One of the most wonderful parts of any Far Cry adventure is exploring the beautiful and chaotic world that the developer’s have built for you to enjoy. In Far Cry 5 it feels particularly easy to spend hours in game fishing with your loyal pal Boomer peacefully at your side, or just driving around picking fights with any group of gun toting maniacs you come across.
Anyone who knows me knows that I ignore story missions until I am practically forced to do them. I will wander around gaining skills and making friends and mining resources until I eventually remember this game has a narrative and I should probably look into it. So as I was playing Far Cry 5 this week I was taking up the same strategy…until something strange happened.
The town of Fall’s End had been radioing for my help for quite some time but I hadn’t made my way over there yet. While clearing a cult outpost, I got a call. It was from someone in Fall’s End. As it turns out, I had inspired them to ‘take back the town’ themselves.
The mission disappeared off my map, and a new one appeared in its place. I just…didn’t have to do it. It was honestly the first time I’d faced consequences for ignoring the story missions in an open world game. It felt like great attention to detail. The world around me wasn’t just waiting on me, the only competent person in the county. It would react and change on its own.
Obviously this has happened to some other gamers, but as it turns out, not everyone was as happy with the results as I was. Some gamers felt deprived of content, particularly content that could be significant to the story. This Reddit thread has plenty of irritated gamers who felt cheated when they were denied the chance to liberate the town themselves. “Really pissed because I’m a story junky and I feel like I really missed out. Very disappointed as well that this is a thing,” one user lamented.
Whether you like this mechanic or not, this can serve as your warning going forward. If you take too long, the tough as nails resistance in Hope County will take care of things themselves.