Parents' Guide to

Far Cry 5

By Paul Semel, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Violent, mature shooter rages across Montana lands.

Game Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Windows 2018
Far Cry 5 Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

Community Reviews

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age 13+

Based on 49 parent reviews

BlitzGuy20
BlitzGuy20 Parent of 9-year-old
December 7, 2021
age 15+

Eerie, intense gameplay masterfully combines with an open word shooter, expect disturbing stuff and language

Far Cry 5 (2018) is a game following 4 law enforcement officers sent to Hope County, Michigan to shut down “Eden’s Gate”, an armed and dangerous cult destroying and reigning terror upon Hope County. Throughout, expect violence, bloody and disturbing images and language! VIOLENCE: SEVERE Actual in-game combat is quite tame, shooting results in small sprays of blood which sometimes splatter on environments, enemies can be struck with blunt objects, some blood appears on them as well as some blood spray, enemies can be punched, kicked, kneed and have their necks snapped from takedowns. Although combat contains no gore, the story contains several disturbing and bloody images within cutscenes, these include: A man gets his eyes gouged out, this is shown from behind at an angle where you can’t really see it happen. A cultist jumps into helicopter blades, blood splatters on windows but the impact isn’t shown. A man has a large chunk of flesh sliced off of his chest and stapled to a wall, he survives but this scene is very disturbing, a villain engraves his followers sins into their skin, villains are shown with their sins cut into them, all around the map corpses impaled, shot with arrows, wrapped with barbed wire, nailed up, fallen from heights, crucified and more can be found. A woman mind controls and forces a man to shoot another innocent man and then himself, quite distressing. Images of dead deer, wolves and other animals are shown as you and another man are strapped to a chairs and forced to watch, this reappears a few times, it is heavily implied a man put a music box in your head to mind control you, it is referenced that a man starved a family, boiled the parents out in the son and forced their children to eat their toes. The violence isn’t really the graphic part of the game, instead it’s the disturbing images and menacing content from the villains Joseph, Faith, Jacob and John, four cult members each with different sinister intentions. LANGUAGE: SEVERE Constant use of “f*ck” and “motherf*cker” throughout the game, frequent use of “sh*t”, and “b*tch”, one use each of “c*nt” and “c*cksucker”, which can be heard many times if you hover over a certain buildings on the map, infrequent use of “d*ck”, “pr*ck”, “p*ssy”, “a**”, “a**hole”, “d*mn”, “h*ll” and “goddamn”. SEXUAL CONTENT: MILD Little to none at all other than very light sexual jokes. A man is shown shirtless, corpses are shown shirtless on occasion. DRUG CONTENT: MILD You can make and drink alcohol, make and consume weed, however this is not graphic as the drugs aren’t shown, only the effects. A fictional drug called “bliss” is used throughout the game to mind control the people of Hope County sometimes causing them to harm others and themselves. OVERALL: 15+

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much swearing
2 people found this helpful.
Ofek L.
Ofek L. Parent of 14-year-old
April 29, 2023
age 17+

Bad message.

The game is very toxic and has a toxic message nothing positive about it.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much swearing
1 person found this helpful.
See all 49 parent reviews

What’s It About?

In FAR CRY 5, you're a rookie U.S. Marshall who joins local police and your superior officer when they go into a small Montana town to arrest the leader of a violent religious cult that's like ISIS with a messiah complex. But when your chopper goes down and you're caught behind enemy lines, you have to do whatever's necessary to survive. This includes killing lots of cultists and destroying their outposts, looting their bodies and settlements for supplies, and rescuing locals who've been taken hostage by the cult.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (49):
Kids say (50):

Though it's rather similar to previous installments, the latest in this series of open-world first-person shooters is also as compelling and addictive as its predecessors. In Far Cry 5, you have to survive by any means necessary when you're trapped behind enemy lines. Except that the enemy in question is an ISIS-esque religious cult in Montana that's taken control of the town. Which is why you not only have to use stealth and a wide variety of guns and other weapons to take out the group's members, but you also have to destroy their outposts, scavenge for supplies and resources, and rescue locals who you can then recruit to help you rid their town of these murderous jerks.

But while this is very similar to previous installments, especially Far Cry 4, it does have some interesting new mechanics. Areas are now opened up to you through exploration, as opposed to capturing locations, while people you rescue and recruit are more helpful this time around, with some even having their own unique skills. You also unlock your own advanced abilities by accomplishing tasks. What also makes this satisfying is that your enemies are clearly bad people; this has none of the moral ambiguity of so many shooting games. These people are clearly under the control of a violent madman with a messiah complex, so killing them really does make the world a better place -- well, the game's world, anyway. All of this is why, at its core, Far Cry 5 is the same as Far Cry 4, Far Cry 3, and so on: an engaging shooter with solid controls, interesting scenarios, motivating bad guys, fun stealth mechanics, and enough depth to make you want to come back for a second tour of duty.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about violence in video games. Does killing other people in Far Cry 5 make you feel different than if you were killing aliens or monsters? And how does it feel when you kill animals in it to sell their skins?

  • Talk about money management. While you can find lots of guns in this game, you can also spend real money to buy some special ones, as well as some new outfits. Does it make any sense to spend money on these items?

Game Details

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