Far Cry 5: Religious Tyranny or "How everything can go berserk?"

As an old style gamer, I like to take my time with a game. I'm not part of the new breed, the interconnected gamer who is used to fight human fellows on the other side of the optic fibre. Instead, I enjoy single player games, in a multitude of forms; taking my time in order to check out the complexity of today's creations. A lot of the titles I play, I grew up with and later I started growing old with. It's like seeing a small baby evolving, learning new things and being part of history.

Far Cry: There's something about it

I haven't been a fan of this series until I played the third title. Skipping the original title makes me an infidel I guess but by the time I played Far Cry 2, the graphics and the interactivity of the first one were not attractive to me anymore. During my hard gaming years (when I would ignore pussy over gaming) losing my time with an old title, when there were so many newcomers every day, would've been a waste of time. I remember I played Far Cry 2 on a computer that was making the game lag so bad that driving a car inside the game was a total pain in the ass. And that was the good half of the game. Still, I fell in love with the machete (as a bloody melee weapon) and the Sniper Rifle. In a time when Delta Force was the top game for playing sniper, Far Cry came as a breath of fresh air.

Far Cry 3 was also a turning point for me as I played it on an XBOX 360 and it changed my perspective when it came to classical shooters. With that graphics engine that created a lush vegetation which reacted to physical, independent stimulus, the game was a masterpiece.

I never finished Far Cry 4. That's because there was something there, in the whole gameplay, that ruined it for me. That title and the one following (Primal) were two titles that didn't really got me to finish them. Maybe it's my age already, maybe it's the fact that the console really does ruin the joy of a shooter, because of the controls, but the fact is that I never got to the end of those stories. Somehow, the smaller quests on the map were too damn redundant for me. Probably I put too much effort into the side quests when I should concentrate on the main story but I like the feeling I got when I finish a game close to its total completion.

The Seed Family - sick, twisted motherfuckers

Everything in Far Cry 5, revolves around 3 bastards and a bitch: Joseph (a.k.a. the Father), John, Jacob and Faith - notice the biblic names right? They are Eden's Gate, a religious cult who, with the help of a certain drug they manufacture from some flowers, manage to produce an entire army of "zombie-like men", in a fictive area of Montana, called Hope County. You are one of the deputies that should've taken Joseph to jail at the beginning of the game, but, as all beginnings have to go bollocks, you get to be the hero after, of course, you and your buddies don't manage to take the sick bastard to his prosecution.

As in all main titles of the franchise, you have to liberate the map. Which is by no means small. If it weren't for the "Fast Travel" option I think I would feel the tiredness in my real feet, that's how big it is and everything is explorable. Almost all of the buildings too (a little black ball there because ALL buildings should be explorable in 2018).

What you will notice from the very first moment in this game is the fact that the whole story is revolving around this culture of overzealous Christian believers, that develop this sect based on drug abuse, prayer abuse and MOST IMPORTANT, based on conspiracy theories. It seems that the developers of the game (Ubisoft Montreal, of course) have tried to align the actual situation of a lot of places in the world but especially "Amurica". The alarmingly high rate of people believing in all sorts of "doom's day" theories and "occult forces" is increasing all around the world (I know, because my country is heavily hit by this stupid wave) and the whole story of the game is revolving around this; also around the preppers that were ready for shit to hit the fan. So, all around the map, you'll have to check stashes and bunkers that have a lot of Armageddon useful stuff (guns, ammo, food).

Of course that this main title wouldn't be complete about the freedom of transport and self-manifestation around the map. You can climb, drive (different types of cars and trucks, boats, planes and helicopters), you can base jump and use your wingsuit or just parachute and you can fast travel AIR DROPPING from 2000 meters - so cool - so when you want to storm someplace out, you can be "the death from above". The options are quite infinite and this contributes to the overall feeling of not getting bored. This, together with the fact that the sidequests are unique (because of the multitude of places around the map) manage to drag the franchise from that redundant feeling I was telling you about a little bit earlier.

I love this game and it's been a long time since I fell in love with a shooter. Love the aiming system, love the way you get to control your possy and also I love the way you can go on being stealthy and liberate outposts without anyone noticing the neck breaking frenzy, but you can also go full throttle and kill everybody in your path.

More than anything else, I love the voice acting. The people that lend their voices in order to create the characters of this game have to be appreciated as real actors. At least to me, these people made the whole experience of the game complete and in these many nights that I've lost playing the game, with the headphones on my head, the sounds, the voices and the music made this episode of the series an incredible play.

I'm still struggling to finish it, I have another region to liberate and then face Joseph but I know I'll not let this one slide as I'm totally addicted to it.

 

Posted also on my blog www.ddma.ro, a place on the world wide web where I'm trying to promote Steemit, my writings and my country. In that order. I post through the @steempress-io plugin and I make my life easier (writing and formatting in Wordpress is much easier than on steemit.com or busy.org).