Far Cry 5

Far Cry 5 misses the entire point of the open-world checklist simulator genre.
There are two extreme types of players with polar opposite goals. The first wants to experience the main story, set and forget. The second wants to do all the side content and then decide whether or not to even bother with the main story. Both camps will hate this game.

Far Cry 5's structure is interesting on paper, but a mess in practice. There are three main bosses of the enemy cult in this game, and each holds a region of the open world. As the rookie deputy, you have to cause enough of a ruckus in each region for its boss to get mad at you, then you're forced into the main story missions. Forced as in, whatever you're doing, you are no longer doing it. You are now at the will of the main story.
I played Assassin’s Creed Origins, only ever touching the side content. I went everywhere and did everything without even meeting Aya. I still haven't, and I'm fine with that. This is my approach to pretty much every open world game. I see all the side content and say "first I'll do this, then this, then this, then this" and so on.
So I was playing Far Cry 5, and saw a small cluster of things to do. An outpost to capture, a prepper stash to uncover, and a silo to destroy, all pretty close. I take the outpost, and the boss of the region gets pissed at me. I am immediately shot with a dart and whisked away to do the next story mission. I am not amused. The story missions now feel like chores, because they happen whenever the game says it's time for them to happen.
To add to that, none of the story missions are any good. Escaping John's prison, then later destroying his plane sucks. Especially since you're scripted to be shot down midway through the fight, and HA HA, I didn't bring any anti-aircraft weapons!!! How delightful!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jacob's drug trips force you to play the same mission at four separate times. It's awful. Faith's missions are boring walking segments. I hate all of them, and I can't just ignore them, because I am being kidnapped and forced to do them whenever the game deems that I've had enough fun for the time being.
For the other extreme side of the player base, they can't kill the bosses of the regions until they pretty much clear each region of side quests. Far Cry 5 does not let the player decide the pace of the game. You are going to do nearly everything, or not complete this game.

The game's finale is also terrible. The final mission is an annoying clusterfuck, and the game's ending is just fucked up. Not in an artsy "you'll be talking about this for years!!!" way, but in a really half-assed attempt at a "gotcha!!!". It will not satisfy the "games are art" crowd, the "POLITICS" crowd, or the "big dumb action game" crowd. Did I miss something or did the nuke just come out of nowhere?
The only "message" anyone could get out of this game is to just fucking shoot the bad guys in the head at every opportunity. Letting them talk when you have a fucking gun and you're pretty much alone with them is why everything goes to shit.