Reviews for Far Cry 5 have come pouring in, with dozens of critics putting Ubisoft's latest open-world FPS through its paces. While a handful of reviews were especially critical of this latest outing, the overwhelming consensus seems to be that we've got another winner on our hands.
With Far Cry 5 launching on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC tomorrow, March 27, various sites have already posted their reviews, giving gamers an opportunity to absorb quite a few critiques before making a purchasing decision. If you were even remotely interested in playing the game, it sounds like that would be money well spent. Over at Gaming Age, reviewer Tyler Nethers calls Far Cry 5 the best in the series in his A-grade review.
I have loved my time with this game, and with the 35 or so hours I have invested so far, I feel that I still have a lot of content left to discover, with more side quests and character missions to do beyond the main story.
The large majority of reviews favor Far Cry 5 in a positive light, complementing its minute-to-minute gameplay, tight mechanics, interesting new ideas and a big, open world that's a lot of fun to explore. But even with many positive reviews comes the criticism that Far Cry 5 doesn't really have any teeth when it comes to its subject matter. Set in Montana, the player will primarily focus on overthrowing a group of religious zealots who take over a small town and kill anyone who stands in their way. Given the current climate here in the U.S., many thought Far Cry 5 would give players something to actually think about while mowing down domestic terrorists. Instead, it sounds like most of the punches were pulled. Thankfully, that doesn't seem to have ruined an otherwise exciting game.
Nethers' review also notes the impressive list of non-campaign activities in Far Cry 5, including a copy of Far Cry 3 in the game's season pass and multiplayer modes that let players build their own maps using assets from other Ubisoft games like Assassin's Creed and _Watch_Dogs_.
The folks over at Games Radar were also impressed, complementing FC5's more focused gameplay and fantastic map, while knocking a lackluster big bad and a "few too many hostage missions."
Far Cry 5 is a continuation of everything you remember about the series, but an installment that's taken a good look at itself, and what it does, to work out the best possible way of doing it. The compact, more streamlined design never feels small and instead comes across as more achievable and event filled.
Heading over to Gamerant, they've heaped on quite a bit of praise in their 4.5/5 review, with reviewer Dalton Cooper saying this latest outing "lives up to the hype.
Cooper also notes that the latest Far Cry feels like a streamlined approach to the formula and, rather than making the game feel slimmed down, it instead adds extra weight to the impressive list of ways players can fill their time.
By focusing on characters and story over cliche open world tropes, Far Cry 5 manages to be completely and utterly engrossing from start to finish.
Still, not everybody was totally blown away by Far Cry 5, with The Guardian giving the game one of its few lower scores of three out of five. They complement the game's excellent and unpredictable world, as well as the gunplay, but feel that the tone is a bit too at odds with itself.
It doesn't always fit together as well as it should, sometimes forcing the player to work around the game rather than with it -- but the wildly vacillating tone is the bigger issue. It's at once disorienting and noncommittal. Paradoxically, this is an extreme satire of modern America that says pretty much nothing about it.
Still, all things considered, it seems like Far Cry 5 has a lot to offer.
