Theres only one rule in gaming: dont be boring.
Players can tolerate awful AI and grimy graphics if theres a payoff.
I mention this becauseFar Cry: New Dawnis an unspeakably dull game, and Im really annoyed about it.
Far Cry: New Dawnis the long-anticipated follow-up to last years Far Cry 5.
Its an unambiguous tale of good versus evil.
And its unspeakably dull.
Before I get into things, let me raise a couple of points of order.
Firstly, this article is going to be filled with spoilers.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
Secondly: this isnt a review.
Far Cry: New Dawntips that on its head.
That is to say, not very.
Ethanol is obtained by liberating outposts from the The Highwaymen.
The thing is,New Dawns map is so small, theres only a handful of outposts to liberate.
In effect, this means you play the same missions again and again.
Its true that each time you cede an outpost, things get incrementally harder.
New alarms will appear, making it easier for the baddies to summon reinforcements.
The adversaries themselves will come packing more powerful guns, and can withstand more of a beating.
That said, this doesnt make it feel less tedious.
These are capture-the-flag style minigames which see you leave the main game to raid a Highwayman base.
I must admit, I did enjoy these.
And that does remove the thrill.
Its worth mentioning that New Dawn is a painfully short game.
Even with the aforementioned drudgery and repetition, I managed to complete it in under nine hours.
If you were to remove the resource management element, there wouldnt be much left.
Faith Seed was complex and manipulative.
Jacob Seed was cruel and capricious.
John Seed, my favorite, was a sadistic torturer with the mannerisms of a televangelist.
He was equal parts Charles Manson and Billy Graham.
The antagonists inFar Cry: New Dawn, Mickey and Lou, dont inspire any fear.
Theres no depth to them.
Theres nothing to analyze.
They embody the most extreme violent teenage nihilism.
They break things simply because they can.
And thats just sad.
Its far too easy
Im not talking about combat here.
One thingFar Cry: New Dawndoes well is scale combat difficulty with your own natural progression.
Im talking about everything else.
Lets address these in order, starting with puzzles.
The most challenging specimens require the user to memorize a few numbers, and recite them in order.
The least are basic climbing or target-shooting puzzles.
You fix this by burning some wood left conveniently by the banks of the river.
I really wish I was making this up.
The dialog is hackneyed
And then theres the dialog.
This, I must admit, wasnt all bad.
But then theres Bean, the socially inept cartographer assisted by the player at the start of the game.
These gags are delivered with the weight of a lead balloon.
His speech is so peppered with them, it just feels contrived and deeply unfunny.
Previous games roped Hurk in to deliver a bit of well-needed comic relief.
But unfortunately, at this late stage, his eternal sixth-former routine is overdone and stale.
Its plodding, dull, and feels rushed.
One big improvement over Far Cry 5 is how it tells the story.
In the previous game, the player would repeatedly be kidnapped by various members of the Seed family.
Far Cry: New Dawntrashes this awful mechanic.
The perk point system has also received a major overhaul.
Now, you gain perk points for using weapons of different levels.
I like this because it encourages you to continually mix up your arsenal.
In a game as trudging and repetitive as this, you really need a bit of variety.
Im also a big fan of the Mad Max-style salvaged cars you get to drive.
New Dawnalso does a good job of tying up the loose ends of its predecessor.
I think a fair few people boughtNew Dawnpurely to see what happened next myself included.
Although Ive got a fair few quarrels with the game, I appreciate it gives players some much-needed closure.
Finally, I like the fact thatNew Dawnproves that post-apocalyptic games dont have to be visually ugly.
Countless titles, fromMetro 2033toFar Cry 5, depict humanity after a nuclear catastrophe.
All, without fail, present things in shades of brown, beige, and grey.
Far Cry: New Dawntreads a different path, and shows a world thats been gradually reconquered by nature.
Farms and barns are overrun by trees and plants, until theyre one and the same.
There are other little things I liked too.
Hunting is easier, and a lot more rewarding.
Broadly speaking, it feels more balanced compared toFar Cry 5.
Deer, for example, no longer take several arrows to bring down.
Theres no more sprinting across Hope County in chase of a pack of pronghorn.
Final Verdict
Far Cry: New Dawnis a weak effort.
Its short, forgettable, and repetitive.
You havent got all day, and neither do I.
The game few saving graces, but they dont come close to compensating for its multiple flaws.
Personally, Id encourage you to wait until the price goes down a bit, but its your prerogative.
It is, without a doubt, the strongest game in the series currently available for current-generation platforms.
Far Cry 5is also a good shout.
This game isnt without its flaws, but on balance, its still a pretty good romp.
This post includes affiliate links to products that it’s possible for you to buy online.
If you purchase them through our links, we get a small cut of the revenue.
