I know Far Cry 5 has been out since 2018, but not being a gamer myself, I didn't try the game until last weekend. I'm from the Pac-Man and Dig Dug era. I'd never held an X-box remote before, much less tried to play a three-dimensional, first-person video game. In fact, when playing Mario Kart with my kids, I've often been known to fall off of the road, and when playing Kirby, I have a knack for dying by falling in pits...even when I'm playing as Meta Knight who can fly. My kids don't see how I can die by falling but, well, it happens. I hit the wrong button and it's curtains. Given all of the above information you may wonder what on earth possessed me to try the game a full six years after it's original release. It's simple. My favorite actor, Steve Byers, is the voice of Nick Rye.
So, why the long wait? There were several reasons. First and foremost, I didn't own any type of electronic device capable of playing the game, one of my kids told me they thought I'd hate it because it's so violent, and at least three more of my kids told me it was going to be very challenging for me to play based upon what they'd seen of my video gaming skills up to that point. (Author's note: I have six kids.)
At this point, I've already watched practically all of the stuff Steve Byers has starred in and a good deal of shows in which he had a smaller role. Therefore, I decided it was time to take the plunge into the video gaming world!
Additionally, I was spurred on by an online acquaintance who, having played the game himself, but having most likely no idea of my sub-par gaming skills, assured me, "You'll be great at it...just have fun with it!" And if you are reading this, and you know who you are, thank you for the words of encouragement. They were most welcome and appreciated!
Unlike my situation of not having a way to play the game back in 2018, there's now a community gaming area where I live. They were greatly amused when I called about "Far Cry 5" because, though I'd gone there many times to take my kids to play games over the past four years since they opened, I'd never once done any gaming myself. Additionally, I'm considerably older than most gamers, so I think they were tickled by that.
Many things in life are more fun when done to the extreme so I headed to my local thrift store, found a blue t-shirt the same shade as Nick Rye's and also purchased a red and black flannel button-up shirt, from which I removed the sleeves. I paired these with some light jeans and boots. Then I traded the baseball cap for a bandana tied it in my hair (I have braids so baseball caps don't work well) and off I went.
Now, I'm terrible at the game...but that's okay! I had a really hard time getting the controls straight. Nonetheless, I had a blast! I played for seven hours over two days. After about three and a half hours someone walked by, excited to see what I was playing. I invited him to take over for 40 minutes and that was a fantastic decision! He explained a lot of stuff about the controls that I had not understood and since he was so much more proficient at the game, he actually got me to where Steve Byers' character was located. This was significant progress. I got "greeted" by Nick Rye in the game and then went off to clear the area and try to find his plane.
Back on my own again you can imagine how that went--I wrecked a large number of vehicles in-game and died a lot. Eventually it was 11:00 p.m. and I had to go as I work very early in the mornings before Sunday worship service. Undeterred, and much to the amusement of my family, I retuned to gaming the next night.
While the game is fun, I believe that I already stated that I'm not generally a gamer. Somehow, and I have no idea how, I got off of the mission of finding Nick Rye's plane. I eventually completed what was apparently a side mission of saving the Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival, and I had hoped the game would tell me what to do to find that plane so I could see more of Steve Byer's character, Nick Rye. Nope. The game didn't do as I had hoped.
I was beginning to wonder if I'd have more luck standing in a random square or park in Toronto, Canada and hoping to accidentally run into the real Steve Byers than finding the character in the game. Then it occurred to me-- this is a really, really well-programmed game. Could I treat it like a real search and rescue mission? Or like the holodeck on some of the new Enterprise models in Star Trek?
When you are looking for a missing person, you start where they were last seen, so I decided to go back to where I had last seen Nick Rye. Would the NPC be just "hanging out" where I'd left him last time before clearing the area? Being terrible at driving and sick of being shot at (yes, it's a shooting game but I was tired of shooting--LOL) I decided to follow the map and walk through the forest. For me, this was a very sound choice. I encountered some wild animals but I can shoot at a bear. It's several people at once coming at me that causes me issues!
Eventually I made it back to Rye and Sons Aviation and sure enough, Nick Rye was right where I had seen him before! I hit the "talk" button enough times to hear all of Steve Byers' lines from that location and then I decided I had to try to get the game to put me back on the mission to find the plane so that hopefully I could interact more with Nick. A quick Reddit search indicated where Nick Rye's plane was supposed to be on the game map. So I walked off merrily (again ignoring all the available vehicles) tromping through the forest. It's kind of relaxing when no one is shooting at you. Almost like a nature walk.
When I got near the river, characters found me and started shooting again. The game reminded me that I was supposed to take these guys out, but I'd decided to play the game on my own terms. I jumped in the water and swam, staying submerged as long as possible. I got shot at a lot, but didn't get hit and made it to the location where the plane was being kept. Success!
Okay, partial success. I got myself back on the mission I wanted, so that's a win. I died twice tying to liberate the plane, but I'll do better at that next time! (Probably this evening.)
All in all, I had a great time playing Far Cry 5 and I'm so glad I tried it. No, this is NOT for children. It's extremely violent and full of language kids should not be exposed to, but for an adult who wants a game to play, it's a great deal of fun! Hopefully I'll liberate the plane soon and get to interact more with Steve's character, Nick.
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