I would suggest you to try 3 whenever you can, since it was probably the one to boost the franchise, It’s pretty good even now. I’ve heard from friends that 5 was meh and 4 was ok, but I didn’t get the chance to try myself.
1 and 2 are also very well made, and often praised by the original fans. But they are a bit dated.
An interesting video:
Yeah I think that if you’re going to pick up a far cry title 3rd is probably the best bet for a good experience, followed by 4.
Edit: Actually let me detail my thinking a little.
Like all ubisoft games they very much have a similar core and the iterations from title to title is negligible, therefor thinking the latest one is the best bet with the most improvements and flaws ironed out ends up not mattering too much. Not much has really changed from what you’ll be able to tell.
So the primary differentiation is really the environments. If you want to explore tropical islands, go with 3. If you want to explore a mountain region go with 4. If you want american forests then go with 5.
If merely exploring isn’t all you’re looking for and you’d like some sort of actually engaging story then I think 3 is the best one to pick. Followed by 4 but there’s a pretty big gap between them, 5th is probably close enough to 4 in this quality.
Far cry 4 brings the option of using a personal helicopter which makes traversing and reaching places really easy while the 3rd one only had a hang glider for fast travel from select locations. This can be both a positive and a negative. Air travel makes it easy to get places you want to be, but it also separates you from the “emergent gameplay” that happens as you travel around the place.
Those would be my quick overarching primary things that differentiates the titles and to base your decisions on.
@Fraggles, thanks for the detailed and informative reply, I will think a bit more about what to do now. I already bought 5, just considering whether to get the others. I also watched the video that Enki posted, they actually make the 2nd game’s environments look better in some ways than the latest installment.
Ubisoft may offer alternative giveaways, when necessary
I got Child Of Light for free, but I already had the game.
edit: Got WD2 also 2 hours later.
Posts like these make me wish i could articulate myself better.
The best I can offer: Far Cry 3 good! Try!
Is the GOLD DLCs worth it for people? I might end up getting all of them, kind of like how I bought Uncharted 4 first then went back and played through the others before getting into it. Just kind of my own personality I think. But those games are connected, whereas these are not.
to know that, you’d have to start playing, and then you’ll know very fast. It’s worth it if you rly like it and plan on playing it a lot and want to get as much as you want out of it.
Their DLC’s are usually pretty cool, adding new settings and experiences, but the gameplay doesnt change that much, so it purely depends on how much you want of that.
Did everyone got wd2? I’m confused it says they added it to library but I don’t see it 
Seeing as how Uplay has given me some good games to play for free, I decided to buy it. Ended up spending around $30 buying all of Far Cry, 2, 3 deluxe, 4 gold, and 5 gold altogether. Can’t really go wrong with a deal like that, since I have splurged on much worse things for that amount of money.
I see it in my library. But like @narcotic, maybe they tried to add a different game to your account?
I also don’t have any notifice/email/etc. telling me that they added it, it just showed up.
Weird… Nothing new in library
Still has not appeared in my library either. More than that I believe I’m missing a rather large number of freebie games I’ve claimed in the past. I can only see 3 games in my Uplay library. Assassin’s Creed 3, The Crew and FC3: Blood dragon.
I’m pretty sure there’s been more giveaways than that. I seem to recall AC: Rogue, and AC:Chronicles china, at least one rayman game and a Prince of Persia one.
Actually I found AC: Unity and AC: China in my store transaction history. Yet they’re not in my account.
I haven’t received my copy either.
@Fraggles yes, Ubisoft has given away more games. Looking at my library:
Not sure about Rayman Origins.
they will appear if you open your library in the launcher itself, which im pretty sure you’re not doing since im pretty sure you never even downloaded it 
we’ve discussed this once before here (not with you) that they dont all seem to be appearing in the website thing
yeah, that too
and pretty sure ass creed syndicate as well cuz that’s the only reason it would be in my library as well
Yeah the website doesn’t show all games (don’t know why). But in my case I just opened the launcher and it’s not there.
After you claimed it, it appeared right away on your library?
It’s funny then how they brag about
When even their own shit is fragmented.
I installed uplay just to check and yeah I’ve got all these games on the lis there, can’t reach the store though uplay though to check and see if games are listed as owned there. Because they’re not when visiting the store through browser.
And Watchdogs 2 is now on my account in uplay. I would have more faith in their system if shit like this wasn’t a fucking constant. This weekend’s shenanigans have only served to strengthen my resolve to never actually purchase anything from them.
Further pondering, why does 2 out of 18 of my free claimed games show up in the account transaction history? Neither of which is one of the 3 that shows up on the uplay site.
I claimed 9 games for free from them during my time using the account, none of them are in my transaction history. Only purchases made through their store shows up for me.
You are looking at your games using the Uplay launcher?
Yes…
I looked it up it seems many people having same problem
so you went to the site where they had you log in to claim the game?
Looks like @narcotic edited their post above and received the game a couple of hours later.
Yes… I heard It will added in a day or two no problem just classic Ubi glitch