Update: Hot on the heels of the first teaser trailer for Far Cry 5, Ubisoft has unveiled the game’s slightly sacrilegious concept art (seen above). While it might be a bit ludicrous to some, it’s par for the course for the Far Cry franchise and we’ve taken a look at what the concept art suggests about the game’s story below.
When can we learn more about the game? May 26, 2017 – this Friday.
Original article continues below…
Thanks to a recent earnings report, we now know that Far Cry 5 is officially coming.
When will it be revealed, though? Well, E3 2017 is rapidly approaching and many people think that the game will appear in some form or another during Ubisoft’s press conference alongside the next Assassin’s Creed game. Ubisoft naturally hasn’t commented on this but rumors are swirling.
We’ve gathered together everything we know so far about Far Cry 5 right here and we’ve even added a couple of things we’d like to see for good measure.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The next installment in the open world first-person shooter franchise
- What can I play it on? The most likely platforms are PS4, Xbox One and PC
- When can I play it? It’s unlikely we’ll see the next Far Cry game before 2018
Far Cry 5 teaser trailer
Our first look at Far Cry 5 came on Monday, May 22 when Ubisoft dropped the first teaser trailer for the game (embedded below).
The 40-second trailer doesn’t offer much of an idea of when the game is going to be set, but it does tell us where: Hope County Montana.
Sadly we’ll have to wait until Friday, May 26 to learn more.
Far Cry 5 release date
In a recent earnings report, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot said that we could expect a new entry in the Far Cry franchise would be coming in 2017-18, but expect it to arrive in the latter half of that window.
After all, Far Cry 3 was released in November 2012, followed by Far Cry 4 in November 2014. Just when we thought we understood the pattern and could expect Far Cry 5 in November 2016, though, Ubisoft threw a curveball and released the prehistoric Far Cry Primal in February 2016.
This pretty much scuppered any chances of seeing Far Cry 5 later this year. We think it’s more reasonable to expect that it would be released in 2018.
News and rumors
Where will it be set?
The Far Cry series has taken us to a wide range of places including lush tropical islands, cold mountain ranges, and dry savannas. Until Far Cry Primal took us back to the Stone Age, the action always took place in roughly the present day. Now that we’ve been across the world and traveled through time, it was initially actually fairly hard to predict where and when Far Cry may decide to take us next.
Rumors initially suggested that we were heading to 19th century America for a Spaghetti Western. Now that we’ve seen the concept art and teaser trailer, the mid-western American setting is certainly accurate and we know we’re heading to Hope County Montana, but the time period is less clear.
The teaser trailer doesn’t reveal much but the concept image released for the game suggests a more modern setting as the characters are toting more modern guns and clothing than the 19th century offered.
In early May The Great Falls Tribune reported that a church in Montana was going to feature in an upcoming video game with shoot producer Jeff Guillot revealing that the game would be “a sequel to an existing global franchise” and was due to be released in September.
There’s absolutely no guarantee that this meant the game was Far Cry 5, but naturally the rumor mill started turning very quickly. Fans online were quick to point out that Jeff Guillot had previously worked on several Ubisoft promotional campaigns and that Far Cry was the most likely Ubisoft franchise to be set in this location considering the next Assassin’s Creed title is rumored to be set in Egypt.
At the moment the most likely scenario is that Ubisoft will use the mid-west US as a setting without jumping back so far back in time as the 19th century. The concept art for the game definitely suggests this is what we’re going to get.
Going back too far in time using a mid-west setting could be a bit of a risk with Red Dead Redemption 2 approaching. Either it would be taken as a tongue-in-cheek return to form for the series or an attempt to cash in on a setting made popular by another franchise.
With something slightly more modern, Far Cry 5 gives itself more of a chance to stand out.
What’s the story?
Naturally we don’t know much about the game yet, but from what we can tell from the recently released concept art, the game will this time revolve around a religious cult in the USA.
The image recreates Da Vinci’s The Last Supper painting, populating it with stereotypical rural American characters and imagery. Woolen check shirts, bears, Bowie knives, magnums, pie, steak, the American flag. It’s all there.
The loaded Da Vinci reference isn’t the only reason it looks like the game will feature a religious cult either – the bound prisoner with Sinner marked on his back and the church in the background are more fairly (read intensely) strong hints.
Though it looks highly likely that the characters in the image will be the bad guys in the game, how exactly the protagonist will fit in with them is currently unclear. It’ll be interesting to see how the game frames the player’s relationship and their view of these villains through the lens of the protagonist.
Things we’d like to see
A great villain
Some of our favorite villains in gaming have come from the Far Cry franchise and we’d love to see that continue. In a first person shooter where your hero can’t have a great deal of presence, it’s utterly essential to have a good antagonist that players can engage with.
We think the hints that players will be taking on a religious cult leader creates a great opportunity for a truly excellent and extremely controversial villain.
A refreshed formula
Ubisoft games have become somewhat notorious for filling large game maps with icons for repetitive quests leading to games that can feel like a laborious exercise in map clearing. Far Cry: Primal mixed things up slightly by making it possible to engage more with the game world but we’d like to see Far Cry 5 go even further and make what will undoubtedly be a large game map feel worth its scale.
Source: techradar.com
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