Slider image from Flickr.

“Far Cry 5,” by Bethesda Softworks is not your ordinary open-world game. This one is infested with lunatic cultists whose only desire is to please their god, and by doing so, destroy the world before the rest of humanity can. They believe that humans have sinned for far too long and that it is time for the reckoning; that if god won’t bring it, they will do it on his behalf. This militaristic, doomsday cult calls themselves Eden’s Gate, and is led by a sociopathic leader, Joseph Seed, and his three kids: John, Jacob, and Faith. Eden’s Gate purchased as much property and land as they could to build up their new compound, stationed in Hope County, Mont. John leads the southwest area, Jacob leads the North, and Faith, with her drugged up, deranged followers, leads the southeast area.

You start the game on a small island right in the middle of Hope County. You’re a deputy, sent with a small team to investigate the supposed cult. Upon reaching the compound of the cult, you venture into the main church, where you find Joseph and his children, surrounded by various cult members. The game gives you two options: arrest Joseph Seed, or let him walk free. The large majority of players will choose to arrest him, as we’ve seen instances of his crimes in the earlier prologue, but if you had chosen to leave him alone, the end credits would have appeared as a nice little secret ending.

Once arrested, you take him to a helicopter. His followers are crazed, throwing rocks, and as they lift off, one even climbs onto the propellor, crashes the airplane. Joseph survives the crash, and the cultists take one member of your team as a prisoner. You manage to escape with another member of your team, Rook. After this, you are free to travel to any of the sections you would like to venture to. 

Now, you ally with different resistance groups around the different sectors of Hope County. As you drive around throughout the game, random Peggies (slang term for Eden’s Gate members) try to kill you. By stopping them, you gain Resistance Points, which add up in your Resistance Meter at the top of the screen. You can also gain resistance points by freeing resistance members from Peggie jail-trucks, and doing various story missions. Each of the three territories has its own Resistance Meter. As you fill the meter, Peggies will become stronger, attacking in larger groups, or in better upgraded vehicles, such as airplanes or small tank-style SUVs. The goal is to do the story missions, as it’s the easiest way to get Resistance Points, but the best part of the game is that even when you aren’t doing story missions, for example when you just decide to hunt down Peggies, you still feel like you are gaining progress.

While you adventure throughout Hope County, there are many ways to spend your time. You could hunt deers, bears, jackals, skunks, cougars, and more with a specially designed bow and arrow. On the other hand, maybe you would prefer to use a hunting rifle, for a swift, quick kill although the penalty for using a gun is the animal skin will be damaged, causing its market value to be lower. You can go fishing by the river, but I never found that part of the game to be amusing. You might be a speedrunner, where you would decide to just finish all the story missions, fill the resistance meter, beat the game, and then save hunting animals and Peggies for later. Based on your location on the map, every five minutes a Dealer will appear, willing to buy your animal skins and meats for the right price. You can also buy and switch out your weapons, buy normal and special ammo, and buy cosmetics from a Dealer.

“Far Cry 5” is the perfect open-world game in the markets today. It has the exact right mix of story missions, side-missions, and land to explore. Not to mention the substantial array of weapons you can use at your disposal. Once you have leveled up your inventory, you’ll be able to carry up to four guns, not to mention the various explosives and knives that you can carry in addition to those. Each gun has its own stats and can be used in a variety of ways. Not only are there normal guns, but also flamethrowers, bow and arrows, alien guns, rocket launchers, and even shovel launchers that can be used by the player. The game awards you with cut-scene style kills if you do sneak attacks on enemies. “Far Cry 5” has many weapons and environments that are perfect for someone who likes to be sneaky, but if you’re the kind of person that likes running into places, guns blazing, then you’ll love this game too. And there’s no shortage of enemies either. As long as you don’t destroy the alarm towers, more and more enemies will continue to come at you in waves, or the elite will attack you in small groups.

Overall, I’ve spent over 100 hours playing this game, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I still have not gotten bored of playing it, as there’s just so much to do and so many places to go. If you’re a fan of fighting games, shooting games, or even hunting/fishing games, then “Far Cry 5” would be the perfect game for you to play during this long quarantine period.