I've been looking at these two, and ended up buying neither. I have several friends saying that FC5 is pretty damn awesome, now more so than at release.
But that being said, both these titles look to be quite fun, and am curious what someone who owns and plays both thinks, so I appreciate your input. Right now I'm back into FC2, it's been so long since I last played it and I'm having a blast with it. I know FC5 is a little more arcade in its action and fun, which is appealing, but I like the struggle that FC2 presents as well.
I'm still on the fence about picking up either of them, one of them or both of them on the Steam Winter Sale coming up...
My input:
Ghost Recon Wildlands is a third person 'arcade' tactical shooter. Some mild progression to do, and the rest of the Ubisauce formula is present but not forced on you like it is in previous Far Crys (must do towers to unlock map etc). it is truly free form. You do a tutorial mission and you're left to go wherever. Want to start with high ranking baddies first? Your call. It presents an absolutely beautiful Bolivia to you. It is repetitive, but has a lot of things to do and there are some real challenges, weapons and weapon upgrades, skill points and medals to gather, well, its marker-filled map as always. Its also a good sandbox, and its quite immersive. (All single player, here). The AI teammates are very useful, up to the point of essential to make use of at times. The one-liners over the radio are enjoyable and pretty neat, too. Most of the dialogue doesn't break immersion, it adds to it, which is rare these days for random voice overs. At a reasonable price I'd pick it up. I got mine for free with my GTX1080 back then... You can safely avoid any DLC (or update content) and have a 'complete' game.
FC5 is Far Cry kind of missing the mark for me. It has all the ingredients, but they just don't really get together well. Examples: you can fly planes, but controlling them is horrible. You can use companions, but there is no consequence or gameplay to them (they just kill some baddies). Its the old Far Cry formula, rinse and repeat. Minus unlocking regions, you can just go there. To me, FC5 lacked atmosphere and the world seems very bland and uninspired. The only funny bit was the idea of 'preppers' and finding their stashes. The rest feels... out of place. Some weird, hard to believe cult, its not satisfying at all to knock them out; combat is same old, the world is mostly flat and boring (farms, fields and plains, some trees), and secrets are hardly ever really secrets. Take two steps off the dirt road and bingo. After scratching the surface I felt FC5 really didn't have much to offer. Then there are the weapons: most of them just reskinned versions of the same one, most feel and play exactly the same. Creative weaponry is scarce. A 'Far Cry' from FC2 in every way... As immersive as they made Africa, FC5 doesn't compare in the slightest.
