Far Cry New Dawn (2019)

I know it was supposed to be a spin off of far cry 5, but I acctually liked it way more than Far cry 5. Liked the fact that looting and scavenging was way more important. Like that the weapons really looked like junk and obviously had been made out of scrapped components. Though I feel like in this setting they should have allowed us more freedom in customising the weapon. If we are crafting the weapons from scratch, surely we can chance the scope or choose to put a silencer or not. All in all the game felt better paced than Far Cry 5 and was able to maintain my interest longer (or maybe thats because its a shorter game) I had fun, and I can recommend it to other Far Cry Fans.

I was only bothered by the final battle against Ethan. It made no sense and wasn't in the same feel as the rest of the game. The game should have ended with the twins... Maybe encounter Ethan in a normal battle before them.

After so many entries in the Far Cry series, I am still not bored of this formula. Far Cry 5 made some drastic changes and removed some old features, but New Dawn tried to bring some of those back and improve them in it's own way. Set 17 years later than the 5th entry, we follow the story of a new hero in the post-apocalyptic world filled with familiar faces.

The game features crafting instead of simply buying things which makes scavenging more meaningful aspect of the game. You main rival gang is also a scavenger band of brigands, but I liked that they are a nation-wide organization, not just some local scum. You can even rob them in various locations in America via the Expedition missions, which is a nice addition. I wish there was more of those missions.

I know this game is supposed to be a spinoff, but I felt like the story was cut too short with only a few meaningful missions. You escape, protect your new base, infiltrate the enemy and get your revenge. The game focuses a lot on upgrading your Homebase facilities, but the necessary Ethanol can be collected only 2 ways and the only effective of them involves recapturing the already captured outposts over and over again against stronger enemies. You can vary this by trying out new gear or bringing different companions with you, but at the end it's just the same thing again.

The world looks beautiful, but the lack of real content makes me question some of the mechanics of the game. You can craft all kinds of crazy looking guns with spare parts and upgrade them as much as you want, but after reaching Elite weapons, I feel no reason to do so. The enemy and ally level-based scaling with the healthbars is also an odd addition that wasn't necessary in my opinion, but you can get used to it.

Some fun additions are the double jump, Timber can ride with you in a motorcycle sidecar/car and the Wrath ability, though it can make you a bit too OP.

Overall, it's an enjoyable experience, that lacks enough real content to make it a separate entity from Far Cry 5, yet introduces mechanics that are quite creative.

Much weaker characters and story than FC5 but I think the gameplay might be a bit more fun. I love the outposts you can liberate and expeditions with different environments that you can visit. I had to play stealthy because the game has lots of bullet sponges, which sucks. Game has good music and looks great, just like FC5. The map is smaller but I feel like they got some good spots on there that you can recognize from FC5. With the new crafting system and no DLC weapons, I had to stick with starter weapons for a long time which made the game seem more fair than if I had just got a space gun to vaporize everything in the beginning. There was no need to grind anything, the crafting is very balanced. The perk tree is way better than the one in FC5.

On it's own I would rate it lower. But since it's a continuation of the surprisingly good story of FC5, I think it gains a lot of depth. It's smaller and shorter but does some things better than it's predecessor. The story (to me, a pillar of what makes a game) was pretty bad though. I'm giving Far Cry New Dawn a 7/10

I make no secret that I really enjoyed Far Cry 5. The ending of that game however wasn't as great because it came outta left field. If UbiSoft had this standalone expansion planned while they were making FC 5, then it does make that ending less heinous.

So, Far Cry: New Dawn is a sorta big DLC. It's not a full sequel as noted by the reduced price tag, but it's a little more than an extra mission pack. If FC 5 was a Bethesda game then New Dawn would just be a story DLC like Honest Hearts or Far Harbor.

You're back in Hope County, a condensed map of Hope County 17 years after Montana got nuked to high heaven. And this post-apocalyptic world takes more after the Horizon Zero Dawn school of thought over Fallout or Mad Max. Outside of some buildings & roads being buried into the sand, you'd be forgiven for not thinking a nuclear armageddon happened. There's a lot of plant life, but it's not overly foreign looking and the animals are unchanged, save for a new paint job. The only area that looks like a fallout zone is the small area of the Whitetail Mountains in the north. As someone who enjoyed exploring the map in FC 5, it was neat to go visit these old locations and see how they've changed.

The story centers around the Rye family leading a small community of Hope County locals in carving out a living. The base is set up at the Seed Ranch, renamed Prosperity. The Rye's daughter, now grown up, goes out to bring in the help of you and your crew of American Rangers trying to make America great again. On your way to Hope County everything goes wrong courtesy of this game's new villains, the Highwaymen. They're a group of Motocross raiders led by two twin sisters. It's up to you as the Captain to help Prosperity rebuild. In between the gameplay, you'll have some story encounters with the Sisters & you revisit the Joseph Seed and his new cult to see how he's fared since the blast. Being this isn't a true sequel, but an expansion, the story is short and leaves me wishing this was a fleshed out full game.

The new characters are okay, the Twins aren't the most imposing of villains, but I think they're a victim of the short story length. The new Gun for Hires are a treat though. Carmina Rye is just like her parents, Nana is the funniest character, up there with Hurk, and Gina can bring some good firepower in a pinch. You get a new dog buddy, Timber, who admittedly looks adorable riding in your motorbike sidecar.

There's plenty of returning characters as well; many of the old Gun for Hires now serve as base specialists to help improve Prosperity, Hurk still follows you around though. And a lot of the notes spread across the county mention what happened to other characters, except Jess Black, my favorite sidekick. This game also endeared me further to the Rye family, especially Nick. They're written like a real family who try to make the best of a bad situation and Nick seems like the kind of person I've probably met sometime in my life. Joseph Seed returns as a changed man from FC 5, he's a lot more mellow and pacifistic. He's more New Testament, less Old Testament. I kinda like the evolution of his character and he's much more interesting as an uneasy ally. Eden's Gate, now New Eden, is a group of nomad farmers. Joseph also has a magic God tree, which I don't know if the game wants us to think it's a nuclear mutation or an actual gift from God.

With all the returning characters I was hoping to have the plot be more focused on Joseph and New Eden, instead of these Highwaymen. You see a little about how the Bliss has changed from the bombs, but I wanted to know more of how Joseph and the Cult changed. I also wished they brought back the great Cult music, maybe a warped version to account for the apocalypse. It was that music, the regular people of Hope County, and the small town locations that gave Far Cry 5 it's unique atmosphere. Now we have the Highwaymen blasting white noise hip-hop music.

The gameplay in New Dawn is a bit changed from FC 5. You can only have one sidekick at a time, instead of two, and there's a smaller selection of mostly land based vehicles. Everything this time around is set up in tiers as well; enemies, guns, cars, your base. I was worried this would translate into a lot of bullet sponge enemies and grinding, but it wasn't too bad. Most the enemies level up with you, and you do have to complete outposts several times to get the upgrades, but it's not a slog to get through. I think UbiSoft handled it well. The premium currency returns, but again is largely unnecessary.

All in all, I think this game had a lot of good promise in it, especially with the story. I just wish they took a little longer to make it a full spinoff sequel like Primal, instead of this truncated effort.