More of the same, but more so than ever.
Far Cry 3 gave us Far Cry: Blood Dragon.
Far Cry 4 gave us Far Cry: Primal.
And so Far Cry 5 gives way to Far Cry: New Dawn.
The difference here is that while Blood Dragon and Primal both set themselves apart by way of somewhat unique settings (a neon-drenched 80’s-tastic action movie and the ancient, ancient past, respectively), New Dawn picks up after the nuclear ending to FC5, which means we’re going post-apocalyptic.
And if you’re going to be a first-person shooter in the post-apocalypse, then you’re immediately going to start drawing comparisons to the grand-daddies of the sub-genre, like Fallout 3, or Metro: Last Light, and if you’re coming to that party then you’d best come correct.
Thankfully, New Dawn does have a few tricks up its sleeves.
Firstly, since it is essentially more of an expansion pack than direct sequel, you can pick it up for around 45 quid, which is significantly less than the usual RRP. It is set within the same map as FC5, but nature has pretty much taken back the town, and the deja vu setting does mean you get to rediscover Hope County anew. And it is still a fundamentally fun game to play, however…
You’ll probably only be playing the main missions for about 10 hours (longer if you’re no good at scavenging, and longer still if you don’t stay on top of grinding for resources), and the plot they’ve pinned the campaign to is probably the weakest of the series to date. It definitely features the worst villains so far, which is something that Far Cry usually excels at.
Essentially, if you like the Far Cry series, then you’ve probably already decided to invest in this slightly-more-expensive DLC. And if not, then this might be the biggest turn off to date.
Even by blowing everything up, this is still the same game we’ve been playing since 2004.
Far Cry: New Dawn is released on PS4, Xbox One, and PC from Friday 15 February.
Clip via Ubisoft North America
