First thing: look at
Far Cry Modding, their content can make a major difference—eg saved 5 for me.
This bundle contains:
- Far Cry®
- Far Cry® 2: Fortune's Edition
- Far Cry 3
- Far Cry 3 - Blood Dragon
- Far Cry® 4
- Far Cry® Primal
- Far Cry® 5
- Far Cry® New Dawn
prices for the whole bundle
For me it's $14.81, since I already own most of those. What's your price?
system specs if that's relevant
Not relevant, I've been playing FC6 on i7-7 and 1060.
I agree, altho there's a core group for whom it's the fav FC—probably due to the more realistic survival elements.
2014 Far Cry 4
2016 Far Cry Primal
2018 Far Cry 5
2019 Far Cry New Dawn
In short, those are all on my replay list—and the only ones with FC6, I dropped FC3 recently as it's just a lot worse than the later ones. So of course I recommend all 4.
play them in order or jump straight to FC6 and go backwards
If you liked FC3's world, you should like FC6's similar part-jungle vibe—but FC6 is a huge map, and way better than FC3's.
Did you enjoy climbing all the radio towers in FC3? If yes, then start with FC4—it has a similar mechanism.
Otherwise, it doesn't matter much. The only practical reason to play in sequence is there are a couple of FC3 characters who reappear in the later ones, so you may like to know the background. But that's a very minor thing, doesn't affect gameplay at all.
Are they all fully fledge standalone games
♣ 4 & 5 are full games.
♦ Primal uses a reskinned portion of the FC4 map, but is otherwise totally unrelated and the most different of all the FCs, since it's set in 10K BC. Has the most beautiful world imo, and is heavier on the melee combat.
♥ New Dawn uses part of the FC5 map reskinned, and is a direct sequel, set about 15 years later—some FC5 characters return or are referenced.
these 4x games in particular are either fantastic or bloody awful?
All excellent, totally worth buying if you liked FC3—thankfully Ubi haven't fallen into the trap of feeling they had to "innovate" with each new game. However, Primal is very different from the rest in that there are no guns etc—but there are Bee Bombs ftw and you get to ride sabretooth tigers!
The only DLC I recommend buying is FC4's Valley of the Yetis.
the good, the bad, and the interesting
If like me you found FC3's UI abysmal, it gradually improves all the way to New Dawn, before taking a backward step again in FC6.
FC5 is where many more significant NPCs are introduced, and they really build on that in FC6. Against that, FC6's combat companions are a lot worse than FC5's. While FC5 is much more polished than FC6, 6 may be more fun to mess around in—unless the story is important to you, story missions are generally annoying
I'll end with what I have in my notes:
5 better than 3
5 is far better than 3, but 3 is very good, all told.
1. The abysmal interface of 3 has been mostly fixed in 5, after being 1/2 fixed in 4. I've seen better interfaces in 90s games than 3.
2. Villains in 5 are better than the comic-book caricature which was Vaas, or the nondescript Hoyt. 5 has 4 better villains with decent backstory and screen time.
3. Quick Time Events in 3.
4. Radio towers… more fracking radio towers in 3.
5. Planes, choppers in 5.
6. Arcade sandbox in 5.
7. Auto-drive since 4.
8. Grappling hook since 4.
9. Guns/fangs for hire since 4.
10. Fishing in 5.
11. Player character choice in 5.
12. Shovel launcher in 5.
13. Ballistics in 5.
14. World much more open from start in 5.
15. Missions, quests etc dependent on player exploration & interaction in 5.
16. Animal taming since 4 [rideable elephants].
17. Outpost Master since 4.
As I said, 3 is very good despite various drawbacks, but 4 & 5 are better.
— … —
FC1—Phenomenal when it launched, quite difficult, some great missions, 2nd half a drag when Trigens appear.
FC2—Worst of series, VERY annoying mechanics, tedious gameplay, repetitive, repetitive, repetitive … I never got beyond 5 hours in 3 attempts to play it without boredom & tedium becoming too much.
FC3—Really good gameplay, enjoyable if you like over-the-top stuff, story missions mostly a drag, UI a disgrace.
FC3 Blood Dragon—way more over-the-top, not my cup of tea, but many like it as a short fun romp.
FC4—Excellent, improved FC3, much better story & characters, fabulous changing environment, less-worse UI, mostly good story missions, best gameplay.
FC4 Valley of the Yetis—surprised me, well worth playing.
FC4 Primal—Excellent, beautiful world, great no-guns weapon play [beehive bombs!], not-too-bad UI, nice characters, base-building, ridiculously bad boss fights.
FC5—Most variety in gameplay so far, lovely environment, interesting mechanics, fun story & characters, fun arcade mode; bad mission balance, unskippable tedious cut scenes, game-breaking timed run-n-gun sequences with major bugs—oh, I guess that should be spray-n-pray sequences, given the context.
FC5 New Dawn—Very good, doesn't include FC5 game-breaker. Fun 'off-world' Expeditions which, like Outpost captures, can be repeated against tougher opposition for greater rewards. Didn't finish story, looks very boring run n gun stuff in YouTube, but rest makes it a great game.
So: Primal would be fav if it wasn't for the boss fights. My ranking:
FC5 with Resistance mod
FC6
FC4
FC4 Primal
FC5 New Dawn
FC4 Yetis
FC3
FC1
FC3 Blood Dragon
FC2