On the 15th of February, Ubisoft released Far Cry New Dawn: the post-apocalyptic shooter and the direct descendant of Far Cry 5. Unlike previous spin-offs (Blood Dragon and Primal) that took place in settings of third and fourth game parts consequently but were distant from original games in terms of story, New Dawn continues the story of the last game.
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Far Cry 5: New Dawn Story
Spoiler Alert!
After the nuclear strike in the final of the 5th part, the world continued fighting for life, and the Hope district went on, too.
End of Spoilers!
Six years later, survivors came back to the planet’s surface. Seventeen years after the blast, they began building their world very rapidly. But the peaceful development of a familiar district was interrupted by raiders with their leaders: twin sisters Lou and Mickey. And the player’s mission is to develop a base and make bandits refuse the idea to attack the peaceful settlement.
The plot of this part offers many different tasks, involving the player into stories about the fate of Joseph Seed and cultists. Still, the story is much weaker than the multi-layered plot of the original game. There are no frightening cut-scenes (videos still appear but are dull and banal), no tricky events and mixed thoughts about Good and Evil. Two bad girls as antagonists look the less confident and persuasive characters among all heroes of the whole series.
Instead, Far Cry New Dawn completely repeats the disadvantage of the original part: the main hero remains unrevealed. They use the protagonist as the delivery guy, a target for raiders and a doll for a local clothing store.
The world of Far Cry New Dawn has almost nothing in common with a classic post-apocalypse. It is instead a pseudo-version of life after the end of the world, where mutated animals, changed landscapes and weak radiation zones at the map outskirts remind of the past nuclear war. The rest of the game is a classical Far Cry with the addition of a popular post-nuclear visual: acid environment colors and bright graffiti on every wall.
Far Cry New Dawn is rich with fan service, so gamers who finished the fifth part and want to know what happened to the world and heroes later should like it. Some of them will appear in a story, others you can use as mercenaries, and thirds will tell their stories through letters left throughout the map. Though newcomers will not note this part of the game, and this is a big minus of such spin-off stories in general.
Far Cry New Dawn Gameplay
The gameplay basis of Far Cry New Dawn and exactly its shooter components remain unchanged. But developers made significant corrections into the mechanics, so we should describe them in details. The fresh part is a shooter with RPG elements. All enemies and weapons got levels marked with different colors: white – common, blue – rare, violet – expert, and yellow – elite.
The New Dawn mechanics made this game look like MMO-shooters: The Division, Destiny, etc. Now the player can’t kill the enemy with a one-shot headshot, a stealth-hit with a knife or a grenade launcher if the enemy has a higher level than that of the weapon used. It all works when the opponent is equal in levels with the gamer’s gun. Otherwise, you are bound to spend a lot of time to hit the violet guard with a white rifle. You won’t kill them but blow your nerves.
In my opinion, these Far Cry New Dawn features have two reasons for developers to use them. At first, developers had to find out what players think about mechanics and then decide where to move in the sixth part basing on the gathered feedback. Secondly, they intentionally made a short story created in less than a year longer.
Here is the action chain that appears as a result. To create a weapon of the upper level, the player has to collect resources, improve the base and its buildings, and get the primary substance of the setting – ethanol. They give it for taking outposts and special raid missions beyond the Hope district. You can get ethanol from raiders transporting it on their trucks frequently. The truth is you will have to deal with a heavy guard, but the result is worth your efforts.
Each chapter of Far Cry New Dawn gives the player quests that are impossible for them to complete first. To make them closer, you need to gather tons of resources, craft weapons and then find and kill high-level enemies. If you don’t want to go through the grinding circles, the in-game Ubisoft shop welcomes you and provides all resources for real money.
Far Cry New Dawn: Graphics & Sounds
In terms of graphics, Far Cry New Dawn is a bright variation of the 5th part. In general, the picture looks great and impressive. But as for me, randomly placed bright colors and acid tones started irritating with time and could drive me mad closer to the final chapter.
Everything is fine with music and voices. Throughout most parts of the game, you kill enemies while modern hip-hop and crazy new-rave melodies play in the background. If you admire other stiles, then probably the product is not for you. Though, I should say that the chosen music suits the acid visual of the game entirely and makes the gameplay more fun.
It is hard to tell that New Dawn is a complete game, though it is too big to call it a DLC. It is something average, colored in bright paints and spiced with RPG elements. Among all the three spin-off games mentioned above, the New Dawn is the most controversial and experimental in a negative meaning of these words. I hope Ubisoft will refuse the tested RPG component in Far Cry 6: gamers are used to see the Far Cry series as a crazy game, but it is a classic shooter series without trendy hybrid mechanics.
Far Cry New Dawn Price and Conclusion
Far Cry New Dawn was lucky to keep the featured madness of the series, to show a worthy story (though not the best one), and to mix it all up with plenty of right fan-service. Players who didn’t play the 5th part will doubtfully like this game. But it can suit perfectly to those who know origins and can even wonder fans. Still, the price of this project is sad: it is lower than that of the fifth part but still too high for the game of such quality.
Overall grade: 6 of 10.
