Damn what an ending. In the last couple of hours I was getting ready to move on but the ending made it all worth it. There were hints all along, Joseph Seed was right. Holy shit though what an entertaining antagonist. I wish he was in it more, but at the same time, his few appearances that he had made them all the more memorable. The three Heralds were also entertaining too. Out of the three Faith was definitely my personal favorite (boss fight and character). The fact that we never actually technically see her in person makes her unique and feel more unnerving. Also her fucked up mind control (the biss) was both scary and a fun gameplay addition. Beyond the antagonists, I didn't find a ton of the characters too interesting, but its a far cry game so what do you expect. The side characters certainly did not worsen the experience. Having some of the characters be able to help you in combat with their own abilities and have unique dialogue with each other was a great touch. Though sometimes they made combat too easily. In many combat sections I could just comand the characters to go attack the enemies and just sit back and enjoy the show if I really wanted to. Though I was not tempted to because when used, the combat itself was very solid. The best parts to me were using a stealth style to slowly pick off enemies in creative ways. This is why I mostly carried bows, snipers, and silenced pistols. Though thanks to the game being an open-world sandbox, I would occasionally just grab a good old fashioned RPG. Splitting the game into three sections with their own identity and gameplay mechanics helped to keep me entertained and interested in what would happen next. Having resistance points (RP) at each of them also assisted in giving me the constant feeling of progresson. Every action I did gave the feeling that I was chipping away at the cult. The variety of weapons, vehicles, skills, etc. also helped me feel consistant progression. Though I do wish there were more customization options such as more attatchment choices or vehicle parts. My only major criticism of the game is the amount of glitches, specifically with the audio. An intense scene would be happening and all of a sudden the characters mouth would be moving ahead of their audio. This instantly broke my emersion and was a big distraction. It wasn't just once or twice, but probably dozens of times, though it was something I was able to tolerate most of the time. However besides this, the only other thing that affected my playthrough was my own fault. I ended up taking a break for a month or two halfway in and it created a disconnect fof the rest of it. I had forgetten most of the characters besides the main ones and some of the major plot points. To be clear this is just something that I need to work on avoiding in narrative heavy games. Overall, the game is fun throughout, if not just a little too long in my opinion. Would consider replaying again if I could get one of my buddies to buy it.

Far Cry 5 was my sleeper hit this year. A game I bought only to play with a game, but ended up enjoying my time on it more than I thought!

The game is set in an open-world Montana and offers a lot to do when it comes to activities on the map, without exaggerating like in newer Ubisoft games. The game can be played both solo and with a friend for the entire game, so don’t get fooled as even if it shows lots of slots for friends in the main menu, the coop can be done only with one person and it’s asynchronous. It's really fun, and it made me and the friend crack into laughing about this happening beyond stupid so many times, that I won’t forget the memory of playing this game for a long time!

The idea of playing this vast open world with a friend, limited only by a ~250m tether, was the best decision they could have made for this game. After the prologue, when online finally opens up, only one person holds the savefile with the progress with the story/world progress - so choose a good host !!! - while the other person only keeps what's on their character, be that money, weapons, or ability points/abilities unlocked but won't progress at all.
The game, although single-player,used to be treated like a live service and all the really nice stuff from the events is now inaccessible. Thankfully, with the community's work, through the mod manager FC5 Resistance - available on NexusMods - it’s possible to mod the game and activate the content of the Events, among many other quality of life and customizations. Don’t sleep on it, it’s a great modding tool, and once deployed with the mods you'd like to use, which you can choose from the tool itself, you never have to open it again, but you can finally skip the intro, hide the ads in the main menu or remove the stupid quotes from the main characters that darken and cover the beautiful nature shots the game uses as loading screens.

The story revolves around a cult that controls the region and has brainwashed people, and while nothing to write home about, was entertaining enough, although I would not suggest buying the game for it. Every action you do in the game gives you points towards freeing that region from the cult's control, and at specific breakpoints, you have to do a story mission. Instead of giving you a map marker to follow and start said mission, you are kidnapped regardless of where you are. This means that while falling in a jumpsuit you will be kidnapped and have to face a story mission even if you don't feel like it. The main character gets kidnapped at all times making it almost hilarious, especially when trying your best to be in situations where you could not be kidnapped. The DLCs seem useless and completely disconnected from the base game, so I'd say they are not necessary at all.

Genuinely worth it, especially on sale and if you have a friend to be dumb with while shooting down some fanatics.

7/10