Far Cry 3: The easiest to pick up and get addicted to. The island is really fun to explore, the tropical setting is colorful and stimulating and there are tons of fun little secrets to discover. The first antagonist is memorable and has some great moments but the story goes south pretty quickly and results in a "two choices" ending where one of the choices makes no sense and the right choice results in a cool character being an asshole. Still, even with the dumb story my memories of the game are extremely positive. I was hooked.
Far Cry Blood Dragon: Neon-soaked post-80's parody of Far Cry and 80's sci-fi movies. The main character is voiced by Michael Biehn (Aliens, Terminator) and the soundtrack is an awesome, atmospheric synthpop score by Power Glove. I fucking love Blood Dragon. Everyone loves Blood Dragon. Ubisoft are insane for not wanting to do a sequel.
Far Cry 4: Really interesting mountain-based landscapes with fun terrain to traverse and some kickass weapons and gear to play with. Despite having a spectacular intro, the story is fucking terrible. The intriguing villain vanishes for 85% of the game and you're mostly picking sides between the two groups that are both fighting to save the country. This results in an even more insulting set of choices, as regardless of the team you side with, you will be betrayed in really stupid ways. If this doesn't bother you it's still a lot of fun.
Far Cry 5: Pretty unique setting for a Far Cry game, it's straight up deep woods Montana, USA. Lots of forests, mountains, bears and eagles to fight, log cabins to loot, fish to catch and even dogs to befriend. I made the mistake of getting interested in the religious cult-based story only to learn about the awful, awful ending through a Polygon article. As with previous Far Cry games, you get two "choices" in the end. The "bad ending" is pretty bleak and unhappy. The "good ending" is essentially the unhappiest ending you could ever imagine. Most people who reached this point were pissed off and felt that their time was wasted. But again, if you're not playing for the story? It doesn't matter. Far Cry 5 is still a blast.
Far Cry: New Dawn: often viewed as a cheap cash grab, Far Cry New Dawn is best experienced via co-op. The game is a direct sequel to Far Cry 5, taking place 20(?) years after the "good" ending with a post-apocolyptic, almost "mad max in pink neon" aesthetic. It's about half the length of previous Far Cry games and it's technically the same map from 5 but the weapons are weird, make-shift toys, many of the animals have been mutated, the powers that you unlock (yes powers) in the skill tree are dumb but also really fun to play with. My buddy and I had a lot of laughs during summer lockdown playing this together. The story is dumb. It's not as insulting as the previous few games but it's also kind of nothing. It's also a huge wasted opportunity to have POC protagonists but whatever, that's another conversation.
New Dawn is a sequel to Far Cry 5. It's a neon covered post-nuke apocalyptic wasteland. Plays similarly to Far Cry 5 (modified version of the same map), but adds on Expeditions, which are smaller, isolated maps that can only be reached via chopper. It sometimes gets written off as a cash-in, but I thought it was enjoyable and creative.
Yep, it was kind of a cash-in but I had a lot of fun taking down mutated creatures in co-op. Really happy I played it.
