FAR CRY 5

Developer/publisher Ubisoft (Montreal) Format PC, PS4, Xbox One Release February 27

Given how poorly suited the typical open-world game is to a show-floor demo – a condensed, 20-minute slice rarely flatters a sprawling, 50-hour whole – perhaps we shouldn’t read too much into it. But we come away from our first sit down with E308’ s cover star feeling a little deflated. Our excitement for Far Cry 5 stems largely from its setting and story; two elements that are never going to be the stars of an E3 demo. But still, at the core, this is just another Far Cry, a game of assaulting various configurations of enemies with stealth or absurd ordnance. You needn’t fix what’s not broken, sure. But we found precious little to be excited about.

Indeed, the major gameplay addition, the Guns For Hire system, does little to freshen things up. While the three available accomplices are intended to make things feel more flexible, they just make it easier. Calling in an airstrike from pilot accomplice Nick Rye rewards you with a big explosion and a few stragglers to mop up. Boomer, the dog, pads around enemy camps tagging bad guys for you; later he’ll grab guns from corpses if you’re low on ammo.

Far Cry has been silly for a while, of course, but it’s always made you a participant in the carnage. If the action is really to be this automated, Ubisoft’s story team has got a hell of a job on its hands.