The best Far Cry games, ranked

Despite being a small DLC that was later spun off into a stand-alone release, Far Cry: Blood Dragon is everything about the series at its best. The story is a witty and genuinely entertaining riff on ’80s sci-fi action flicks, complete with old-school still image cutscenes and cheesy dialogue. It reuses a small zone from the Far Cry 3 map but makes it feel completely fresh with the neon aesthetic. That more streamlined scope in terms of length and size of the world keeps the game focused and getting bloated like the worse entries on this list do. It’s just big enough to make exploring feel worthwhile, but it is contained enough to complete the entire thing without making it your job, and it is a blast the entire way through.

While the first two entries were by no means failures, and the second had quite a cult following, it was Far Cry 3 that made this series the powerhouse it would become. At the time, it was given the monicker of “Skyrim with guns” which doesn’t quite do this game justice. Yes, you are given a massive, beautiful tropic environment with dozens of quests, treasures, animals, and events across the map, but Far Cry 3 goes further. Vaas, the main antagonist, made such an impact that each game following it would attempt to replicate it. He was perfectly acted, interesting, dangerous, and always captivating when on screen. Before the formula was driven into the ground, Far Cry 3 felt like a breath of fresh air.

We admit that the idea for this game sounded terrible on paper. A Far Cry game, but you’re a caveman with spears and rocks? How could that be fun? Well, Far Cry Primal pulled it off thanks to taking the series in a completely unexpected direction with fresh ideas. It didn’t hit as hard as Blood Dragon, but hunting animals, taming them, and doing the usual open world tasks like crafting and leveling up skills felt more appropriate in the ancient setting. If it had been as contained as Blood Dragon, it probably would’ve faired even better, but it was just as big as Far Cry 4 that came before, so fatigue was starting to set in.

Few will actually even remember the first Far Cry, and that isn’t a terrible thing. Ubisoft didn’t even make this first entry, and it certainly feels like it. It’s a far more linear experience with basic gunplay but a weird twist in including sci-fi elements partway through the game. It’s an oddity that doesn’t really impact the series following it, but it could be worth a look just to see how much the series has diverged from its inception.