It's kind of surprising what a huge, AAA franchise Far Cry has become when you consider its rather strange beginnings. The original game was developed by Crytek as a showpiece for their new CryEngine, and mostly felt like a preview for the then- centerpiece of the technology: Crysis. Shortly after, Ubisoft took over the Far Cry series while Crytek continued to focus on Crysis, effectively turning the relationship between the two games from partners to rivals. While Crysis seems to have stalled out, not having a new entry for nearly five years now, Far Cry has gone on to become one of the most popular and best-selling franchises around.

Far Cry 5 is already earning raves from critics and fans alike who have been spending the last few days digging into this epic new blockbuster. The fifth core entry in the main series trades in the franchise's usual exotic locales for the forests, mountains, and rivers of Montana, USA-- and with its American backdrop comes the expected amount of controversial content drawn from the country's current tense political climate.

We won't ruin any of the plot for you here, nor will we give away any major gameplay spoilers. That said, if you're looking to go into the game 100% fresh, you might want to proceed through this list with caution.

Here are 15 Hidden Secrets You Completely Missed In Far Cry 5.

Explore the entire map from the beginning

Like most open-world games, previous entries in the Far Cry series only let you go to specific areas of the map at the start of the game, requiring you to slowly open up new parts as you progressed. In a trope started by fellow Ubisoft title Assassin's Creed, that typically meant climbing a tower and "unlocking" the surrounding area. It was a way to control your progress through the game and not have you see parts of it before the game decides you're ready to do so.

Taking a cue from more recent open-world games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, in Far Cry 5 you can go basically anywhere in the entire game world from pretty much the beginning of your adventure. In fact, a character even makes a joke early on about you not having to worry about climbing any towers.

Beat the game in under 10 minutes

A neat little feature in Far Cry 4 allowed you to "finish" the game in just a matter of minutes after starting it. Of course, it wasn't actually a true ending, and basically everyone who stumbled upon it immediately played the game again, but it was still a cool little addition that spoke to the open-ended nature of the game's narrative.

Keeping that tradition alive, Far Cry 5 does exactly the same thing, letting you do certain actions that allow you to see the end credits within 10 minutes of beginning your game.

In fact, you can see both a "good" and "bad" early ending in this way.

It's easy to assume that this is going to be a new permanent feature of future Far Cry games, and that Ubisoft will keep coming up with fun and interesting versions of the "early ending" for each subsequent sequel.

Go fishing

As part of the hunting mechanic of previous Far Cry games, you also had the option to hunt fish in the same way you could hunt any other animal. Far Cry 5 is the first game in the series that actually lets you grab a pole and fish the old-fashioned way.

Like hunting, Far Cry 5's fishing serves a bigger purpose than just a fun way to the time-- though it is, indeed, a fun and surprisingly complex system that's easy to lose hours playing with.

Selling fish can earn you big bucks in the aftermarket, as well as fulfill the requirements of certain missions.

Given Far Cry 5's wilderness backdrop, it was the perfect game with which to introduce a true fishing mechanic to the series and have it feel like a natural part of the experience.

Play the story mode as a female

It shouldn't still be a major bullet point in 2018 for a game with a custom character editor to offer a female option, but it unfortunately still hasn't quite become the norm yet. In Far Cry's defense, this is the first game that has had custom characters serve as your avatar in story mode, so at least they are doing it right the first time.

Better still, unlike many games that let you create a female characters, the character creator in Far Cry 5 isn't designed specifically to make the most attractive woman possible. The female characters you create in this game actually look and dress the way you would expect women who were embarking on the mission at hand to look and dress.

Recruit animal companions

Borrowing from series spin-off Far Cry Primal, which took place in the Stone Age and let you ally yourself with animals, Far Cry 5 has animal companions that can fight alongside you and assist you in various ways. Don't expect to be limited to things like hopping on an elephant's back and watching the mayhem unfold-- fun as that was-- as the animals in this game due far more complex things and serve a more intricate role in the experience.

Beyond the expected ability of your animal companions to help you by attacking enemies head-on, you can have them scout areas, perform stealth attacks, bring you items and ammo, and keep other animals at bay.

The three animals you can befriend are a dog, a mountain lion, and a bear. Oh my!

Run the PC version at max settings without a cutting-edge machine

One of the things that PC players need to know whenever a big new game comes out is how well their hardware can run the game. While new games that just outright don't run on certain PCs are largely a problem of the past, many PC gamers often can't run the newest releases on the highest settings without performance taking a major hit.

Far Cry 5 has been tested on a variety of machines by various of the gaming press. Most of the reports that are coming back are saying that anyone with a halfway-decent PC that has been running new games from the past year or two should have no trouble playing Far Cry 5 with most of the settings cranked all the way up-- especially if they can already run Far Cry 4 with no issues, as the performance needs are nearly identical.

Fly planes

No, it's not the first time you can go airborne in a Far Cry game-- Far Cry 4 had both a one-man helicopter with limited flight, as well as a wing suit that allowed for gliding. But Far Cry 5 marks the first time in franchise history that you can take to the skies in a proper airplane.

Not only do the air vehicles in Far Cry 5 allow for quick travel over long distances, you can also pilot fighter jets that let you engage in mid-air dogfights as well as raining terror down on ground targets.

Thanks to the fairly streamlined controls, flying isn't an especially complex endeavor, and anyone who can effectively drive a car in the game can probably also fly with relative ease.

 Shoot while driving

While some of the console spin-offs have flirted with it, for the most part, shooting while driving hasn't been possible in Far Cry games. Well, in Far Cry 5, cars aren't just for transportation.

You can shoot guns by hand and drive at the same time, opening up a whole new world of possibilities in tackling missions.

In fact, for console players in particular, the shooting is ridiculously effective while driving because of how lenient the auto-aim is. Depending on the mission and the environmental layout, you can complete many missions without ever leaving your vehicle once you master shooting at enemies, vehicles, buildings, etc from the safety and comfort of the driver's seat. It sounds tricky, but it's actually a lot easier to pull off than you might think-- and don't be surprised if it completely changes how you play the game once you get it down.

Upgrade your gear without hunting

One of the key components of the Far Cry series since the beginning has been its hunting system, and the fact that you needed to hunt and skin animals in order to craft new gear. In a groundbreaking move, Far Cry 5 no longer forces you to hunt and lets you upgrade your gear without ever killing a single animal. That said, the hunting is still there, it's still satisfying, and it's still very important.

This time around, the primary purpose of hunting is to earn money, though it also serves other functions specific to various missions and objectives.

Like with the fishing, the hunting takes on a whole different feel in this game, coming off more like sport hunting rather than hunting out of desperate necessity for survival.

 Alter your character's look even after finalizing it

When you're finalizing your aesthetic choices for your custom character, the game gives you the impression that all decisions are final and that you won't be able to change anything but your character's clothes once you complete the initial process. You can even spend real-world cash on apparel-- though we aren't sure why you'd bother in a first-person game.

There is actually one thing you are free to change after you've finished creating your character, and it's something you can go in and change whenever you'd like-- their hair style.

Just go into the custom tab in the menu and you will see that you can alter your character's hair from your original choice.

It's not a huge change, but for those that get restless with their custom characters' looks after a while, it's nice to be able to alter something.