I was primed and ready for Far Cry 5 after I watched Ubisoft’s 30-minute Inside Eden’s Gate promotional video. The game’s marketing campaign repeatedly played peek-a-boo with topics related to America’s current political turmoil. Ubisoft’s video trailers led me to believe Far Cry 5 was going to look somewhat realistically into the methods cults use to lure people into their blinkered and distorted mindsets. The story line about a charismatic cult leader reminded me of sad times for friends of mine. I was at the pre-order screen, controller in hand, ready to tap “X”.
I’m guessing everyone reading this has, like me, been burned pre-ordering a game that turned out to be a disappointment. Buyer’s remorse is particularly painful when you know you wouldn’t have blown $60 if you’d just waited for the reviews. I decided a long time ago that enough was more than enough. No more pre-orders for me. And then time went by and I broke down – and pre-ordered No Man’s Sky. Ouch. With that in mind I left “X” untouched, set the controller down, and walked away. The reviews of Far Cry 5 lead me to believe I dodged a bullet because the game Ubisoft released isn’t what they led you to believe it was going to be.
I hoped Far Cry 5 would take the series a step forward with a more thoughtful story line that had something to say about Christian extremism and outsider populist appeal in heartland America. Unfortunately, too many reviews describe a game that does next to nothing with it’s intriguing setup. I hoped for a nuanced treatment of cultists who had once been the friends and neighbors of my NPC companions. Reviews describe cult members as an unending stream of faceless homicidal goons for you to slaughter in creative ways.
Basically, I thought Far Cry 5 was going to be a different kind of Far Cry game and it turned out to be a gentle reworking of the same formula we’ve seen since Far Cry 3. For many players this may be just what they wanted. They’ll thoroughly enjoy the game and I have no problems with that. For them, Far Cry 5 is like a half-pound of lean hamburger meat cooked to perfection. For me it’s a fat-laden cheeseburger.
This isn’t about whether Far Cry 5 is a good or bad game. It can be either depending on what kind of game you want to play. The point is that if you save your money until the reviews come out, you know whether your $60 burger is mostly meat or mostly cheese.
The day may come when Far Cry 5’s loony-tunes carnival of destruction is just what I’m in the mood to play and I’ll buy it without a second thought – when it’s on sale – like I did yesterday with the games I picked up on Xbox’s Spring Sale with the money I saved because I didn’t pre-order Far Cry 5. Waiting for the reviews was a good idea. Again.
