Teased in the spring slot that Ubisoft usually reserves for announcing and hyping Assassin’s Creed games, the new Far Cry is getting a push by the mega-publisher as the ideal shooter for our precarious times. It’s also a game in which you’ll be able to have your dog rip out a guy’s throat and bring his gun back to you.
Above is the debut trailer, which is slated to come out for PS4, Xbox One and PC on February 27, 2018.
Below, some more details we picked up during a presentation of the game recently held by Ubisoft at a hotel a convenient two blocks from Kotaku HQ:
- Far Cry 5 is primarily from the Ubisoft Montreal team behind Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4, according to producer Dan Hay, who worked on those and is now executive producer and creative director of this one. Those games’ creative director, Alex Hutchinson, is no longer at Ubisoft. Other studios working on Far Cry 5: Ubisoft Toronto, Kiev, Shanghai and Newcastle-based Reflections.
- It does not appear to be a drastic gameplay departure from earlier Far Cry games, in that it still appears to be a chaotic open-world first-person shooter. A gameplay reel they showed us was full of the usual gunfights, explosions, and flamethrowers. Ubisoft says Far Cry 5 can be played solo or “entirely” in two-player co-op. (The game will also have a map editor.)
- What most clearly sets Far Cry 5 apart from its predecessors is that it isn’t about shooting up a beautiful island run by a madman in the South Pacific or a lovely region run by a madman in the Himalayas. It’s about blasting through a section of modern Montana controlled by a Bible-thumping madman who runs a heavily-armed militia. You’re up against “The Father,” Joseph Seed, who along with his family has spent the last dozen years sinking deep roots into the fictional Hope County while establishing a cult called The Project at Eden’s Gate. The cult is preparing for a big fight and/or the end of the world and are recruiting people in the town to do their bidding, whether those people like it or not. Imagine a community where some of the townspeople are actually in the militia, while others just suffer its encroaching influence and nurse their desire to rebel.
- In a change for the series, you can choose to play as a man or woman and pick your skin colour. You’re a junior deputy on the police force, though how you wound up in Hope County is a secret. At Far Cry 5‘s press event in New York, Hay talked reporters through the opening events of the game on condition we wouldn’t report it… presumably because Ubisoft wants to save that for an E3 demo or something. Far Cry 4‘s Hutchinson had said at E3 2013 that the team on that game was very close to including the option to play as a woman in that game. This sequel finally delivers that option.
- You spend the game building a resistance to the militia. While Hay didn’t explain how the game’s recruitment systems work, he did spotlight three characters — a preacher, a bartender and a pilot — and presented them as examples of everyday Americans living under the thumb of the militia who the player can tap to help fight back. It’s unclear if they are simple quest-givers or allies who can be summoned to help in a fight. The gameplay reel did show some allied characters helping in the fight, but it doesn’t appear to be quite the return of the buddy system in Far Cry 2.
Mary May, one of the game’s recruitable allies, as seen in a character vignette produced by Ubisoft
- The buddy recruitment thing will play into a more open-ended approach to action throughout the game. Hay: “When you play Far Cry 3 or Far Cry 4 or even Primal and you go out and see these outposts, and in those outposts there’s an opportunity to attack them from 360 degrees and the real question we asked is: ‘Why can’t we do that with the whole game? Why can’t we make it that the whole game is about you finding people in the world and being able to attack the world from 360 degrees and then bring people with you?’”
- You can fly planes. And get in dogfights. You can also drive, according to the game’s press release, “iconic American muscle cars, big rigs, ATVs and boats.”
A screenshot from the game, according to Ubisoft
- Ubisoft is going out of their way to portray the militia as religious extremists distinct from more ordinary people of faith. From the get-go, the first reveal established a contrast between the cult’s unhinged preacher/leader with the more benevolent and recruitable ally character, the gun-toting but seemingly friendly Pastor Jerome Jeffries. Here’s Hay: “In terms of religion, I think what the cult is — is when you think about things and groups that are out there in the world today, a lot of times you’re seeing somebody who has hijacked religion.”
- Far Cry 5 was also pitched to press framed against some scene-setting real-world anxiety. The approach has become Ubisoft tradition for their recent games. They debuted Watch Dogs and The Division with reels about the real-world threats of cyber-security and bioterrorism, for example. Hay began his hotel demo of Far Cry 5 with a five-minute monologue about growing up in the ’80s, living under the threat of nuclear annihilation, and feeling relief in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War threat seemed to vanish. He said that he recently began to feel anxiety about the state of the world once again. He cited the stock market crash of 2008, the seizure of a federal building by a militia in Oregon last year and Brexit all as manifestations of a splintering society that is focused more on us vs. them and is increasingly sceptical of government. He pitches the game as one about society standing on a precipice.
Part of the real-life inspiration for the game: Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum holds a gun as he guards the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore., on Jan. 5, 2016. Ammon Bundy, the leader of a small, armed group occupying the remote national wildlife preserve. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
- All this talk of society on a precipice may have you thinking about Trump. But they’re not saying Trump. Here’s Hay, when talking about how some of the game’s themes manifest in real life: “I began to get the sense that America was ready for a Far Cry. And in a year and a half, a lot has happened. All I can tell you is that — what started out looking good — when I get up in the morning and I read the news and I turn on the television and I hear what is happening across the globe and I hear what is happening in America and I hear some of the different things that are going on, I absolutely get that feeling. For 25 years I haven’t had that feeling like I did when it was the Soviets vs. the U.S. in a Cold War, and all I know is that, in the last year and a half I got that feeling back like we’re riding a wave and something is going to happen. Like there’s going to be a calamity and going to be a collapse.”
- Really, they’re not saying “Trump.” I asked. Hay told me the game is set in the present day but, when asked if that meant Trump is president, he said: “It’s interesting. It would have been super easy for us to reference specific people but of course it’s the real world but it might have been too easy to have references and jokes about stuff like that.” Of course, the Far Cry games, in contrast with Assassin’s Creed games, tend not to use the names of real people, so this choice is true to the series.
-
And … you can get a dog to help you fight your enemies. Building on the most enjoyable feature from last year’s Far Cry Primal, the game will offer a “fangs for hire” system that lets you send a bear or cougar into fight for you. Or you can bring a dog. Hay told me he loves the dog. “We really wanted you to be able to carry this pet with you and be able to have it do stuff. You saw it can run up and be able to take guys down by the throat. It can take weapons from them and bring them back.” Chances of a dog upgrade system? “I can’t talk about that stuff but you can imagine where we’re going.”
At one point in his interview with me, Hay turned to a Ubisoft PR person and asked: “Can I say the dog’s name?” No, indicated the PR person. We’ll have to guess. Safe to assume the dog is not named”Trump.”
Ubisoft will show more of Far Cry 5 at E3. It’s one of several big sequels the company is spotlighting at the big show, along with the next Assassin’s Creed and a sequel to The Crew.
Comments
34 responses to “Far Cry 5 Is A Game About Resisting An American Militia, Will Be Out In February”
I think im going to enjoy this…..alot….
ugh im getting sick of this “farcry 5 is all about Trump” bullshit, and we’ve only know about its premise for 5 fucking days.
IF you really think this game was made because of Trump and Brexit, you are a complete and utter idiot who must think that AAA games are made with in 15 months. If hilary had won and brexit didnt happen, Farcry 5 was still going to come out and it would still be the exact same setting and story
at no point did he say it was all about Trump but merely questioning if that impacted. Its a reasonable question. This is the first I have read about it and my mind immediately went there. Not so much to Trump but to his voters. whether we like it or not we have been watching Trump’s American for a few years now. and I am not just talking about the years he was running, all he is is a chameleon who has taken on the interest and cares of these type of people, to get himself elected. He changes his ideas depending on who his audience is.
While Brexit and Trump may of not started the story there is no way at all they would have had no impact. Because such is size of the rift cause by them in our society, so few things are left unaffected by them. For better or worse. If the devs have their finger on the pulse, there is no way they wouldnt want to adapt the game around current affairs. there is a market there for it.
Nah, it would be about the remnants of Trump attacking and assassinating Hillary and you’re tasked with supporting and defending her ;P
Calm down.
Count to 10
Relax.
Its just comments on the internet.
It’s definitely possible for the story and tone of a game to pivot dramatically in the last 18/12/6 months of development. There’s many examples out there to cite. I’m not saying it’s happening in this case though.
I’m definitely seeing some parallels to what’s happening in the middle east.
I mean, “The Project at Eden’s Gate” is just American Christian ISIS as far as I see.
All about Trump? Nah. George Bush, maybe. He did say once, “I believe god wants me to be president” and, “God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq”.
you had me taking on american militia types and then you say i can sic a bear on them..
awesome beans 😀
So as Police officer, you’re free to kills the militia (American citizens) at will and without subjecting them to due process?
What even is this comment? Is there any fps that requires you to provide any due process ever?
SWAT 4
lol i was gonna say ‘disregarding the swat series’
I want a realistic FPS, which is one normal opening level followed by 10 hours being dragged through The Hague for war crimes.
Far Cry 6: The Radovan Karadžić Years
Enjoy intense undercover stealth gameplay as you impersonate a new-age alternative doctor and grow a massive beard
I heard that before you can select a weapon you have to type out the justification for the weapon verbatim, ensure the force used is only as much as is reasonably necessary and does not outweigh the level of resistance given, and after that you spend hours typing up paperwork and preparing an evidence brief.
does due process count if i order a bear to kill them?
Would have been more interesting to have a Home Front -style scenario but with occupation by the American military. The protagonist could have been your freedom fighter -type character.
I really honestly would’ve loved a RED DAWN style scenario to be honest. Go back to the 80’s cheese scenario. Camped in the wilderness, the evil Soviets attack, you as the Hoo-rah American teen escaped from town must learn to trap animals by finding books and literature in the town library on trapping animals, then trying to trap them multiple times before getting it right, build up your hunting and shooting skills etc. Work your way up a skill list to take on russian soldiers. Progress from being a boy scout in the wild with some knowledge ,to the endgame where you’re John Freakin’ Rambo leading a tiny platoon doing surgical strikes and liberating your state.
I’d play that.
Red Dawn .., classic film??
That sounds freaking awesome. I feel like a game with that setting was made recently???
They bastardised it with Homefront. But I personally, would go back and do the whole ‘up in the mountains’ aspect with Red Dawn. Going into towns, raiding them for supplies etc.
Freedom Fighters wasn’t bad and had some inspiration from Red Dawn
Yep, Freedom fighters was a hell of a lot of fun. I remember playing that quite extensively 🙂
Tomorrow When The War Began?
That was a book and movie, a rather mundane one at that. I have to start teaching it to my students soon. I don’t much enjoy the book myself, which is going to be challenging heh
There’s an Iranian game that’s somewhat like that, you have to rescue some Iranian Nuclear scientists from American invaders… but tbh downloading it will probably put you on a list somewhere.
Its refreshing to be shooting religious fundamentalists that aren’t moslems’ for a change > <.
Perfectly timed after the Handmaiden’s Tale on Netflix.
I take it that Kotaku censoring out my comments regarding my low expectations of the usual stream of “too many cis gendered white men” articles being limited on this game means they are self aware?
Stop shitposting and your comments will get through just fine.
boom headshot, ice burn, etc
Looks like it could be a heck of a lot of fun in general.