Just my thoughts on Far Cry 5 so far...I have finished the first county (John Seed) with only a few side missions left to finish.
1- Money isn't very interesting and there's not much more I want to buy. You can find so much ammo and gear lying around that I don't require a ton of money and I've bought all I really want anyway. This makes hunting and fishing (which aren't all that fun anyway) superfluous, since they aren't required for crafting. I have the weapon I want (more on that later), I don't see the point of buying clothing (I can't see myself). I don't need to buy planes or cars - there are plenty around to just take. And I'm sure the ones you buy perform a lot better but vehicles are such a disposable commodity in this game that I'm not that interested in buying one. So often you drive to where you want to go, get out, maybe attack, then run for your life (or maybe get taken to a cut scene) and you don't remember where you parked the car. But since I can get another one just about anywhere, it doesn't matter much. The expensive weapons don't seem to be better, just painted differently and I don't care to buy them. At any rate, I'm not very motivated to make money.
2- In addition to feeling like money has maxed out a third of the way through the game, about halfway through the first county I obtained a silenced, scoped LMG. I don't see any other weapon with wildly better stats and it serves my purposes for sniping, close quarters fighting, etc. It does everything well except hunting (it tears up the skins) but as I established before, I don't really need to hunt. So, I'm a third of the way through the game and I'm not working towards a better weapon. I like sniping outposts and in previous Far Cry games, it was a real accomplishment finally earning a better sniper rifle but here, the LMG does just fine. I also feel like I have all the perks I really want. I'll pick up the rest but I have the important ones. From here on out, it's just cleaning up the other two counties.
3- I have seen people complain that they don't like outposts but that's generally my favorite part of the game. In previous Far Cry games the best part was scouting the area and finding the perfect spot where I could fire down without being seen (or heard, with a silenced rifle) and the challenge was taking them out in such a way that no one knew they were under attack until they were all dead. Here, the terrain is much flatter than FC3/4 (though granted, I've done almost nothing in the other two counties,maybe that terrain is better) and you usually can't find a good vantage point. In addition, after just one or two kills, the enemies seem to know just where I am even though I'm very far away and haven't been spotted.
4- On the subject of all-knowing enemies, how do they know I'm me when I'm dressed as a local and they are racing down the road behind me? How does the plane know I'm me? There are tons of citizens wandering around but apparently I'm wearing a big sign that says "DEPUTY HERE" that I'm not aware of. I guess this is as good a place as any to add: why does Fast Travel sometimes drop you right into the middle of a firefight or under an enemy plane? I've come out of fast travel and spotted by a plane literally before I can take 3 steps. It's those psychic PEGgies. The first time I tried fishing, I was well below a road with a forest between and somehow three different times I was found by PEGgies.
5- I don't find the story missions especially fun. People railed on FC4 for being the same game as FC3 but I liked the setting better and I never liked FC3's protagonist or the friends he was saving. FC4 had a better villain and better hero. But in FC5, I have no voice and the cutscenes feel very, very long. I often check e-mail on my phone waiting for them to finish. And I think the missions feel less fun because Far Cry is about building up your weapons and creatively finding a way to attack a problem whereas the story missions strip you of your weapons and send you to point A, then B, then C, usually in an underground bunker or similar where your options are few - almost a rail shooter. It seems like two games smashed together into one and one of them is far less fun than the other. The side missions are a bit better - they tend to offer a bit more freedom - but sometimes you realize you were much more entertained by the wackiness of it than how fun it was to complete it. Yes, I allowed the Testicle Festival to occur and that was funny, I laughed when I unlocked the cow pen and Sexual Healing started to play but as a mission, collecting the testicles wasn't especially challenging or rewarding. I know it's heresy and one of the things Far Cry is known for is that it's a shooter, a driving game, a flying game, a fishing game, a hunting game, etc. but I sort of wish they'd throw all that out and just set up situations with lots of options for you to use to take down the bad guys. Sure, we have shooting the lock off an animal cage and maybe shooting explosive barrels but those things are in almost every mission - only the building layout changes. What if they put all that effort into truly diverse and creative ways to take out outposts? Hey, there's a dam...what if I was able to unleash the river on them? What if I could put that truck into neutral and roll it into camp and then blow it up? Other people are more creative than I am. But I remember in the first Far Cry, I was shooting at an enemy and I accidentally shot a tree - which fell over and killed the enemy. That really made me feel like anything I could think of might work. It's like Far Cry is a hundred things but it's not GREAT at any of them.
6- Random thoughts...I do have a slightly older video card (Though on normal settings it's running great) but at night the character's eyes are orange and reflections off their hair are bright white. Why doesn't the dog climb in the truck with you like the human companions? It's weird when he runs as fast as your plane. I kind of don't like the idea of the guns for hire - "Hey you know how the fun part of this game is shooting the bad guys? Well, you don't have to do that anymore!" Granted, I don't have to use them but it feels less satisfying when you have one guy left to finish off and your pal does it for you. I don't find random animal attacks fun. I don't use any of the potions at all and almost never have to craft grenades, etc. because I find them in the world.
Anyway. I'll finish the game but in comparison to FC3/4, it feels like all the parts of the game don't mesh as well with each other. I don't need more money or more perks, I don't need to hunt or craft, there's nothing I want to buy. That feels disappointing.
I am pretty much at the exact same spot as you in the game and I agree with a lot of what you called out here.
I liked how they took the focus off of hunting/crafting and put it more on Money, as it gives you more choices on how you obtain weapons and vehicles if you don't care to go looking for a specific animal to murder. However, as you pointed out the problem is that there needs to be more/better weapons to spend your money on. It would have better progression if not every weapon could have a suppressor. There really are not a lot of different guns in this games, just different skins.
I find the outposts and prepper stashes to be the funnest parts of the game. I personally find there are enough sniping spots on the outposts, you just need a long distance scope. The prepper stashes are just fun little puzzles.
The story so far is a bit disappointing. I think with this setting it could have been pretty awesome, but I feel they backed away from it to avoid any controversy. I will see how the rest of the game plays out there though.
Have to mostly agree, other than I liked having the SA50 to go along with the LMG. Found a couple shots later would kill most planes and copters.
I also had the glowing eyes and hair but was able to fix it with driver update from AMD to their optional 18.3.4 driver which made huge fps increase for my R9 290, as well as helping my sons R9 380 to be able to run ultra settings.
Honestly, I have movedone over to Wildlands, as it is similar game play and better story mechanics. Considering Wildlands came out Last year by UBI, it is sad to see such a similar game have superior game play and honestly see a regression in the FC5 compared to it.
tl;dr at bottom in terms of pro v cons
i'll make a thread for this so at least i've said what i wanted to say on this to the devs.
to OP
1) there was more to buy in this game with the money than in previous far cry games(clothes, cars, helicopters, new guns, etc). not to mention it is hard to come by without hunting. however, the prestige weapons weren't like ones before (like the shredder or bull in fc3) weapon unlocking was not the same way as before and even back then, there was some twist with the special variants. i'll emphasize on the clothing later.
2) eh we have our preferences. I've always ran a silenced smg with a bow since it works. the accomplishment for me was getting more slots to carry an 'assault rifle' and a shotgun. however, yeah, the ammount of exploring one had to do to get nicer weapons in fc3 or fc4. this game just encouraged story progression as a way to liberate the area. I genuinely liked the idea since it lets people progress the game in their own, but i'll get back to this. good weapons were too easy to get early on compared to fc3.
3)i can understand not liking the radio towers, but outposts are fun and i hope they are kept in the game until something new comes along (idk, like a stronghold that is basically a big outpost that could require co-op to be easier, but still doable for a solo player, coming back to this later)
4) for that we all know it's coding, but storywise, it made sense in FC3 since you're one of the few non-islanders running around with guns. this game though, i could theorize that there are informants for the cult, possibly hidden cameras (like hunting cameras), and your post is everywhere
5) fc3 was not the same game as fc4. one is a story of person's descent into madness trying to save his friends while the other is a game about a guy thrown into a civil war where both sides are clearly not 'the good guy' (a lot closer to far cry 2 to be honest in terms of story). here is some analysis of the games. I did once think they were the same til i played fc4 and realized 'wait, this game has a different story'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZaFs-kDwK4 fc3 analysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwwF-hHTGhg fc4 analysis
>op plays game for fun and ignores the cutscenes
>op doesn't think much of the story
gee i wonder why. I did like the story for Far Cry 5, but it didn't feel as fluid as before because it was 'go and do stuff for resistance to get progression in the story'. I admire the creativity, but My issue with this game was it slowly turned from a story based to an RPG. Far Cry is not an RPG and by trying to be something it isn't the story aspect suffers. I played the game by getting a boss at a time. so fluidity was okay, but if someone were to just do missions here and there, liberate some outposts, and then wonder why they don't feel any connection to the guy faith kills in the last cutscene with her? (I just got the man some closure for his son and she kills him, i felt that, but did other players who don't know this person well?) RPG's don't have great stories because the player makes the story as they go. character development for the long list of too many side characters in this game (there were too many. i'll give you a comparison. go and watch an anime called angel beats. the scene where they graduate or when yui passes on vs the scene where the class passes on...one hits harder than the other and that is due to character development to attach people to characters. this allows people to be more invested in the story....please for the next one, don't make so many characters).
that aside, the plot was good and i actually liked the ending, some didn't since it was vague or your actions held no worth. but everything peiced together nicely with a dark ending. but that's personal preference when it comes to how i like endings. everyone has their own ideas with this.
6)didn't notice that......aggree that the guns for hire takes away from the pride in the solo play style of the game, further making this more of an rpg than a far cry....
everything feels the same way there, there isn't much to do after the story is done. i like the dlc that is coming. if they could do one about the early days of the cult and giving more detail on the climate of the nations at war at the time, that'd be excellent. but oh well
pros: more customization to weapons, story is still good as a story (no plotholes, written well, etc), game is fun, dlc prospects look good, main antagonists were nicely done (though more development would have been nice, the ammount done was enough to understand and feel the characters to where i was mad at faith, mournful for john, and agreed with jacob on some key things (not strong vs weak stuff, the historical aspects)), gameplay was good, world was big, planes
cons: too much character stuff (harkens to an rpg more than far cry, a protagonist rather than some character named rook. in fc3 i was jason brody, in fc4 i was ajay ghale, in fc5 i'm whoever i want yet i cannot join the cult? options are nice, but if you're giving a story based game, it should focus on that rather than give a few options i can't expand on. point is, it was better to have a specific protagonist than a half like rpg character), not as many nice special weapons that are unique, side characters are killed off and can hardly be developed if player doesn't do their missions...that doesn't make some feel much of anything, too many side characters (i did walk away ending and would have been fine leaving those people behind since i hardly knew them except for nick rye. there were just too many characters and not enough time to develop them), plane controls were a bit wonky (would've been better with a third person plane option)
Overall, i liked the game, but the slow merging of far cry into an rpg is the course i wouldn't take for this series. the whole reason im gaming is because of fc3's great story. I hope this series focuses more on the story than rpg aspects.