#i dont want those maps to be 'just helicopter everywhere to reach every point'

[bluebudgie]

uuuughhh im so anxious about the new expac maps

[impurelight]

Far Cry New Dawn - Peak Far Cry

After playing Far Cry New Dawn I have to say it is the best of Far Cry, and it is also the worst of Far Cry. Let's unpack that. First the good. This is undoubtedly the most fun I've ever had with a Far Cry game.

"Why?" You ask. Well, it's because of the setting. New Dawn takes place after the bombs fall. So there is no money in this game. Instead you have a handful of different materials you trade with. Things like wire, titanium, circuits, and ethanol. It can be a bit ridiculous running around with 100s of titanium bars in your pocket but it's Far Cry.

With all these new materials they added crafting and a bunch of RPG mechanics. And they doubled down on the RPG mechanics hard.

There are 2 major reasons you want materials. The first is to upgrade your base. It's basically like Far Cry Primal's base upgrades just like actually good. Your base (Prosperity) has a few different places you can upgrade. You can upgrade the medical place for more health, you can upgrade the garage to get better vehicles, you can upgrade the weapons place to be able to craft better weapons, you can upgrade the cartography place to be able to buy maps, etc.

There's also weapons. There are actually 4 tiers of weapon. Level 1, level 2, level 3, and elite. This 4 tiered ranking system is used everywhere in the game. Enemies appear in these levels. Also missions and outposts use them although not the elite tier. Elite tier enemies can also only be tagged until you lose line of sight on them for some reason. You can't attach components to weapons like suppressors manually like in previous games. There is an upgrade mechanic but it only upgrades the firepower by 5%. And the overpowered suppressed sniper rifle is a level 3. It's even more overpowered now because enemies will not know where you are even if they get shot.

Then there are 2 ways to get materials. First there's raiding outposts. You can also reset outposts. Resetting outposts gives you some ethanol and allows you to retake it meaning more ethanol but enemies come back stronger until the outpost reaches level 3 (it starts level 1 then goes 2 and then 3). You can also get armour pieces which are just aesthetic. Not really sure why you'd want them as you hardly ever see your character.

Also there are the raids. Basically they're sort of like giant outposts at certain locations. A bridge, an aircraft carrier, an amusement park, Alcatraz which I suspect is a modified Watch Dogs 2 asset, etc. So you fly there with a crazy french dude, locate a package, and signal for extraction by helicopter while waves of enemies come after you.

It's pretty fun. The only problem is there's no real reason to do it. I had low level gear until almost the very end. It was just this boss fight that was too hard so I had to upgrade my gear. If the missions were harder then it would give me more incentive to actually do the cool stuff. I know people will complain that Ubisoft is forcing us to buy the microtransactions just to progress. And those people need to just shut up and do the side content.

So that's the good. Now the bad. It's the story mostly. The story is just not good. Far Cry is known for having its ridiculous villains. So the New Dawn villains are quite a shock to say the least. They're just evil. Why are they evil? Dunno. They just are.

And the protagonist is no better. You play as the 'Captain of Security' and they are just the most generic character. It's basically the same premise as in Far Cry 5. But in 5 you play as a rookie (rook) and you sort of understood the character. You have this team and you went through this disaster. In New Dawn the game opens with your train derailed, and you're thrust into Hope County not really knowing anyone or having any reason to be there. You're just there. No backstory. No friends. Well, one friend. This guy called Thomas Rush, but he hardly talks to you so it doesn't really count. And there's no reason to keep going. It's just 'do this for us' and 'do that for us'.

All this makes the game feel super generic. Every other game has a hook. Like 3 it's tropical islands. Blood dragon it's the future. 4 is Napal. Primal it's the stone age. 5 it's this American location. And all the music and stuff was always themed like that. But New Dawn has none of that. It's set in Hope County but it could literally be set anywhere, well apart from the occasional US flags. It's not as bad as Odyssey's super repetitive locations but it is pretty generic.

As for the plot itself it is just stupid. Remember all the crazy supernatural stuff from 5? Well, we're going to do it again just it's even more crazy. And the things the protagonist does just for one hostage. It's so stupid it made me want to facepalm so hard.

Other than that it's basically an extended version of the Far Cry 5 experience although without any planes oddly enough. There's pepper stashes, convoys, and tasks (kill this animal, use this weapon, etc). The usual.

And you better get those pepper stashes quick because you start off with nothing: 2 weapon slots and not even a grapple which is essential at some locations. But once you do a bunch of tasks you'll have like 50 skill points and just keep on upgrading the same thing over and over. Yeah, some skills can be unlocked multiple times.

Also there's a new random event where a supply drop appears. Supply drops: they're going to be the thing in 2019. And all the enemies have healthbars now. Pretty unnecessary. They just highlight how absurdly bullet spongy some animals are. But I guess it makes sense if you're going to have 4 tiers of enemies.

Also new is your AI companions can drive you. You can even use the mounted gun while driving. You can also only have one companion at a time and when they die you need resources to revive them. Which is a pain when they die due to a physics glitch.

There are also resources to collect at locations. It's a reason to explore them, but not a good reason as those crazy french guy's quest give you far more resources. And outposts are clearly visible on your map by their smoke trails even if no one pointed out their locations to you yet which was a major annoyance I had with the previous game.

You know I was playing the Division 2 open beta and it actually made me realize how good Far Cry 5 is. With respawn locations that are actually close by and fun shooting mechanics and missions that don't constantly kill you. I think looking back New Dawn will be when Far Cry peaked. Not to say that it's perfect. They could definitely add more to it, but no other Far Cry game will be that much better than New Dawn. I probably won't be writing anything on The Division 2, but if I did it would be titled: Division 2 - Hold F To Open Doors.