A little more catch-up on games finished in the past year. This one I finished March 2021

I picked this game up right after I finished Farcry 4. After being conditioned for the past two farcry games to seek out towers so that I can clear up the map (not to mention more than a handful of assassin's creed games), I had a big guttural laugh when I went to the first tower, climbed it, cleared it, and then the voice over the radio said something like "I know what you're thinkin' and no, I ain't going to have you climbin' towers all over the county for me, so don't worry … also, try not to fall from up there.  I did find the change of that particular mechanic refreshing.  The map in this game clear out when you traverse it, so you have an incentive to actually visit more and more location on foot (or by car).

The story was very much a WTF story, not that previous farcry games aren't WTF in how they set things up.  I am convinced that this is some sort of universe that's parallel to the assassin's creed universe or it is the assassin's creed universe because of the use of artifacts.  Another thing I've noticed in the farcry games thus far is that there are a lot of mind-altering drugs being consumed...anyway. 

The big bad in this game is a cult leader and his demented family who have taken over Hope County. Your job is to go and arrest the head figure, and that's when all hell breaks loose. In addition to fending off the cultists you also need to fend off nature: much like farcry 4, animals don't like you being in their back yard, so you'll have random wildlife attacking you. I really loved the inclusion of the oddball filmmaker who was basically filming FarCry 3: Blood Dragon in Hope County, and the Clutch Nixon stuntman side missions. The flight combat is also an evolution of what we saw in FarCry 4, which was also a lot of fun.

The plot, from Wikipedia:

In late 2018, a joint operation between the United States Marshals Service and the county sheriff's department—consisting of Deputy Marshal Cameron Burke (Doug Hutchison), Sheriff Earl Whitehorse (Christopher Heyerdahl) and his deputies Joey Hudson (Luisa D'Oliveira), Staci Pratt (Julian Bailey) and the player character, an unnamed Junior Deputy—arrive at an Eden's Gate church to detain Joseph Seed with a federal arrest warrant on charges of kidnapping with the intent to harm. Although Joseph offers no resistance, he claims that God will not allow him to be taken. As he is escorted away, cult members attack the task force and cause their helicopter to crash. Joseph escapes and commands the cult to capture the task force members.

The Deputy survives and escapes with the help of Richard "Dutch" Roosevelt, a local survivalist who explains that the cult has interpreted the attempt to arrest Joseph as the fulfillment of his prophecies. Believing the end of the world is upon them, they have begun "the Reaping", a concentrated effort to purge Hope County of non-believers and gather all material needs. As the county is now cut off from the outside world, Dutch tasks the Deputy with contacting the fledgling resistance scattered throughout Hope County to gather allies, rescue the task force and dismantle the cult's operations to erode the influence of Joseph and the Heralds. Although the Heralds focus their efforts on stopping the Deputy, they maintain an interest in recruiting them to their cause.

Joseph's younger brother John lures the Deputy to Holland Valley by broadcasting a message showing Hudson as his captive. John indoctrinates residents to the cult's beliefs by subjecting them to a forced baptism to "cleanse" them, tattooing their "sins" onto their bodies, and carving out the marked skin as part of their "atonement". John captures the Deputy and concludes that their sin is Wrath. When the Deputy escapes, John retaliates by taking over the town of Fall's End where he forces the Deputy to confront him and atone for their sins. A counterattack by the local Resistance prompts John to flee, leading to the Deputy engaging him in an aerial dogfight and mortally wounding him. As he lies dying, John remarks that the Deputy will not save anyone and asserts that Joseph is right. The Deputy rescues Hudson and the captive survivors and destroys John's bunker.

The Deputy arrives in the Whitetail Mountains to find the Whitetail Militia already at war with Joseph's older brother Jacob. Jacob recruits and trains the cult's members and keeps an indoctrinated Deputy Pratt captive. As part of their training, Jacob mentally conditions cult recruits with The Platters' song "Only You (And You Alone)", which he uses to trigger an altered state of consciousness in the recruits and carry out his commands. Jacob subjects the Deputy to the same conditioning and successfully breaks them. He has the Deputy kill militia leader Eli Palmer (Patrick Garrow) to cripple the resistance. The surviving militia hold Jacob responsible and the Deputy confronts him in the mountains. As he dies, Jacob reflects on how empires rise and fall, and predicts that America will suffer the same fate if it is not prepared. The Deputy retrieves Jacob's bunker key, rescues Pratt and floods the bunker.

Faith, a collaborator and "sister" of the Seeds, oversees the production of Bliss in Henbane River. The hallucinatory effects of Bliss puts its victims in a trance-like state and staying under its influence for too long makes them vulnerable to Faith's hypnotic manipulation. The Deputy reunites with Whitehorse and joins the Cougars, based in the Hope County Jail. Whitehorse informs the Deputy that Burke has been captured and is now under the influence of the Bliss. The Deputy repeatedly encounters Faith, who attempts to persuade the Deputy to join her and live in paradise. The Deputy resists her and rescues Burke, unaware that he has been hypnotized. Burke kills Virgil Minkler, leader of the Cougars and Mayor of Fall's End, opens the jail to Eden's Gate, and kills himself. The Cougars suffer heavy losses repelling the cult and Whitehorse is captured. The Deputy kills Faith, and she warns them that Joseph is right about the end of the world, but the Deputy will decide what happens in the end. The Deputy rescues Whitehorse from Faith's bunker and destroys the production of Bliss.

Killing his Heralds prompts Joseph to call the Deputy for a final confrontation at his church. He has captured the Deputy's allies from the resistance groups, hypnotized them with Bliss and is holding Whitehorse, Hudson, and Pratt hostage. Joseph offers the Deputy the option of walking away with their friends unharmed on the condition that they leave him and Eden's Gate alone.

Endings

If the Deputy decides to walk away, Joseph forgives them and enters the church with the Deputy's hypnotized allies. The Deputy, Whitehorse, Pratt and Hudson leave in a truck, and Whitehorse assures them that they will return with the National Guard to help liberate Hope County from the cult. Whitehorse turns on the radio and "Only You" plays, triggering Jacob's brainwashing. The Deputy is once again put into a trance and the screen cuts to black.

If the Deputy chooses to resist, Joseph forces the Deputy to fight and revive their hypnotized friends. Radio broadcasts throughout the game have suggested that the world outside Hope County is spiraling into chaos and a nuclear war is imminent. These fears are realized when Joseph is apprehended and a nuclear bomb detonates in the distance. The Deputy, Whitehorse, Pratt and Hudson flee with the captured Joseph to Dutch's bunker. They crash their truck into a tree, which kills Whitehorse, Pratt, and Hudson. A freed Joseph carries the unconscious Deputy to the bunker. The Deputy awakens handcuffed to a bed with Dutch dead on the floor. Joseph laments the loss of his family and land and asserts this is "the Collapse" that he had prophesied. He tells the Deputy that with the loss of his family, that they are all he has left and that they are family now. This ending leads into the spin-off Far Cry: New Dawn; Joseph Seed will become an ally to the player character of the game while the Deputy will become the Judge, a new Specialist.

A secret ending can be found at the beginning of the game. The Deputy decides to not arrest Joseph during their first encounter. Whitehorse, who was against apprehending him head-on because of the probability of being ambushed and killed, lowers Joseph's hands and orders the group to leave. Despite Burke's protests, Whitehorse asserts that it is "better to leave well enough alone" and that no one would be alive if they arrested Joseph.

Overall, I really liked this game.  I think FarCry 4 is still my top game, but this comes in my top 3.  The thing that really pissed me off was the ending.  So far, I've expected WTF endings from the FarCry games, but the maniac actually detonated atomic weapons! I mean, WTF??? After all that rigamarole about trying to get to Joseph Seed, and in the end, you help no one...👿👿👿. 

I didn't spend much time with the DLCs.  I was a little burned out at the end, and in all honesty, the ending seemed like a giant middle finger to the player...

Some stats from the xbox app:

Achievements: 25
Gamerscore: 625/1695
Fish caught: 5
Total Kills: 1984
Total takedowns: 125
Total deaths: 45
Total playtime: 1d, 10h, 3 minutes