Recent reviews by Michael Scott

For me, the game carried a lot of promise but ultimately failed to deliver.

It starts well (albeit after a fairly long opening sequence) - the early phases of the game were great and felt like a nice blend of previous Resi games. The inclusion of a merchant character gave me high hopes that I'd get a Resi 4-like experience, but after a while the whole thing starts to rush along and essentially turns into a fast-paced action shooter, with lots of uninspiring boss fights. There were moments later in the game thtat I did enjoy, but these were brief and few. There was nowhere near enough of the exploration and puzzle-solving that I enjoyed in other games in the series, despite (it seems) trying to play with an open-world style setting.

Also, for me there were far too many first-person cut scenes. I found these very frustrating. They were not aided by terrible dialogue (and not terrible in a deliberate campy way like in some Resi games) and a rather convoluted story which didn't really hold my interest.

Other people have certainly enjoyed this game more than I have, but I couldn't recommend it personally.

Summary:
I can't say it's an objectively bad game, but it's the poorest Far Cry I have played (1-5) and I would suggest playing one of the others instead of this one if you are new to the series. If you have played the previous games and enjoyed them, Far Cry 5 will offer you more of the same and you may enjoy it, although for me it felt rather stale.

As usual, you get a lot of fun toys in a big open world which is entertaining for a while, but a lack of any real challenge or diversity in the gameplay/missions, coupled with a very mediocre story, made this outing rather tiresome by the end (not to mention an ending which, without giving too much away, felt like an extremely dissatisfying attempt at something Kubrick-esque). I hope for a shake-up in Far Cry 6, with an increase in the challenge level and more emphasis on survival.

Good:

- You get a big open world full of characters (some of whom are entertaining and engaging, but none of whom have any real depth) and terrain to explore, which is fun for a while. The variety of vehicles are nice, although it would have been more rewarding if you had to work harder to get them.

- On a technical level, the game is good. The gameplay is on the whole smooth. Visuals and sounds are pleasing. Music was appropriate (other than the tired "villain-sings-amazing-grace" trope).

- A few of the missions were genuinely entertaining and fun.

- The concept of a cult taking over a remote territory in the US was (at first) intriguing.

Bad:

- My main gripe was that right from the start, I felt completely overly-powerful. Weapons and ammo are handed to you on a plate, as are all sorts of vehicles. The game does not make you work particularly hard for anything, other than perhaps some of the random collection quests, though these only result in money rewards.

- No element of jeopardy at all. If you die, you pretty much carry on from where you left off. I get that this removes a level of frustration, but it also removes any feeling of achievement.

- The RPG elements (crafting, XP, skill points etc) are really dumbed-down. Everything is crafted from just a few items which you will find everywhere. There are lots of other things you can collect, but all you can do is sell them.

- The perks (skills) were boring and uninspired. I only wanted/used about half of them. I ended up with dozens of perk points unspent.

- The story didn't deliver on the intersting premise and the ending was poor.

- You are force-captured a number of times throughout the game and have to sit through a villain delivering a silly monologue, before shooting your way out to escape. The fact that these events happened with barely any warning was annoying.

- The boss fights were mostly rubbish, though I did quite enjoy one of them.

This, along with the other 2 Thief games, is an absolutely wonderful and fantastical gameplay experience. Forget the dated graphics. Live the adventure! Buy this game - whatever price it currently is, it's a steal!

And you can play this game safe in the knowledge that however good it is, the sequel is even better!