With the official announcement trailer for Far Cry 5 releasing recently, fans of the series rejoiced for the newest installment of their beloved series. Better yet, it's coming out in February of next year, meaning that 2018 will most definitely start off with a bang. The trailer also promises us a whole new Far Cry campaign against the backdrop of Montana. Vicious dogfights played out over the amber fields blowing silently below, gun fights chewing up the streets of a small American town, and vicious animals mauling friend and foe alike. Gamers saw this and were excited. Unfortunately, their excitement is misplaced; the hype train will be making multiple stops in 2018, but it will express right past Far Cry 5's empty platform.
As a self-proclaimed Far Cry fan, I came to this sorrowful conclusion. This isn't easy for me, and I figure it won't be easy for you. But, we can get through the pain, like removing a bullet from your arm even though you got shot in the head. Sorry to all the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC Far Cry fans who were excited. Sit down mercenaries, cassowaries, and fellow gamers, here are 15 Reasons Why Far Cry 5 Is Going To Suck.
15 No Exotic Wildlife
I’m excited that Far Cry is coming to the States; I think it’s a much better backdrop than some generic tropical island turned mercenary shooting range. But with the States environment comes the animals that usually accompany said landscape. There’s nothing wrong with bears, pumas, and the like, but it really restricts any type of exotic animal from making an appearance.
The honey badgers that inspired so many gamers to scream in terror, hopelessly lobbing grenades and spraying in a panic before jumping off the side of a cliff are gone. The stealthy packs of cassowaries that stalked you through the jungle, waiting for the best chance to pounce will be absent. The eagles that will randomly attack your face with their terrifyingly large talons mid-gunfight will most likely not be included as well. Disappointing to say the least.
14 Yes, We Recycle
Although Far Cry Primal is the culprit, it still sets the precedent for the company as a whole. When fans of the series started playing Primal they realized something odd; the map looked awfully familiar, as did the textures, and other elements of the game. Only after did they realize that they looked familiar for a reason; they were the same ones that were used in Far Cry 4.
In one of many blatant disregards of gamer’s intelligence, Ubisoft figured that gamers are too busy lining their pockets with money and mindlessly consuming whatever they have thrown in front of them that they wouldn’t notice some recycled assets from a game that many fans put hundreds of hours into. For shame Ubisoft.
13 No Couch Co-Op
I know this seems like a worthless point in 2017, but I miss couch co-op. Most gamers seem perfectly content with letting it wither and die to the superior one screen experience of online only multiplayer, but that’s blasphemy. Sometimes the task of actually interacting with one of my friends falls into my lap in real life, and we need to be able to sit down and play a game in the same room.
The possibility of Far Cry 5 having couch co-op is extremely minuscule, especially being an AAA game developed by Ubisoft. The only real way I could see it making it into the game is if they somehow included it as DLC, and I’m not paying fifteen dollars to access a feature that used to be a requirement in most games of the past twenty years.
12 The Customization Seems Pretty Meh
A lot of fans are excited about the aspect of being able to change the gender and skin color of their protagonist for the first time in the Far Cry series. But compared to other games that allow customization, the choices that Ubisoft is throwing to gamers are pretty lackluster.
In the age of games like Skyrim or virtually every other game that allows customization these aren’t really options. When games allow you to manipulate menus upon menus of sliders, options, and color wheels; the addition of “you can be a girl this time!” is incredibly lame. I doubt that the game will respond to your gender or skin choices and if they do, they’ll be pretty lackluster.
11 It’s Another Far Cry Game
I started my tumultuous relationship with the Far Cry series with the first installment on PC after seeing the rave reviews from critics and fellow gamers alike. I was awestruck by the turquoise water filled with sea turtles and colorful tropical fish, the lush jungles patrolled by roving bands of mercenaries, and the mutated horrors that made an appearance in the latter half of the game.
Far Cry 2 was cool too, minus a few annoyances like managing malaria, and cars that controlled like their wheels were covered in butter. Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4 dropped and were awesome, yet they were just more of the same. Primal was released and promptly put on sale. Now, we have Far Cry 5. I know that publishers, especially Ubisoft, don’t care what installment they’re on and how stale the gameplay is as long as the money keeps flowing. Would it kill them to make a new IP? Maybe something that wasn’t “kill everything, with everything, all the time” that we see in 95% of releases?
10 Ubisoft Has A History Of Screwing Up
God, do they ever. I don’t know if it’s a requirement of being an AAA video game production company, but they all have a tendency of getting way too focused on their coffers and leaving players high and dry as they drive a beloved series into the dirt all in the name of a few extra dollars.
Ubisoft has a serious tendency to promise gamers the moon, only to hand them a plastic space shuttle from the space camp gift shop at launch. Their games are also fraught with glitches that never get patched, repetitive gameplay mechanics that are a headache inducing after the first few hours, and just the all around nonsense that gamers the world over have come to expect from a major publisher. If their history of misleading trailers is any indication, Far Cry 5 will totally suck.
9 The Development Team Made Far Cry 3 & 4
I have to agree with the majority of gamers when they say that Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4 were the finest entries in the series. Everything was laid out near perfectly, the gameplay was tight and engaging (at first at least), and players sunk hundreds of hours just messing around in the expertly crafted sandboxes Ubisoft sold us.
But is this a case of too much is not enough? Far Cry 3 was awesome, Far Cry 4 was cool but pretty much the same thing, and Far Cry 5? I mean, where else is there to go but down when you keep making the same game over and over? This could very well be a big step in the declination of the series, which is inevitable after a series goes on for so long.
8 No Word Of Animal Mounts
I remember the first time that I realized that I could ride an elephant in Far Cry 4. I was running along, spotted one of the hulking beasts below, and decided that I was going to gun it down (this is Far Cry after all). I got close to check the elephant out, as it didn’t offer any resistance, and a prompt appeared at the bottom of my screen to ride the elephant. My mind instantly melted. I hopped on its back and set out through the forest, trampling vehicles, bashing mercenaries, and crashing through stronghold gates like they were made of tissue paper.
Unfortunately, all that magic is gone with Far Cry 5. With megafauna mostly lacking in the States, I don’t really see any viable options for mountable beasts. Maybe a bear, which would be pretty neat but still pales in comparison to riding a mighty elephant.
7 The Small Town American Setting Will Get Boring
Although the change of scenery seems like a fresh take on the series, a small town in America will get boring after a while. I know it seems more relatable than a tropical island or villages tucked away in a snow-capped mountain range, but it’s not. Trust me, I lived in one.
A small town will trick you at first with its quaint charm and humble stature. But then you realize: this is all it is. The same four streets, the same two streetlights, the same people all the time. Even digitally, the small town scene will start to wear on you; the same coffee shop, general store, and corner shops will be the only thing available to you. You’ll find yourself running off into the wilderness just to get a change of scenery before getting mauled by a bear.
6 Buddies Will Be Mindless Drones
I’ve been tricked by games before in numerous ways and I seem to never learn my lesson. I hear talk of expansive open worlds — yet the worlds are limited and stale. I hear talk of creative and colorful arsenals that will let me fight my foes like never before, but all my arms are a popgun with different paint. I’ve been told that my teammates will be dynamic, thinking NPCs that will follow commands and be able to change the tide of battle with their strategy, only to have them give away our position deep into enemy territory while sneaking unseen past a patrol of enemies.
I fear that Far Cry 5 will be no different. Maybe it’s a good thing that the NPCs in the last few installments were mostly limited to scenery and plot delivery devices, save the few militiamen of the factions you were fighting for. At least they could distract fire while you reloaded. I predict that the buddies this time around will be no different; moving targets meant to draw enemy fire while you cycle weapons.
5 DLC
You know there will be DLC. Every AAA title that is released is going to have DLC, because it means for money for the company that produced it. Given Ubisoft’s reputation with DLC for their games, the amount of DLC will most likely be staggering. It would actually be odder at this point in history if Far Cry 5 wasn’t released with DLC.
Honestly, the idea of games as a 'privilege that must be purchased' is just disgusting. Video games were created as a way to express creativity, test the limits of technology, and to relax from the hustle and bustle of reality. Not to say that we shouldn’t pay, but to pay continuously to get the most out of a game is a diabolical business model and one that should be done away with completely.
4 Multiplayer
Far Cry 5 boasts that the entire game will be playable in online co-op. That’s awesome; there is nothing better than shedding blood in an enormous explosive sandbox with one of your best buds online. But one thing that the Far Cry series has always struggled with —if they even include it— is competitive modes of online play.
I remember firing up the death match mode for Far Cry 2 back in the day. At first, I assumed the quality was a given. The single player was awesome, and all they had to do was transplant that onto competitive online modes. But, oh how wrong I was. The multiplayer was absolutely abysmal. I’m guessing that Ubisoft Montreal won’t even bother with including it in Far Cry 5, which may be the only logical decision they make.
3 The Story Seems Cliché
Does story even matter at this point in a first-person shooter? Yes, yes it does. With titles like Battlefield 1 portraying the horrors of war in a meaningful and impactful way, or Titanfall 2 which explores mankind’s increasing dependency on technology with giant robots and crazy guns. Far Cry 5 is focused on the idea of religious extremists being present in every corner of the world, including America.
This is definitely a timely topic, one that needs to be discussed ad nauseam. For some reason, I don’t really trust Ubisoft with covering this important of a topic. Stick to madmen who are hiring dudes for us to shoot; don’t try to validate your games with serious subjects. Even worse, Ubisoft has the capacity to easily take a serious subject and make it into a run and gun joke, a cliché archetype of a good versus evil story that’s been done a thousand times already.
2 Vehicles Will Be Lacking
Far Cry 5 is promising players the ability to drive a number of the most iconic, real world American made vehicles. This seems cool in practice, but still, has the ability to fall really short for one reason: Far Cry doesn't have good driving gameplay. The vehicles in the Far Cry games control like one of two things: a stampeding herd of cattle covered in Vaseline or a block of cement with a cardboard wheel that doesn’t control any aspect of direction.
Even if Ubisoft gives us the sickest muscle cars, big rigs, and off-road vehicles, if they control like the vehicles in past games, it won’t matter how they look; the control in the past games has been abysmal at best. Nothing would be more heartbreaking than hopping in an awesome muscle car complete with a shaker and racing stripes, only to have it control like a runaway train.
1 Weapons Will Be Stale
One of the main criteria we judge a first-person shooter on (or any shooter for that matter) is their arsenals. The days of having a simple selection of weapons have been ousted with the multitude of games that have complex and creative ways to cut down your foes. I don’t think that Far Cry 5 will deliver on this front in the least.
The only weapons that have been confirmed so far are your standard selection of rifles, shotguns, pistols, and you can bet they’ll be a bow that you can customize. That’s neat I guess, but where’s the pizazz? Where are the weapons that will make shooting fun again? The weapons that keep you coming back, searching desperately for ammo just for another chance to shoot it at an unsuspecting Jeep of baddies, leaving a smile on your face and a crater in the ground? So far, I’m not confident that Ubisoft will deliver.