I recently posted about my past experiences with gaming, and how my preferences have changed over the years, but my love for in-person play with others has been constant. For the last six years I hadn’t had a console to play on, and have only been playing solo strategy games on my computer. The focus and time commitment for those games has made it impractical and downright anti-social to start a new campaign, which doesn’t really fit with my life right now. That being said, the itch to game is still strong. When my friend offered to lend me his old PS4, I thought this would be a good chance to get back into gaming.
My friend recommended I get a PlayStation Plus account so I could try many different kinds of games from their vast library. When I told him what kind of games I like, both he and another friend of ours recommended I try Far Cry 5 (2018).
I hadn’t played any of the Far Cry series before, but I knew they were well regarded adventure games that I had wanted to try in the past. When I found the game on PlayStation Plus, I was pleased to see that it said co-op was available for this game. I knew that the best way for me to balance gaming with the rest of my life would be to find games I could also play with others, specifically my wife.
I downloaded the game, and immediately got pulled into the compelling story and adrenaline-inducing action of the opening act. If you don’t know about Far Cry 5 it is set in the fictional country town of Hope, Montana (USA), where a murderous doomsday cult has taken hold. The opening sequence (spoiler alert) involves a botched police raid on the cult, a helicopter crash, and you running through the forest to avoid capture. The immediate and intense action really pulls you into the game from the start.
I found it easy to understand most of the game mechanics, as they were similar to other games I had played in the past. The concept of liberating territory from the cult and expanding friendly areas around the map reminded me a lot of the PlayStation 2 game Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. In that game you play a gangster in South Central Los Angeles, growing his gang, meanwhile fighting over and claiming new territory. It is a similar concept to Far Cry 5, but instead of taking over city blocks from rival gangs, you are liberating areas of the mountain town from a cult.
There is also a mechanic in the game where you can recruit characters to come and fight with you. This also reminded me of San Andreas because that game allowed you to recruit other gangsters to follow you and take your orders.
One of the characters you can recruit is a dog, which reminded me a lot of another game I used to enjoy, Fallout 4.
I was really enjoying playing the game by myself, but was looking forward the idea of having someone sitting next to me playing as one of these partner characters.
When my wife got home, she was curious to try the game. Our first attempts at getting co-op to work were fruitless; something about needing to sign up for a Ubisoft account (red flag). We tried just switching off playing, but that didn’t go very well. She had never played any console games before, so she didn’t really have the instincts on the controls you need for a modern shooter. The out of nowhere threats and quickly escalating action was a bit much for her to handle, leading to quick demoralizing deaths every time she tried to play.
When I did a bit more research on how to turn on the co-op mode, I learned that it would only work if the other person had their own console and game. Upon learning this, I knew that this game, although fun, would not be the split-screen co-op adventure I had been hoping for, and the search must go on.
More on my journey back into gaming in future posts. I hope you enjoyed reading. Thanks for stopping by!
Photos were taken by me unless otherwise sourced.