- [Daemon] I liked the ending to Far Cry 5.
There, I said it.
It may be an unpopular opinion,
but I appreciated that for once,
we didn't save the day and walk off into the sunset.
So I'm a little bummed that the very silly
developments of Far Cry New Dawn
walked back a lot of that bleak, dark finale.
But the very familiar Far Cry gameplay formula
is just as fun as ever in the post-apocalypse
and I had a blast clearing outposts,
hunting for treasure
and absolutely brutalizing the highwaymen
who have ceased control of
what's left of Hope County, Montana.
(electronic music)
Similar to what 2016's Far Cry Primal
was to Far Cry 4,
New Dawn is a standalone sequel to Far Cry 5
that redresses the same map.
But Ubisoft could have done more to make it seem new.
It's only been 17 years since the bombs dropped,
and nature has already completely returned to Hope County,
making it feel mostly the same.
(truck explodes)
That makes New Dawn feel like a budget version of Far Cry,
which is probably why Ubisoft is charging 40 dollars for it
instead of 60.
But that sense of deja vu didn't keep me from enjoying it.
Every so often I'd stumbled onto
a location that I remembered,
and that familiarity is actually kind of cool.
It's also fun to take a friend through in co-op,
even if they missed Far Cry 5.
You're given a lot of freedom
to invest in your home base
to upgrade anything from the available selection
of weapons to health,
and those decisions can meaningfully
affect your play style
throughout the roughly eight hour campaign
and it's many hours of surrounding activities.
That customization extends to your nameless,
speechless character in some kind of absurd ways.
You can spend perk points on a bigger inventory,
greater lung capacity,
or a double-jump.
Yes, you control a human,
in the not-too-distant future America,
and one of your perks is jumping
and then jumping again while you're in the air.
Sure, why not?
It may not be realistic,
but at least it definitely makes
getting around the rugged terrain of Hope County easier.
We do get a much needed change of scenery
in the new expedition missions,
which shuttle you away from Hope County
to exotic locals like Alcatraz,
an amusement park and a crashed space station.
Your mission in each is to find and and steal a package,
then make it back to your helicopter alive
with every enemy in the area hot on your tail.
Frantically running towards the extraction point
makes for some genuinely tense moments.
- Okay, buckle it up!
- [Daemon] The Far Cry template
demands a psycho-villain,
but while New Dawn delivers a double dose of crazy
in twins, Mickey and Lou,
they don't hold a candle
to the series' more memorable antagonists.
- Pops taught us what to do with problem-makers.
- Problem-makers need to be solved.
- Mm-hm.
- [Daemon] Even though their character design is badass,
they're pretty uninteresting, one dimensional villains.
It makes me miss Joseph Seed's
manipulative, religious fanaticism,
and I didn't like what he's reduced to
when he shows up in this unnecessary epilogue.
Plus, the final boss fight
is as out of place as the double-jump,
without being fun enough to earn a pass.
(electronic music)
Thankfully, New Dawn's moment to moment gameplay
does not disappoint.
There are a few things Far Cry fans
love more than clearing outposts,
and New Dawn smartly doubles down on that.
At any time, you can take a detour
to scavenge an already cleared outpost for resources.
Then the highwaymen will reclaim the post,
this time with more advanced soldiers
and more advanced rewards.
I spent a lot of time delaying the story,
because the outpost gameplay loot is so much more fun.
(explosion)
Far Cry 5's useful guns for hire system
returns with mostly new faces.
These are class-based companions
you meet through side missions
that will fight alongside you,
and you can pick one that suits your play style.
Want someone to shotgun your enemies in the face?
Take returning character, Pastor Jerome.
Want help spotting enemies and materials?
Take Timber, your scout dog.
Who's a good boy?
(dog whines)
Speaking of guns,
while much of your arsenal here
are cosmetic variations of familiar
pistols, shotguns and sniper rifles,
there are a few delightful new weapons.
Most notable is the saw launcher,
a crossbow modded to fire saw blades
that ricochet off surfaces.
At it's highest level, you can one-shot
almost anything that gets in your way,
including the new shield-carrying enemy types.
(intense music)
One of my other favorite things to do in Hope County
is the treasure hunts,
which are fun, environmental puzzles
that take the place of the prepper stash puzzles
of Far Cry 5.
Following the cleverly placed clues for valuable rewards
is absolutely worth it.
(funky music)
As someone who loves the Far Cry formula
and will take my fix wherever I can get it,
revisiting Far Cry 5's slightly reworked
open-world map in New Dawn
proves there's still quite a bit of joy
to be found in clearing outposts,
and generating as much chaos as possible,
in single-player or co-op.
I could have done without the silly story
and disappointing final boss,
but expeditions are a thrilling new mode,
and the story missions are exciting more often than not.
New Dawn is an enjoyable diversion
while we wait for Far Cry's next big thing.
For more on Far Cry,
check out some New Dawn gameplay,
a rundown of six major changes you'll find in this game,
and our review of Far Cry 5,
and for everything else,
stick with us right here at IGN.
(gun shots)
(plane explosion)