Ubisoft has officially released four new teaser trailers for Far Cry 5 confirming that the game will indeed feature an American setting, contrary to earlier rumours suggesting a Wild West setting. The teasers also confirm that the game world will be set in the state of Montana as claimed by the focus group that was asked to attend the screening of Far Cry 5.
Each of the four teasers suggests that the game has indeed been shot in the suburbs of rural America which is in line with earlier rumours. Consequently, it seems Ubisoft is not creating a direct competition for Rockstar Games' upcoming action-RPG game 'Red Dead Redemption 2', but something different and modern than its prequel 'Far Cry: Primal'.
The teaser trailers point out that the character clothing, weapons and buildings are actually looking more modern than any of the game's previous releases.
The game is set to take place in a fictional location called 'Hope County' in the state of Montana, while its main protagonist will be taking on a religious cult in the game's single-player campaign. There is still no clue on the gameplay details for the multiplayer version of the game.
As far as weapons are concerned, we are likely to see the same weapons that were showcased in Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4, according to Redditor FarCry5-throwaway who claims to have been part of the focus tram that participated in the initial screening of some games including GTA 5, Assassin's Creed Origins and Far Cry 5.
Spoilers ahead – Read at your own risk
Here are some excerpts from the Redditor's recent post on Reddit that shed more light on the gameplay aspects of Far Cry 5 including the setting, story and character details:
- The idea of doing it in Montana was the predominant idea -- like many of you, we were kind of led to believe at first that it would be a Wild West motif, just to see what we thought of that idea -- but that changed when they started to show us character profiles and other collateral. The general thrust of this game is that it will take place in present day, and feature the protagonist taking on a Jim Jones or David Koresh-like religious cult in a small town in Montana that's been populated by, essentially, Doomsday-preppers bent on furthering their cause. So, modern-day weaponry and modern-day vehicles, plus a hilly, mountainous backdrop. Honestly, it sounded at the time like they were using that to their advantage, given that when you think of Far Cry you kind of think of mountains and hills and the kind of backdrop Montana has in spades.
- They showed us some basic promotional videos featuring a heavily -- HEAVILY -- religious angle to the evil. A person (presumably the protagonist) walking through a town that was completely empty, only to walk into a church to discover the congregation is made up of everyone in town staring in rapt attention at a shirtless lunatic leader brandishing an assault rifle in one hand and a Bible in the other. Even at the time, I wondered how they were going to handle the presentation of religious zealotry to the type of Middle America that purchases games for their kids. If they proceed on the path that I saw... they're not even trying to pretend. They're steering the vehicle into the curve.
- We saw candids and profiles of many of the characters in the game -- left out of those were any kind of details about the primary protagonist, and there wasn't much on the antagonist-preacher either. Instead, we got views of what I'd presume are some of the support characters. A female mechanic (who I strongly suspect is a love interest, or someone giving you missions) who helps you. An old burnt-out hippie character. Various and sundry small-town folks. And the second-in-command bad guy, who was basically being portrayed as Tom Cruise -- an A-list celebrity who became a ranking member of the high council.
- There were also some oblique references to this religion sharing some commonalities with Scientology, and I wonder if those will make the cut. The only thing about the Tom Cruise cypher that didn't seem to make a hell of a lot of sense is that he was supposed to have garnered his fame, at least in partial, from working in pornography. If anything's gonna change, I'd hope it's this element, because I'm not sure small-town America's all that ready for porno-Tom-Cruise-turned-religious-nutjob-murderer.
- Most of what I saw wasn't imminently memorable, with the exception of the couple characters and the cool idea of pitting the protagonist against a Branch Davidian-like cult. Mostly what the focus group was gauging was reactions to videos and still images -- asking us questions about "how this character would sound," or "does this person seem like someone you'd like to get to know" and whatnot. When it came time for open feedback, you may be happy to know that I railed them a bit for reusing the map from FC4 for Primal, which felt like lazy bullshit to me.
