Far Cry 5 Available Now: Our Five Favorite New Features

Unless you’ve been locked away in a doomsday bunker, you’re likely familiar with the major new features Far Cry 5 is bringing to Ubisoft’s action-ratcheting sandbox series. Full campaign co-op, Guns (and Fangs) for Hire, a fresh stateside setting, and a crazed cult leader called “The Father” are all aiming to separate the sequel from previous entries.

Far Cry 5 is available now, so we figured we’d take a closer look at this highly-anticipated new shooter. While it’ll no doubt be a blast building a pistol-packing resistance to liberate a cult-occupied Montana alongside a buddy though, the ambitious entry’s more heavily-hyped features only represent a fraction of the fresh tweaks being made to the franchise’s open-world formula. Based on our recent deep-dive into the fictional Hope County, here are five more changes that should shake up the series’ status quo.

What Radio Towers?

Scaling towering structures to unlock new locations and objectives on the map has been a longtime staple of the series, but Far Cry 5‘s adopting a more natural approach to opening new areas and missions. In fact, early in the game, an NPC sends players scrambling up such a tower to gather intel, but quickly assures them they won’t be spending the entire game climbing ladders toward the clouds. Following the funny, self-aware nod to the oft-criticized mechanic, players will begin to organically open up the world by exploring locations, interacting with characters, and, of course, liberating the land of cultists.

Take to the Skies

One of Far Cry 4‘s cooler vehicles was the Gyrocopter, a compact, propeller-powered ride that let players take to the skies above Pagin Min’s oppressed Kyrat. Far Cry 5 elevates this concept, quite literally, allowing players to hop into the cockpits of planes and helicopters. On top of giving you a fantastic front row seat of the game’s beautiful Big Sky Country, the new transportation options make it a breeze to get around the massive map and, obviously, scorch the cult-occupied landscape below with a variety of air-based munitions. Toss in the return of the parachute, wing-suit, and grappling hook, and you can begin to imagine the emergent possibilities these new vehicles bring.

Player-shaping Perks

Far Cry fans are accustomed to building their characters, molding their play-styles, and carving their paths via the games’ skill trees. Far Cry 5 offers a similar progression system, but strays from the tried-and-true formula of previous entries to offer fans even more freedom. As players progress through the story, they’ll naturally unlock new perks and complete challenges, like scoring so many head-shots or rescuing a specific amount of civilians. Conquering such challenges, rewards perk points, which can then be used to assign all kinds of cool passive and active abilities to your character. Best of all, players can pretty much cherry-pick their favorite perks, within five categories – Survivalist, Renegade, Assassin, Prepper, Leader – without having to invest in skills they’re not interested in.

Four Foes are Better Than One

Far Cry games are famous for pitting players against memorable antagonists, like the third entry’s Vaas and Far Cry 4‘s Pagin Min. Fans loved hating these baddies so much though, that they actually wanted more of them. Far Cry 5 remedies this by offering not just one big bad, but and entire family of unsavory folks. The game’s separated into three substantial regions, each run by one of Joseph Seed’s siblings. Dubbed “Heralds”, this trio –John, Jacob, and Faith – must be dealt with before players can even think of putting the apocalypse-embracing preacher out to pasture.

Fishing Isn’t Just for Fun

Far Cry 5 features a surprisingly sophisticated fishing simulation. Accessible and engaging, the angling side activity is a great way to kick back, take in the game’s beautiful scenery, and maybe forget – for a bit – that the Father wants to cleanse your soul by any means necessary. Hooking that prized trout isn’t all about R&R, however, as fishing – as well as the game’s hunting system – can factor into the game’s economy, challenges, and missions structure. During our demo, for example, we made a good chunk of change by selling our day’s catch; later, we even had to snag some salmon to feed our Fangs-for-Hire bear buddy, Cheeseburger.

Far Cry 5′s filled with fresh features – from the subtle to significant – that forgo the series’ familiar template in favor of fun inclusions that evolve the franchise without forsaking its core concepts. We can’t wait to see what else the game has in store for players when they finally get their hands on it starting today. Grab your copy of Far Cry 5 now!