It seems like only yesterday we were happily blasting our way through doomsday cultists in Far Cry 5.
… hang on a second, it was only yesterday! In fact, we’ve only just finished installing the DLC.
But there’s no time for that, because Ubisoft is back with yet another sprawling Far Cry adventure, this time titled New Dawn.
*SPOILER ALERT*
Far Cry New Dawn is a direct sequel to Far Cry 5, taking place 17 years after Hope County was on the receiving end of a nuclear blast.
And wouldn’t you know it, just as the survivors were starting to rebuild Hope County, a group of bandits led by twin sisters Mickey and Lou arrive to undo all that good work and throw the area into chaos.
Needless to say, your job is to fight back by recruiting specialists, liberating outposts and even performing expeditions outside of Hope County.
Expeditions represent the biggest change to the Far Cry formula, whisking players away from the chaos of the open world, and dropping them into brand new areas.
From overgrown theme parks, to battleships and even one mission set in Alcatraz, Expeditions showcase Far Cry in a new light.
Tighter levels that feel like “traditional” FPS missions, Expeditions provide a welcome change of pace and setting, culminating in thrilling extraction sequences that really up the intensity.
New Dawn also introduces a light smattering of RPG elements, specifically with different level weapons and enemies – complete with health bars and numerical damage.
Despite mixed feelings about this new direction, the need to level up weapons and unlock new abilities really motivates you to complete the game’s many challenges, like killing enemies with different weapons – including the wonderfully satisfying and extremely deadly Saw Launcher – and hunting animals.
Indeed, Far Cry New Dawn does an excellent job of motivating players to sample everything it has to offer, side content and all.
For example, upgrading your homebase with ethanol will give you the ability to craft higher level weapons, increase your overall health and even go on those Expeditions I mentioned.
Clearly this is something worth doing, so liberating outposts, scavenging loot drops and hijacking ethanol trucks are opportunities that elicit excitement because they reward players with such a valuable commodity.
Perhaps a few years ago these same missions would have been seen as filler content and a bit of a chore.
But while New Dawn successfully implements some fresh new ideas, the nuts and bolts are Far Cry through and through.
With gunplay this tight, an open-world so beautiful and action that’s suitably chaotic, this is by no means a criticism.
But did we really need another Far Cry game so soon after Far Cry 5 and all of that DLC? How much Far Cry is too much Far Cry?
New Dawn is a lot of fun to play, and exactly what you want from a Far Cry game… I’m just not sure we needed it so soon after Far Cry 5.
