After laying Faith Seed to rest, I soldiered on to take down Jacob Seed. He was the last piece of the puzzle before I battled Joseph Seed to the not so happy Far Cry 5 ending. I feel like the game was the perfect length. It felt like I zipped right through it, but was not disappointed by the length. The story end was quite the surprise, but I liked it.
Far Cry 5 Jacob Seed Territory and Brainwashing
Part of what kept Far Cry 5 fresh for me was the noticeable different between the territories. The Jacob Seed territory was filled with mountains, valleys and high water falls. As Nick Rye pointed out it his banter, it was all “Hill Folk” up there. Helicopters, Seaplanes and my grappling hook were my friends in this area.
Jacob Seeds followers also made a habit of capture and training wolves to be “judges”. It’s like they pumped them up with drugs. At that point in the game, I was so powered up they were a non-issue for me.
Beyond all the high altitude cabins and water sources, the recurring theme of the area was brainwashing. Jacob Seed’s hunters captured me and predefined points like the other areas, but instead of bliss hallucinations in Faith’s area, my torture was military style brainwashing. A music box playing “Only You” triggered the mental programming.
This started out with me strapped in front of TV screens with brainwashing programs, then escalated to speed runs through a kill house. I realized the kill house was a conditioning exercise to program my character to kill his resistance friends, the White tails.
Unfortunately, that constant programming did end with my character assassinating the resistance leader, Eli Palmer. The other resistance members were pretty mad, but knew about all the brainwashing. Definitely a little awkward later turning in missions after I killed him.
Jacob Seed a Veteran Gone Mental
Jacob Seed was a stereotypical paranoid war vet. He wore his fatigues and dog tags everywhere. His obsession was people were weak and it was his job to make us all strong. Strong enough to cull (kill) the rest of the weak. All of his followers repeated “Cull the herd” over and over.
After his brainwashing forced me to kill Eli, I found sound amplifiers around the Whitetail’s bunker. I destroyed those, then destroyed Jacob See and his body guards. I loved that he was not some bullet sponge and all my upgrades made quick work of him.
Clutch Nixon Stunt Spectacular
On my way to the end, I completed all the Clutch Nixon stunt side missions. It was a ton of fun pausing the serious mission work to complete ridiculous stunts. I wove through trees and cliff faces with a wing suit and a plane. There were crazy ATV races down hills and over rickety ramps.
There was a ton of shooting, fireworks, fire, ramps and more crazy stunt action. Each was fun, but the stunt vehicles unlocked by completing each challenge really sweetened the deal to finish them all. They were simple checkpoint style races at their core, but all the action and obstacles ramped everything up.
More Far Cry 5 Specialists
Cheeseburger the Bear
After liberating the F.A.N.G (Friends of the Animal Nursing Grounds) center, I set out to find the celebrity bear the place centered around. They even had bobble heads of him for sale there. Before I tracked him down, his trainer suggested I catch some fish to feed him.
It was another excuse for developers to flex their fishing game mechanic, but it was fun. Feeding that bear fish made us quick friends and then he proceeded to maul cultists. I still prefer my Plane/Helicopter guns for higher, but it was a bit fun ordering a bear to maul cult hunters.
Hurk Drubman Jr. Rocket Toting Redneck
Any Far Cry vet recognizes the redneck with a rocket launcher that is Hurk Drubman Jr. He’s been in every game since the 3rd (well not sure about that Primal one). This time around, he’s not out of place in some exotic locale. He’s in his own backyard. His popularity is likely one of the reasons Montana became the latest destination.
His dad was running for Senate as a stereotypical gun toting, liberal hating, Republican. To unlock Hurk as a gun for hire, I became his dad’s “campaign manager”. My job was actually to kill cultists so they could not vote against him. It was his way of gerrymandering the territory.
I kept Hurk around for awhile as a gun for hire after unlocking him. His banter with Nick was very entertaining and it was a joy to watch him work with his rocket launcher. I’m sure he’ll show up somewhere in the new game too.
Jessica “Jess” Black Like an Emo Catniss
Jess Black was my least used gun for hire. She was like an emo version of Catniss from Hunger Games. I helped her track down a cultist called the Cook who you can imagine how he got his name. Unfortunately, this part of the game was mostly forgettable, but I did remember killing the cook with Nick Rye’s aerial bombs. He was roasting his victims with a blowtorch at the time.
In the End of Far Cry 5, it Turns Out Joseph Seed was Right
The final confrontation with Joseph Seed took place in the same place where the game began, his church on his compound. He managed to capture all my allies and corrupt most of them with bliss. After again giving me the choice to walk away, I again refused him. Onto the boss fight.
I was concerned my task involved killing my allies one by one, but turns out wounding them and then reviving them woke them up from the bliss hallucination. It started with just 4 the first round, then we fought together to save more until it was finally all my allies versus Joseph Seed.
The circle was complete, we tried to arrest him again, but his weird cult talk of breaking the 7th seal turned out to be true. Birds flew away followed by an eerie silence before the first nuclear bomb fell. The red sky was unmistakable and we all fled in a truck.
It was a race against the flames and more bombs fell, before we crashed into a tree limb near a bunker. All my allies apparently died in the crash, but Joseph Seed dragged me into the bunker. The true end was Joseph standing over my character, with the bunker’s owner, Dutch, dead on the floor. Joseph reminded me at that moment he was right about everything.
Alternate Far Cry 5 Endings
The nuclear blasts were technically the “Good” Far Cry 5 ending. Walking away when Joseph offers the choice leads to a similar truck drive, minus the nukes. Unfortunately, that “Only You” trigger song plays on the radio as the screen turned red. The screen goes to black, but we know killing would follow.
It’s funny that at the very beginning, if you choose not to arrest Joseph Seed, then you leave in peace and the game ends. That means no “seals” broken, but makes me wonder if the nukes were inevitable. Either way, it’s cool to have these other endings
Far Cry 5 was so much fun. The action and the story blended well together. I actually liked that there was no true good ending. Now I’m even more excited for Far Cry 6.