I went to see Ubisoft this week, and spent a couple of hours playing Far Cry 5. The captured footage in my video features world exploration, a side-quest involving bovine gonads, the rescue of sidekick mutt Boomer and the eradication of an enemy outpost.

Based on my time with the game, Far Cry 5 looks to be exactly what you'd expect from a game in this series. It's a Ubisoft open world in which I explore and unlock new areas of geography, destroying enemy nests while undertaking specific story missions. It’s big and complicated with lots of things to do.

All this is woven together with side missions in which currency can be earned, including hunting animals and crafting explosions. Perks allow me to upgrade my own effectiveness, while a wide array of weapons and gadgets encourage exploration of multiple solutions to multiple-enemy combat problems.

During my time with the game, I enjoyed making use of stealth and taking out enemies from up close. But I also messed around with silent, long-distance weapons like a bow, as well as the usual gunplay.

Far Cry 5 makes much use of sidekicks, including a sniper and a dude in a crop-dusting plane. I chose Boomer, who is just great at taking out those enemies who allow themselves to stray from the safety of the crowd. It's a good way to stealth a mission, from distance. I'm looking forward to getting good enough to use the dog to take out entire bases.

There are some new mechanics that I haven't really grappled with yet, such as taming wild animals and having them fight for me. This was an entertaining feature in Far Cry Primal. Human non-player characters can also be persuaded to join as allies.

I talk about the political issues with the game's narrative in a separate article published on Polygon today. Generally, the characters I met seem either interesting or amusing. Having only played in a limited section of the map, I'm keen to see more variety in the game's geography, but Far Cry 5's interpretation of Montana is beautiful and convincing.

Far Cry 5 is developed by Ubisoft Montreal and will be released for PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One on March 27, 2018.