1.5/5 ★ – MPT's review of Far Cry 5.

starts and ends with such a bang that it nearly distracts you from how dumbed-down and mediocre everything in between is. feels like it was made 20 years ago and put in the freezer then microwaved for release in 2018. the presentation of key moments of the story is genuinely impressive. Far Cry’s always been good at their settings, premises, and obviously villains, and 5 is (kinda) no exception. fighting an extremist doomsday cult in mountainous Hope County is as Far Cry as it comes, and the explosive opening and pretty ballsy ending were great. it straight up makes Joseph more interesting and nuanced knowing how influential and right he actually was. while he just yaps symbolic religious fake-deep Lonesome Road Ulysses-esque shit a lot of the time, he’s still interesting. not the best villain there is (especially not in the series) but he’s got enough of a presence at least. his family is a mixed bag, with Faith being endearing while Jacob and especially John were just forgettable nothing characters. there’s honestly precisely zero side characters or companions that are memorable and/ or likeable, minus the animals (love you Cheeseburger, Hurk stfu dude). admittedly there’s some funny sandbox shenanigans inside Far Cry 5, mainly due to the amount and types of tools it shoves in your hands. whoever added throwing weapons needs to be put in charge of Ubisoft ong. there’s the huge arsenals of weaponry and vehicles, basic but amusing character customisation, unpredictability of the open world etc etc. but how you enjoy it is limited by how braindead and basic the game’s systems and technical aspects are. legit Far Cry 2 feels 10x more advanced than this. perk system is boring, hunting and the companion system are atrocious, basically every side mission and side character you’ll never remember again. add that the AI is abysmal, vehicles despawn in front of your eyes, glitches are frequent and the graphics are dogwater and you have one of the most forgettable games i’ve played in a longggg time. can’t say i didn’t enjoy the usual Far Cry mischief like grappling cliffs and wingsuiting around the map and setting forests on fire but this is a game that pretends it’s a new thing by adding planes and fishing (which are fire btw) while doubling down on simplicity and as a result butchering some of Far Cry’s key systems. why tf would you ever play this when Far Cry 2, 3 and 4 exist ?