Far Cry 5 sold over 20 million copies, suggesting people loved the nightmarish first-person shooter about rural cultists preparing to inherit a post-apocalyptic United States. Maybe that’s why half a decade later Ubisoft just gave it an unlikely “next-gen” upgrade on PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Released in 2018 on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, Far Cry 5 sets players loose in a modern-day simulacrum of Montana where a group of religious terrorists cook up white poppies to dose the local populace and try to bring their disturbing prophecies to fruition. Often shocking for shocking’s sake, though occasionally beautifully subtle, it’s also chock full of vehicular chaos, unhinged NPC simulations, and lots, and lots, and lots of clearing baddies out of bases.
Now, players can enjoy all of that at 60 frame per second on both PS5 and Xbox Series X/S by way of a free update that went live today to celebrate the game’s fifth anniversary. It’s an unusual move for such an old game. Then again Ubisoft has been updating all kinds of legacy stuff recently.
To cap things off, Far Cry 5 will be free on console and PC the last weekend of the month, from March 23 through March 27. That’s plenty of time to finish the game and experience all of its unnerving horrors, earned and otherwise. Take my advice and don’t bother with the DLC. It’s perfunctory at best, and tedious at worst.
Read More: Every Far Cry Game, Ranked From Worst To Best
As harsh as I’ve been on Far Cry 5 in the past for, among other things, pulling its punches when it comes to actually trying to make a cogent argument about the fracturing of American society and the political forces seizing on its unraveling, I still have a fondness for its open world. When it gives you a break from shooting people in the face there’s plenty of gorgeous midwestern beauty to chew on.
Its coniferous old-country back roads reminded me of New Hampshire summer vacations from my childhood as vibrantly as any dream ever has. But if you’re just there for the map game full of icons to uncover and checklists to complete, it’s got all that as well.
