Time to Drink The Kool-Aid, Far Cry 5 Announced

Far Cry 5 has been officially announced by Ubisoft and this time they really are trying to shake things up!

The setting is a fictional Hope County, Montana, a parody of small towns in the southern United States. The trailer depicts a small town that is under the influence of an aggressive religious cult led by a self proclaimed prophet, Pastor Jerome. This marks yet another unique setting for the series since we have gone from Tropical Islands to the Plains of Africa, back to Tropical Islands, to neon dreams-capes of James Cameron’s acid fueled nightmares, the Himalayas and back to Prehistoric Europe. The series has never been shy to be daring with the settings chosen.

Now, I’m betting a lot of you may notice the trend of backwoods settings in horror games such as Resident Evil 7 and Outlast 2, and thinking that this is a cash in effort to ride the coattails of their success. I find this setting to be very interesting in that it is a composite of David Koresh’s Branch Davidians and Jim Jones’s People Temple. Although it reminds me even more of the Rajneeshees, a cult in the 80’s that moved into Wasco County, Oregon, took over the town and poisoned the population with salmonella to rig the town election…pretty crazy!

In Far Cry 5, you play as the new junior deputy of the town, the player will join the townspeople to form The Resistance. Your group of rednecks supplied with an arsenal of (most likely illegal) weapons will take the fight to the cult. These weapons will include guns, grenades and melee weapons such as baseball bats and sledgehammers. You can even engage the cult in dogfights (no, not that kind, the plane kind) since apparently this small town has a fleet of jet fighters. You can also drive around the open world in hill billy fashion in American muscle cars, ATV’s and big rig trucks. (vroom, vroom). If there is no Dukes of Hazard car entry animation, I will be very severely disappointed.

You can get help from your kin with Guns for Hire. Also, and I swear I’m not making this up, you can “bear” arms (pun intended) with Fangs for Hire, and recruit animals like bears and cougars to fight for your cause. Far Cry 5 is also bringing back a great feature for the PC modding crowd, the Map Editor! I am imagining plenty of fan made maps that are sick tributes to Jonestown and Mount Carmel Center.

As a fan of the series, I really applaud Ubisoft for trying something new with this title. The Montana landscape could bring some epic showdowns and “Walking Tall” moments. With the game coming out on February 28th, it will be a nice surprise for the new year.

Official Press Release

UBISOFT ANNOUNCES FAR CRY 5 IS COMING TO AMERICA’S HEARTLAND ON FEBRUARY 27th 2018

LONDON, UK — May 26th 2017 — Today, Ubisoft announced that gamers will experience the chaos, unpredictability, and ferociousness of the Far Cry franchise with Far Cry 5 on PlayStation 4 Pro computer entertainment system, PlayStation 4, the Xbox One family of devices, including Project Scorpio, and Windows PC. Set in America for the first time, in Montana, players will have total freedom to navigate this serene-looking yet deeply twisted world solo or entirely in two-player co-op as they fight for survival and freedom, when the game releases on February 27th 2018. Development for Far Cry 5 is being led by Ubisoft Montreal*.

As the new junior deputy of fictional Hope County, Montana, players will find that their arrival accelerates a years-long silent coup by a fanatical doomsday cult, the Project at Eden’s Gate, igniting a violent takeover of the county. Caught off guard and drawn into a power struggle, players must disrupt the carefully laid plans of the Project at Eden’s Gate, and fan the fires of resistance to help liberate the Hope County community and themselves.

Under siege and cut off from the rest of the world, players will join forces with residents of Hope County and form the Resistance. The fight against the cult will take players to unique locations throughout Hope County that provide different gameplay experiences. During their journey, players can fly planes to engage cult forces in aerial dogfights across Big Sky Country. While tracking down cult members and gathering resources for survival across farmland, forests, mountains and rivers, players can get behind the wheel of iconic American muscle cars, big rigs, ATVs and boats. Vehicles also provide refuge when under attack by animals or as a way to quickly escape when things don’t go as planned.

To take down the cult, players will need to utilise any and all weapons at their disposal, including ranged weapons such as guns and grenades and melee weapons like a sledgehammer or baseball bat. Additionally, players can recruit Guns for Hire from a large cast of characters, or even Fangs for Hire, specialised animals like bears and cougars to complement players’ playstyles whether they’re going in stealthily or forcefully. How players approach each situation and the chaos they create in Far Cry 5 is up to them. Far Cry 5 will also see the return of the map editor, giving players the opportunity to create and play an infinite amount of new playgrounds. The map editor will include new features that add a new dimension to the content created by fans, with more details coming soon.

For the latest on Far Cry 5 and all of Ubisoft’s games, please visit www.ubiblog.com.

For more information about Far Cry 5, please visit http://farcry.com and please follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/farcry.usa/ and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/FarCrygame or hashtag #FarCry5.

*Associate studios are Ubisoft Toronto, Ubisoft Kiev, Ubisoft Shanghai and Reflections, a Ubisoft studio.