...oh, right. Why didn't this review come out something like over a month ago and when it was relevant and anyone actually gave a shit about it? And why am I not playing Devil May Cry 5 (even though I probably am by the time this review will come out)?
Well, wonderful questions, voices in my head! I'll be happy to answer them after I give my spoiler tag for the events of Far Cry 5. I think that really goes without saying (or doesn't, actually, but I'll get into that), of course, given what most people know about this game. But it never hurts to cover your bases, or at least that's what I've been taught by vigorous beatings with a baseball bat (thanks, Uncle Gus!), so here we go merrily on our way.
Far Cry New Dawn picks up seventeen years after the end of Far Cry 5. It seems that the player character does not hallucinate the atomic bombs being dropped on Hope County and the world has gone the way of the post-apocalyptic. Instead of a dead brown and gray world as in Fallout, Rage, or I Am Alive, the world (at least in Hope County) has instead become a lush, green, vastly overgrown paradise. In a move that's proof that Ubisoft is definitely not taking the piss out of Bethesda with all their problems with Fallout 4 and Fallout 76, you play the ambiguously gendered "Captain" working for a group led by a man named Thomas Rush who go around America trying to rebuild it in a way that is definitely not reminiscent of the Minutemen from Fallout 4.
Mostly because, unlike Preston Garvey, Thomas Rush seems to understand what the hell the chain of command is and how to use it properly.
But their efforts are sadly ruined by a roving gang of Raiders...I mean, bandits...known as the Highwaymen, led by twin sisters Mickey and Lou. The Highwaymen wreck their train heading into Hope County and eventually manage to capture Thomas just after he pushes the Captain into the river to what would be any normal person's death, but this is a Far Cry protagonist and physics only apply to them when the plot feels like it.
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| I like the bow but, unless you're playing stealth, it gets outclassed quickly. |
Once again, as with 5, we have a silent protagonist in the form of the Captain. You can choose either male or female and you can also modify their outfit...which, like in 5 is completely pointless when we A) never hear them speak or have any useful input from them on what is going on and B) you're stuck in first-person mode for the entire game besides death animations, so what does it matter anyway what you're wearing?
The silent protagonist was an unpopular choice for 5 and it still proves to be unpopular here. Jason Brody and even Ajay Ghale had personality in 3 and 4 respectively because of their voice. They could communicate what they were thinking and their actions thusly had a much more profound effect on the narrative. In 5, the Deputy being a mute who never said anything and then blindly accepted quests like they were going out of style just ended up with a pile of corpses to their name and a lengthy vacation in a basement with Rob Zombie's Joel Osteen.
At the very least, Ubisoft, give us dialogue options. All I want is some indication that my character isn't some kind of mute psychopath with an insurmountable need to fetch everyone's laundry for them. The dialogue from NPCs is rather transparently written around the fact that the player doesn't speak, which leads to more than a few awkward scenes that don't seem like they were written by humans who know what actual human interaction is like.
Although while Ubisoft did not take to heart my criticism about the (lack of) voice acting of the main protagonist, they apparently did take my criticism about Far Cry 5 being not very much of a far cry for people who live in North America. The setting is still Hope County, and in many places it's very much obvious that it is the same place, but the apocalypse has given it some new colors while cutting off some areas previously accessible and opening up some new ones.
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| Not even sure why sparing him is an option. What the hell, Ubisoft? |
The design choices seem deliberately made to invoke an entirely different feel from 5 as well. This, coupled with the new currency of the realm being ethanol, makes the entire game seem like it's the child of an ill-advised liaison between a John Woo film and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome who was conceived at a rave while both of its parents were on every single hallucinogen known to man. There's vibrancy, color, and a lot of people getting shot. And blown up. And mutated by fruit.
...yes, for the record, that does make more sense in context.
This bringing us seamlessly into the combat, it's pretty much the same as 3, 4, and 5 have all been. You have a tasty variety of guns, knives, explosives, and melee objects, go nuts! The radial menu hasn't changed since 5 either and still gone is the Far Cry tradition of being able to cure a bullet wound by tugging on your thumb a few times, but crafting med kits is easier than ever, so I guess I shouldn't complain about that joyful quirk of the series being lost.
Beyond the rather spoilerific revelations involving this being a sequel to Far Cry 5, this is pretty much your standard Far Cry game at this point. You go around, do the shooting and the stabbing and the blowing up while driving around in vehicles. It's fun, but it doesn't really bring anything new to the table...well, except for a gun that shoots buzz saws and anyone who remembers my Dead Space 2 review from years back will know I just find it insanely difficult to criticize anything that gives me a gun that shoots buzz saws...and isn't Dead Space 3.
I will say I'm not really fond of the crafting mechanics, but at least I'm not being asked to build up entire settlements with my hard-earned duct tape, so New Dawn does have that going for it over, say, Fallout 4. I will say, getting into spoilers, that it was immensely satisfying to execute Joseph Seed after everything that happened in 5, where it felt like he received no consequences for his actions throughout the entire thing and basically all of the Deputy's efforts had been completely in vain. Yes, even if they tried to make him somewhat sympathetic...they failed miserably, because the guy was an insane jackass.
Realizing that you're an insane jackass does not justify what you did, buddy.
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| "We are just poor, lost circus performers. Is there a villain nearby?" |
Also, Mickey and Lou...they're alright. They don't have the raw charisma of Vaas or the psychotic charm of Pagan Min, but they're a step up from Joseph Seed in that you don't immediately want them dead as soon as you see their faces...you want them dead because they blew up your train and tried to kill you. The Highwaymen are evil, sure, but it kind of gets into that muddy area with Raider gangs in Fallout and the like. They show some interest in Thomas Rush's skills and think that maybe he can help them build settlements and the like, showing that there is some kind of thinking beyond the simple rape and pillage shtick they seem to be pulling.
Unfortunately, it's not really enough to make them stand out from your standard stock villains.
The entire game honestly feels like they wanted to simply do another DLC-length game in the style of Blood Dragon or even Primal and just took the path of the latter game in that they stretched it out while trying to make it as serious as the main series. It's not bad, certainly, but it's clear that Ubisoft has found their niche with Far Cry and aren't really looking to move out of it until the money dries up.
Far Cry New Dawn is brought to us by Ubisoft and Ubisoft Montreal for Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, and Xbox One.
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