or rape her when he’s done.

Far Cry 5 also features the return of Willis Huntley, a maybe-government agent who’s kind of a dick, and Hurk, a bro-tastic good ol’ boy who loves blowing shit up.

The Far Cry series is a flagship series of Ubisoft, and Ubisoft found their formula: Open world, mission creativity, bonkers amounts of collectibles, memorable villains, and a story (we guess) that will at some point involve drug use, magic, and/or flashbacks. It means when you drop your $60 on an Ubisoft game (if you don’t also drop $40 on the “Season Pass”), you’re looking at 40-80 hours of gameplay just on the single player mode.

Far Cry 5 is… Well it’s an Ubisoft game. In that it’s not so much a game as it’s a job, now. In Far Cry 3 and 4, if you wanted to zip through the story and to Hell with everything else, you could. It would be tougher, but you could do it. It was skipping missions you didn’t like so that you could play the stuff you wanted. If you wanted to just fill your plate with your favorite dish, gorge it, and let the rest collect dust, Ubisoft didn’t care. They already had your money, after all.

In Far Cry 5, you’re going to eat your goddamned vegetables if you’re going to see any screen time from those villains, buster. You’ve got to EARN those setpieces. You need to WORK to get that ending, buddy.

And that’s why, despite having Far Cry 5 since launch, I’ve put more hours into The Sims 4 than Far Cry 5, because the latter feels like a job. Boot up, wait for uPlay to log me in, tell it that no, I don’t want randos dropping into my game, and then run around doing random missions, open world objectives, collecting various Montana bric-a-brac until I trigger the next step in the region’s plot and get my next setpiece. I put in a couple hours and sigh every time I boot it up, because I paid money for this and I’m past the refund line.

Even Euro Truck Simulator 2, which is literally working a boring job, doesn’t feel as much like drudgery.

The setting is different, yes, the characters are different, but it’s still, in the end, an Ubisoft game. I will have to deal with people attacking in an open world, sneaking into an outpost or going in guns blazing, collect useless crap so I might get a marginally better weapon than what I got at the beginning of the game, I’ll deal with mini-bosses that are more developed than the final villain, I’ll probably have a messed up drug trip or flashback, and it will comprise of two weeks of sustained effort in my life to finish it.

This is what Ubisoft is up against, and it could be considered that you just can’t build a better mousetrap, but generally when you hit a working formula, you stick with it until you’re finished. You let the Twitch streamers do the rest, finding fun in dropping flaming SUVs from the sky onto the last guy in an outpost, or using a pointless sci-fi gun to launch grizzly bears into the air and boop their noses before they get up and resume mauling you to death.

If you’re just there for the story, though, you’ll find it lacking, especially in this offering, which I’ll get into in Part 2. For now, it’s apropos that the enemy in Far Cry 5 is a cult. After all, cults often tell you that you can leave at any time, but you don’t, so it’s your choice to stay. They turned the game into a job, and now have, like a cult, certain tasks and requirements and time to put in before you reach “the next level”. But, of course, you can leave at any time.

After all, it's not like they’re stopping you.