PAX West 2017: Far Cry 5 Preview

Originally published on Trevor Trove on September 4, 2017

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Boom!

An accidental click of the R1 button and I’ve unleashed a stick of dynamite that has nearly killed me and my dog companion Boomer (who is quite unfortunately named in this instance). I’ve also let the entire outpost of militant cultists know exactly where I am.

Holding onto my stupidly star-spangled metal bat (which I at this point think is my only weapon), I start running like a madman into the small town outpost, hopping over fences and sliding through yards in an attempt to lose my pursuers. Eventually, I get enough distance that the bullets have stopped flying at me but they all still know I’m there somewhere.

I sneak up on a couple of guys who have just gotten out of the truck they were using to chase me through the streets and lob another stick of dynamite their way. This time, at least, it’s intentional. I know the explosion will set everybody after me again, but now I have a slight semblance of a plan. As soon as the dynamite and truck blow, I dash in to grab the guns left behind. It’s about here I finally find the weapon wheel and the fact that I already had a few guns with me instead of just the dumb bat (whoops) so now I just start picking a few more of the guys with my automatic rifles as they approach.

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Utilizing a run and gun style, I also head back to poor Boomer, who has been incapacitated since the initial blast, and revive him. Together we take out the last of the outposts defenders and retake the town. I have no doubt it’ll be a lot easier when I’ve ramped up to this kind of event and remember the controls instead of just being dropped into the game for the demo but it still made for a fun story to tell.

With the town reclaimed, its citizens unboard the doors and freely roam the streets again, prepared to defend it should the cultists return. I walk into a bar and get some information on a potential ally with a plane down the road. So I hop in a truck and head toward the marker. A bit of hymnal music plays on the radio but I can’t be bothered to change the station. I do come across a couple more cultists holding a woman at gunpoint en route though so I recklessly drive right into one of them, dive out of the moving car, recover, and shoot the other. That woman probably thought I was quite the badass. Good thing she missed the debacle from a couple miles down the road. I free her, get back in the car and head toward the checkpoint.

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I found a similar situation there, with another truckload of militants attacking my contact. So, with assault rifle in hand, I freed the guy and got some details for another mission. The militants had a couple of valuable silos that needed to be destroyed so I headed down the road to the lake, hopped aboard a little seaplane and began flying around Hope County to bomb these silos. After taking out two silos, I was notified the last target had shifted to a convoy so I headed toward it and gunned it down as well. But, just as I was completing the mission, I flew a little too close to the tree line and accidentally kamikazed myself, just as the 15-minute demo ended.

All in all, it was a very action-filled adventure returning to Far Cry franchise and the politically-heated tone of this story has me very excited to jump back into the game when it launches next year.

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