specifically talking about 3, 4, 5, and the “expansion” games like Blood Dragon and New Dawn. And I still haven’t played Far Cry 6 so I can’t comment on that.
Every time I get bored of all my favorite games I reinstall one of the three and go on like 30 hour binge through the whole game again. I just love them so much. I don’t love the whole games, each one has some shockingly frustrating main missions and some really odd writing (even 3, which has a villain who was written in a great way).
Specifically I’m talking about the whole base control gameplay loop. Taking over the map meant taking over bases or fortifications of enemies, raising a flag, maybe rescuing some hostages. In all three games they start you with bases that only have 4 or 5 enemies, but the endgame bases are dozens of high level enemies in a military compound. I love approaching a base, sulking through the woods, finding high ground and scouting it out, and oh man the options presented were amazing, especially when you were nearing the endgame and had unlocked most of the weapons. You could go on a mountaintop and snipe everybody, or just blast em all with your rocket launcher. And the developers never prevented you from using the “nuclear option” of just doing a strafing run on everybody with a helicopter. I also loved how often you’d approach a base of enemies and see some clearly developer-placed options. I remember in Far Cry 4 there was one base of enemies really near the end of the game which had like 20 foot high concrete walls, and if you explored a little you could find a place you could put your grappling hook to get over the wall. But it wasn’t exactly developer-intended because you weren’t even nearly safe as soon as you scaled the wall.
And I love how much of an action game these three games are. I love getting chased by enemies then whipping out the grenade launcher and blowing them all up in a fireball, or stealth killing one guy and stealing his knife to stealth kill another one a couple meters down the road. It felt like Metal Gear Solid V on steroids, doing all these insane things that no human could conceivably accomplish. Hell in Far Cry 4 and 5 you can wingsuit off a ledge then assassinate an enemy and take no falling damage.
That isn’t to say the games’ main missions or even side missions are great. I remember getting insanely frustrated at one Far Cry 4 mission that I had to go take a walk outside, and Far Cry 5 seemed to really like to repeat the same exact mission type three times in the main story. But they redeemed themselves with some killer action setpieces. In Far Cry 4 there’s one where you storm a massive fortification of enemies on a bridge by just driving straight into it and some amazing music plays during the whole thing.
And the best part to me is that I would never finish a base capturing mission and get bored of it or think it was tedious to go on to the next one. I would just be excited to look at the map and see another one a mile down the road to do the same cool shit at. When the games ended I was always disappointed that there were no more to take over.
Sorry I know this post is mostly just me gushing about the games but I haven’t really had a place to talk to people about them besides people who already like the games.
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I’ve never played Far Cry, but you’ve described the kill-spree momentum I used to enjoy in games - specifically the outcome of a previous action being the entry point for another, with no slowdown - making it feel fluid and dynamic.
The closest thing that matches that sheer freedom of gameplay, was the swing physics of Spiderman 2 on the PS2. No other spiderman game has come close to that, and I’ve played then all.
You can now use the jetpack like crazy in starfield
Yes. I keep being surprised at how “fresh” 3 and 4 stay for me, given that the gameplay is not all that varied in the end. The gunplay is nice, the basic idea is nice, the execution works and I think Vaas and Pagan are interesting enough to sell the campaign for a good while. Hoyt is… also definitely one of the Far Cry villains of all time. 5 is fine if modified heavily, and 6… is undeniably a thing.
A good post reminding me why I love Far Cry games! I got bored playing FarCry 5, but had lot of fun on FarCry 6. Unfortunately the bases were a bit too easy in that game…
I heard Far Cry 6 changed a lot which is why I’ve been hesitant to give it a shot.
I think you should! I loved coming back to a tropical island, with the Cuban inspiration.
I enjoyed 3-5 and also really enjoyed 6, I think you might like it.
100% right here with you.
The main missions were definitely soft and the games overall have their warts, but that base mechanic was pure art.
You could take all the care in the world and special ops the shit out of it, or you could go in there and Rambo the shit out of it, and each would work or wouldn’t for various reasons and the difficulty scales well enough that you don’t just automatically pick the latter every time.
Only other games that have scratched that itch have been MGSV, Ghost of Tsushima and Sniper Elite.
Most games have some variety of this now but those three along with Far Cry build and scale it well enough that feels like an accomplishment over the course of a whole game.
MGSV was another one I loved that felt very similar. Unfortunately I kinda stopped liking it right after the Africa part starts. Afghanistan was super fun though.
That’s exactly where I dropped off with that game as well!
Ive started mgs5 3 different times and shortly after getting to africa i check out. shame.
I love far cry 2 the most. It was more realistic and really made you work for those villages/settlements.
I haven’t played far cry 2 yet. I heard the realism kinda messes with the fun in a way, like the malaria and the guns breaking gets in the way of the objectives