Recent reviews by Ephiraal

The game shipped with very little content in way of creating custom characters, and as a result I haven't touched the game in a couple of month or so because the one aspect I was really excited for was kind of lacklustre. It's a fun game otherwise but being a fan of the series and loving the character creation tool, I can't help but feel disappointed.

Fun for the kids with a few harmless scares and not too mind boggling puzzles, but also deep enough for a seasoned gamer.

Pretty much on par, if not even better, than the original Dishonored.

I like it, Far Cry 5 plays nice. But as I was scouting an outpost, a hostage sat below the ridge I was on so I figure before storming said outpost, I could free the hostage. And then I'm dragged through what felt like a ten minute long expository cut scene that I couldn't skip before being forced to partake in a meaningless "cinematic" game moment where I had to leap off of a statue.

Most games tell bad, been-there-done-that kind of stories, even the good ones like Mass Effect (you are the chosen knight, stop the evil wizard before he summons the dragon, basically). But Far Cry 5 tells a bad story in a bad way, stopping the game for blatant exposition rather than incorporating that exposition with the gameplay. It's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying having to drop whatever I'm doing so the bad guys can ejaculate their inane exposition at me before I have to fight my way out of some lair.

Edit:

As I was scouting out an outpost, right below the rocky ridge I was perched on was a cult member holding a man hostage. So I'm about to go in and discover the two men and kill the cult member and try to release the hostage. The hostage evaporates and I am presented with what felt like a ten minute unskipable cut scene, before being transported to a location far away from the outpost I had intented to storm. Effectively, the game stopped me from playing it my way so it could tell its story.

I have some issues with this.

The cut scene involves the character Faith Seed and all this does is inform the player of who she is and her motivation, nearly verbatim saying "I used to be a drug addict but then Father Joseph saved me and now I want to live life and I have faith in Father Joseph. You should have faith in Father Joseph, too, so you should jump off this ledge that I brought you to as a show of faith!" In terms of storytelling, an exposition dump like this is rarely interesting and just like with movies, games are a visual medium which means you can show and not tell. Granted not everything can be shown all the time, but visual storytelling can be more rewarding rather than having characters describe themselves and their motivations blatantly, as it gives you room to play around with visual cues and can inform the player greatly on a character without even noticing it. For attentive players it becomes another layer to the games narrative, and by no means am I saying not to tell anything. Just tone down the exposition. Find a happy middleground.

Related, accumulating resistance points results in being abducted by the cult, and again, forces the player to a halt in whatever their doing. You get presented with cut scenes (that you can skip, and all of which I have so far), then you have to fight your way out of a lair and you end up some place far away from where you were. This is very frustrating, to be violently ripped away from the free-form gameplay that Far Cry 5 clearly supports in its open world design. I'm not against narrative or cinematic games, the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot was a lot of fun and Firewatch kept me guessing all the way. But when you try to crowbar narrative into an open world game with all sorts of ancillary activities, things go awry. You can tell any kind of story you want, but how you want to tell a story needs to work in tandem with how you want players to play the game. Having the game's narrative abduct me while I'm hunting for bears is not an effective way to tell a story. It's just frustrating.

I think I hate this game, which is rare because while I have a lot of games in my library with only a few minutes of play time, it's ambivalence that drives me away from playing everything. But Far Cry 5 annoys me. I feel like the game is punishing me for wanting to progress and I won't even brother any more. It's a waste of money and time.

Don't buy this game.

This little game has been on my radar since its release, but I just never bothered getting it, and being the patient person that I am, buying games right away as they release isn't something I often do. In this case I should have as this is among the best games I've played in 2017. Seriously, if I had to make a list of 2017's best titles, Super Samurai Rampage would be on it.

Might be better than the first, though the addional features clutter the simplicity of the first game.

I hate hard games and find them more tedious than anything else, but the music and visuals drive you to keep playing so you'll see more and hear more of the amazing aehtetic this game offers. Easily the most imaginative, colourful, and spirited game I've played in a long time.

Buy the soundtrack as well!

In terms of missions, yes, they're all the same - you sneak around and kill people or go full on assault, with little variation, but the characters, story, and dialogue are all great. Scorsese great. I'm sure most people will disagree with that. But ♥♥♥♥ it, I loved playing this game.

As someone not that competent playing against other players, I wouldn't buy this for the multiplayer. If the single player stuff is worthwhile however I'll pick it up. Gameplay is great, looks good, sounds terrific.

♥♥♥♥ Rockstar and Take-Two