Far Cry New Dawn is a standalone narrative sequel to Far Cry 5. Many were disappointed with the ending of the fifth numbered entry in the series, and New Dawn aims to provide closure to that story. Set 17 years after the nuclear war, the remaining survivors aim to rebuild the land of Hope’s County but they are attacked by a band of Highwaymen led by twin sisters Mickey and Lou. You take control of a customised captain of security, and are entrusted with duty of bringing peace to the land.
You can upgrade all of the facilities in your home base, such as weapons, cartography, medicine and explosives, using ethanol. It is obtained through specific vehicles in the open world or by capturing the game’s outpost. Once conquered, you can then let go of it to generate more ethanol, which also increases the difficulty level for that outpost; allowing you to capture it again for better rewards. Expeditions are fun treasure hunts where players must locate a package and bring it back to their home base. Other than that, the list of new features is limited, which to be fair is expected from a budget release. All of this is tied into the resources system, which allows you to craft weapons or other items using the various resources you have in stock.
Far Cry New Dawn is a lot more focused than Far Cry 5. There is no need to do side content to unlock main story missions. There are two very specific points where you are required to recruit allies, and upgrade the facilities to get to the next act, but they don’t take too long to finish. In fact, being a cheaper release, the game itself is a lot shorter. As a result, it lets you experience Far Cry without any fluff. I did have to go out of my way to upgrade my weapons facility in order to beat the final two bosses, but it does not take too much time.
The mission design is mostly fun, but there are several instances, especially in the final act where your guns are taken from you and you are forced to play in a particular way. While they offer a break, I prefer the open-ended nature of the gameplay of this series than a restrictive one.
Far Cry New Dawn is essentially a shorter, more focused version of Far Cry 5. It completes the story and gives the saga a more meaningful ending. If you were disappointed with the DLC of the main game, New Dawn plays it safe. Small issues aside, it offers a good excuse to dive back in the insanity that is the world of Far Cry 5.
