All GFH are not equal. I barely noticed them during the campaigns and (like you) thought of them as little more than a nuisance. Some GFH are very amusing to tag along with, even though their scripted dialogue gets a little repetitious to say the least, and they'll save your ass in many a firefight. Some of the arcade maps are awesome, and way more challenging than what the regular game offers.

Reloaded TOB expecting to be back at square one and all the ensuing tedium, because I had finished the game right through to the final credits. Instead it went back into the feeble finale, where you exchange insults with Hilda, the dying nazi prison camp guard (pretty sure she had a different name and role, but whatever), then, after you kill her (because there's nothing else to do, and man, she had it coming), the credits roll. So... I backed out into the main menu and discovered that you can replay the chapters, which is kind of how I've got FC5 running, except there are no chapters, just you and the GFH killing ample numbers of PEGgys, a renewable resource.

I've just found the vehicle purchases in FC5, and after running around for a bit with a decent gun and stocking up at the prepper stashes instead of the ammo shops I had a lot of cash to spend on a jeep with roof mounted rocket launchers. I've suddenly gone from feeling vulnerable (you die a lot more quickly in this iteration over previous installments) to being a suped up mobile powerhouse.

Many vehicles (like weapons) you eventually get free by completing various tasks, but you may have to buy addon weapons separately. I generally don't use 'em, except rarely to drive pell mell across the maps

After playing TOB a couple more hours I've decided the combat model is too retro/primitive, and zombies don't cut it either. They stagger, they burn, they rush you in dribs and drabs... Ho hum.

Will nuke and try on TNO next.

Seriously disappointed in TOB zombies. Nazi zombies ought to be the most vicious, cunning, relentlessly in-your-face zombies in all of video gaming. TOB zombies are pathetic, shambolic dead meat puppets that scamper up and slap you with a stinking paw before you blow their fucking heads off.  LMAO