In some ways, Far Cry New Dawn is probably the most Far Cry game the collection has turned out. Sure, the apocalypse might have ushered in an period of goons with well being bars and ranges. But there’s additionally a bit the place you’re taking some medicine so you possibly can survive a ship journey to a person who offers you extra medicine, so as to punch a bear that represents your soul.
It’s additionally bought a blummin’ double soar.
In different phrases, that is the very best Far Cry but. But let’s get our bearings.
New Dawn takes place seventeen years after Far Cry 5, which I completed however by no means paid a lot consideration to. I bought my fill of culty twaddle inside the first couple of minutes, then skipped nearly each cutscene until Montana was a gonna. I’m sorry — to not point out puzzled — should you care about Far Cry 5 spoilers, however, spoilers, it turned out the massive dangerous in that game had an enormous dangerous pile of nukes. Which he totes used.
You emerge right into a civilisation (and a map) born from the ashes of the final, a part of a gang of fixer uppers making an attempt to reestablish America. It’s an excuse, not that one was wanted, to take pleasure in Mad Maxian absurdity. New Dawn embraces that to some extent, although it’s extra of a one-arm shoulder squeeze than a full-on bear hug. (Not that there’s any scarcity of precise bears.)
I do just like the soar right into a correctly fictional world – a extra restrained one than Blood Dragon‘s, with the fashionable accoutrements missing in Primal. Nuclear armageddon seems to have labored out nice for the color purple. It’s plastered throughout each the wilderness and and the buildings of the bandits you spend the entire game combating, who appear to have spent many of the final seventeen years spray portray vehicles and sticking them within the floor.
It’s probably the most visually fascinating setting I’ve seen Far Cry deal with, however it’s additionally tamer than it ought to have been. I bought to see verdant fields juxtaposed in opposition to backdrops of scarred desolation. I needed to see a extra twisted model of Montana, with stranger animals, mutants, bizarre geology, funky vegetation. There are a couple of “monstrous” animals lurking round, however they’re simply regular beasts coated in lichen and glowing weak spots.
There are, no less than, kicks available in seeing acquainted areas swamped in time and water. I had enjoyable bumping into some acquainted faces, too, corresponding to a sure (now blind) chopper pilot. Or the shotgun dude named Shark, who’s now co-parenting and lives along with his child in a sulphuric lavatory. Fortunately most (if not all) of the bliss-darting Cult bastards from Far Cry 5 perished together with social order, and left behind the very best iteration of open world Far Cry nonsense but.
It is an iterative enchancment, to be clear – a couple of steps ahead, not a leap. There are vans to steal and hostages to free, as per, however now they’re tied to buildings within the game that makes them really feel much less throwaway. I by no means used to trouble with these vans, however now they include candy candy ethanol.
You want ethanol to construct and improve services at your base, which unlock every part from weapon crafting to quick journey choices. If that sounds vaguely terrible, I perceive. I had the identical preliminary response, however my appreciation grew together with my settlement. It’s a extra satisfying, tangible manner of gating energy development — particularly when probably the most profitable supply of ethanol can be probably the most enjoyable.
I’m speaking about outposts, in fact. I nonetheless relish choosing them aside, sneaking round fight puzzles that supply roughly the identical thrill as they did on a tropical island again in 2012 with Far Cry 3. This is the primary time I haven’t been in a position to get my fingers on a silenced sniper rifle inside the first hour or so although, which makes extra of a distinction than maybe it ought to. I’m the kind of participant that wants these limits positioned on me, simply as I want that nudge to go steal vans.
I might nonetheless have achieved with extra limits, thoughts. I won’t have had entry to a silenced sniper rifle, however I did have entry to an unhinged granny with one in all her personal: the companion system from the final game is again, though now you possibly can solely have one pal at your aspect. Those followers additionally do good issues for you relying on how many individuals they’ve killed, like fixing your automobile or fetching thrown gadgets. That granny has the benefit of being extra helpful for silent take downs, as an example, however the drawback of not being a canine. Or a large boar referred to as Horatio.
I’ve bought anecdotes about Horatio saving my bacon with final second expenses, however they’re the kind of anecdotes you’ve heard earlier than. One genuinely new — and really welcome — addition are the expeditions. Chat to a Frenchman with a helicopter, and he’ll whisk you off to one in all seven distinctive areas the place you’ve bought to steal a backpack loaded with crafting gubbins. If outposts weren’t nonetheless so compelling, these could be the spotlight.
They provide your eyes a break from the purple and your fingers a break from typical Far Cry fare. I like how they mix sneaking with assaulting, eschewing a few of that ‘choose your own approach’ attraction, however forcing me out of my consolation zone. They’re additionally simply cool locations to go to, together with a fairground enveloped in jungle and the crashed corpse of the International Space Station.
Like most every part in New Dawn, it’s an expertise that’s acquainted at its core whereas contemporary sufficient to entice me again. I began off by saying how the enemies now come outfitted with well being bars and ranges, however there’s a purpose I haven’t talked about them since — they actually don’t change a lot. Most grunts nonetheless die to a headshot from an honest gun. It’s as ignorable because the story — which I nonetheless engaged with extra with than Far Cry 5’s, partly due to its brevity.
Some bits intention for poignancy and miss dramatically, however the principle villains have their share of sinister moments. They’re two feminine twins, who take turns monologueing and being dicks to folks within the background. Waving knives at bystanders, handing reside grenades to crying kids. That kind of factor. I by no means discovered them actively boring, not like outdated Joey Seed.
That’s good, as a result of that you must plough on with the principle missions if you wish to unlock that double soar – and belief me, you do. Jumping down slopes and hammering the wingsuit button within the useless hope it’s going to open has lengthy been a central tenant of Far Cry. With that double soar, hop off the slightest hill and also you’re airborne. I’m tempted to name it transformative, however I do know that’s as a result of double jumps and wingsuits are topics so near my coronary heart.
Still, that double soar supplies among the contemporary air Far Cry wanted below its wings. The setting is just too tame, and the combating a lot too acquainted to soar – but when one other dollop of Far Cry sounds appetising, tuck proper in.
