Returning to the land of destruction in the case of a decade long nuclear fallout in old Hope County, Far Cry New Dawn picks up the destruction even-though Eden’s Gate is not the terrorizing group that the surviving citizens have to worry about while rebuilding their lives in a “stone-age” town and state. In the review of Far Cry New Dawn, we’ll be looking at the gameplay to the differences from the previous plot set in Far Cry 5!
Fear the terror of the Highwaymen!
The whole state of Montana and the existence that is of Hope County is now in ruins from the two decade old nuclear fallout created by the hand of God or rather from the hands of Joseph Seed (the previous antagonist in Far Cry 5) and now Hope County is on the path of being rebuilt and restored to where the residents left it.
Every survivor left in Hope County is attempting to rebuild homes, start growing food, and rebuilding their lives altogether in peace…or so they thought in the case that Hope County is not yet released from all chaos that is from the stronghold and terror of a new gang of rough-and-tumble individuals that give no pity, mercy, or even lend a helping hand to help the surviving citizens of Hope County. Instead, the Highwaymen basically has the motto of shooting, taking, and not asking questions later because they don’t give a crap about peace, providing shelter, or helping support a cause for rebuilding Hope County.
The Highwaymen are led by twins Mickey and Lou, the double-trouble Mad Max wannabe motocross gear wearing psychos that have take over the villain role from supposedly Eden’s Gate terrorizing experience except they don’t worship a false prophet or force people to believe in their cause.
Instead, Mickey and Lou believe in their so-called “Problem Solvers or Problem Makers” philosophy to determine whether you live to be enlisted in their group as a problem solver or in other ways a problem maker that would likely result in you being a dead man.
Far Cry New Dawn Campaign & Gameplay
Beyond the main campaign being shorter in the game, Far Cry New Dawn does not play over the whole map and the campaign gameplay is cut back to about 50% from what Far Cry 5 featured. There are some slight changes that are featured in Far Cry New Dawn starting with the Outposts side missions which would work basically same with the change being that the player can initially take over the outposts then give it back to the Highwaymen to retry the outpost on a harder difficulty all the way up to Elite difficulty in order to gain a higher Ethanol reward…just be sure to get some Elite weapons unlocked first in order to take down the heavily armored guys and as always prevent the enemies from raising the alarm to call for reinforcements.
The classic treasure hunt side quest along with the “lockbox” clues return in Far Cry New Dawn
Speaking of changes, Far Cry New Dawn brings in the new Expedition side mission quest which would be first opened up as an upgrade from the Prosperity ranch where the player can take a field trip by air to another location in the United States with the main goal of retrieving a package located within the area that would be redeemed for resources. There is only one catch: the package itself has a tracker within it that the Highwaymen can trace in order to track you down easily…so be sure to know where you’re going to the extraction point within the 30 seconds when you pick the package up and make sure you don’t run out of ammo.
Other than changes, the same style of open-world gameplay exists with certain side quests like the treasure hunts returning in Far Cry New Dawn with the same old objective and puzzle, talk to the locals around the Prosperity ranch or somewhere out and about in the woods to learn more about the treasure hunt, read the clue found in the lock-box that describes how and where the treasure hunt is located. The same treasure/loot can be found from picking up exclusive outdoor magazines to redeem for perk points, credit coins, and any resources that can be stocked up on to craft ammo, throw-ables, and med-kits.
Nick Rye returns as one of the specialists in Far Cry New Dawn
There is still the same side missions that can be played within the game that can be completed in order to recruit familiar individuals that would support the rebel cause or in other cases to help other individuals double-cross the Highwaymen in order to get back at the twins.
On the contrary to side missions, there are the same Guns for Hire missions that can be completed for people who would not only support the cause; but, would be willing to back you up to providing distractions or in theory getting you caught more easily on the main campaign missions that would ruin your element of surprise.
Other than the side mission to complete as far as meeting the 100% completion, there are other side objectives to take part in which include intercepting air drops, making road-kill of highwaymen that are found to be looting dead survivors, setting survivors free from the hands of the Highwaymen, and ambushing Highwaymen resource convoys.
Finding Momentos of Hope County: Far Cry New Dawn Collectibles
Outside of making progress within the campaign aspect of Far Cry New Dawn, the collectible side quests returns from Far Cry 5 where you can find a number of photographs and MP3 players scattered across the fallout of Hope County. The old photographs picked up would activate a mini-game/puzzle in which you as the player would have to line up the photo with the target location in order to get credit for finding it and you would get a perk point per collectible an award…just like for a pedestal on a carpet platform.
There are 10 music player collectibles found throughout Hope County in Far Cry New Dawn
For the MP3 players, when they are found they would reveal a soundtrack song to the game as a part of the bonus within the game to add some music to your radio soundtrack…just listen for the music eating away at your ear hair that will let you know that you’re close to each MP3 collectible (sometimes the music player maybe secluded behind a lock door or behind a boarded up room, so just find the “Key” or create a “Key” by blowing the boarded up entrance way up to gain access).
In total, there are 19 collectibles scattered across the entire map to make up the 9 photograph and 10 audiophile collectibles that can easily be found by buying the “Collectible Map” that would reveal all locations of the collectibles (only this can be achieved if you upgrade the Cartography section at the Prosperity Home Base in order to reveal intel on where the collectibles are located on the full game map). Otherwise, you can just challenge yourself by looking “under every rock” to find these collectibles that can take hours to find…
Personal Views about Far Cry New Dawn
Beyond looking forward to a sequel to Far Cry 5, Far Cry New Dawn was not a boring silent picture show like Far Cry Primal; but, Far Cry New Dawn to me didn’t have as much excitement fighting off Motocross-gear wearing freaks as fighting off the Eden’s Gate in Far Cry 5 leading up to the dramatic end…to be real, the ending didn’t blow the top off the game as Far Cry 5 did (you will know why, I’m not telling anybody the ending in this post).
Kim and Carmina Rye are 2 of the main protagonists working alongside the deputy in Far Cry New Dawn
Despite Far Cry New Dawn having a shorter campaign, it was nice to see some changes to the game-play instead of making the game-play the same 100% in Far Cry 5. One thing I can say was really exciting was getting out of Hope County to go on the Expedition side ops at a random location since you’re put into a different environment each time that would make you work to finding the package behind Highwaymen territory (even-though I couldn’t understand how the Highwaymen can be put in place to take over each location especially an aircraft carrier)…it provided an opportunity to switch to stealth mode to grabbing the package and then thinking fast with the package in hand before the GPS can be activated for the Highwaymen to track you down.
In general, Far Cry New Dawn forces you in a way to upgrade your weapons as you’re put up against Elite enemies whether it is progressing through the main campaign or reattempting each outposts on the map to gain better rewards which is somewhat of a challenge to not only go forward with upgrading the home base; but, as well as being prepared for the boss battles within the game.
The aggravating part of the game was not being able to equip weapon upgrades straight up like in Far Cry 5 since the weapon upgrades (like suppressors, sights, etc.) are only made available as you move up to higher weapon levels which to me is not the way I would want to have a weapon upgrade system.
The Weapon Wheel and both the Throwables and Medkit crafting systems return the same in Far Cry New Dawn
Of course, I would like to earn my supplies to make the upgrades; but, I should have a way to have a backup weapon built that does not alert the enemy to my presence when infiltrating through an outpost or a main campaign mission…a saw launcher and a bow-and-arrow is not always the best to taking the enemy silent. So, I believe the weapon upgrade system didn’t match up to the style of game-play as expected.
Out of everything said, we’re looking forward to what Ubisoft brings with Far Cry 6 and what its story will be when it is revealed hopefully down the road in the future…
