Across the country, gamers are calling in sick to work, class and bailing on their tinder dates to stay home and play Ubisoft’s Far Cry 5. The highly anticipated addition to the first person, open world, shooter franchise is set in the sleepy Montana region of Hope County. The area has been overrun by a violent religious cult and is in need of your righteous liberation. The game is available now on Ps4, Xbox One, and PC.
Fans were hit with a surprise this week when a video emerged claiming the game, which may take 50+ hours to complete, can also be completely beat in under 15 minutes. Now people unfamiliar with the Far Cry franchise may be confused by that statement. How can 50+ hours of gameplay be condensed into a mere 15 minutes? The answer is found in past games.
If you look back at Far Cry 4, another game which takes plays days and days of play to finish, you may remember it also could be beaten in around 10 minutes. If you are patient. The game starts with the hero encountering his Main opponent, Pagan Min, a violent dictator rounding up and killing rebels. You are invited to dinner and then left alone at a table while Pagan Min deals with other business. It’s at this point gameplay starts.
Most players would immediately find a way to escape Pagan Min’s hideout as that is what the game prompts you to do. However, if you are patient and stay in the room like Pagan Min asked you to do he eventually, after about 10 minutes, returns to the room and takes you to the final cutscene of the game.
Now I won’t spoil that ending for you if you haven’t played through the game, which I highly recommend. It now seems, based on spoiler-filled videos which will not be included here, Far Cry 5 is built in a similar fashion. If you ask me it defeats the purpose of building the game, the world, the characters, and story in the first place. To give me the reward without having to do the work removes any incentive to play the game.
While you may say, “but the gameplay, the graphics, it’s next level. You gotta play it.” I would challenge you and ask what is the point of superb gameplay and beautiful graphics if the story is irrelevant? Aren’t you just then merely killing, plundering and destroying for the pleasure of it? And what kind of person does that make you? In the world of Far Cry, it makes you just as bad as the murderous religious cult.
Releasing the spoiler ending to Far Cry 5 may be a “good” marketing move to draw attention to the game it hamstrings players experiences by removing any compelling reason to complete mission after mission. I doubt this will hurt the game’s sales or prevent gamers from liberating outpost after outpost but I do think many will play with a chip on their shoulder knowing Ubisoft diminished the work of their writers by spoiling the games ultimate ending.