Far Cry: New Dawn Review

When I think about the Far Cry series, it always gave me a different feeling than other series. Somehow, Ubisoft was able to give a characteristic to a classic FPS game. How they are doing it? With some craziness of course. Whenever we see a game that has some insane protagonist or villain, usually it becomes a good game. That’s what is special about the Far Cry.

All of the games of Far Cry has a crazy, unforgettable villain. And from the ashes of that insanity, we find ourselves a game that can drive us the same way as our enemy does. Even if we always find ourselves as good guys in Far Cry games, we do some things that good guys don’t. The insanity of the villains of Far Cry games, somehow reflects on our characters.

And there is also something special with Ubisoft game design. They evolved much in recent years. They steered their wheel to the much more freedom based mission and gameplay design. We can see the same thing on Assassin’s Creed games. As you may already know, after the Origins, Assassin’s Creed became something else, almost an entirely different series. Ubisoft has really had some balls when taking radical design changes, but in the end, they succeed. Far Cry: New Dawn is a clear example of that kind of changes. From a modern FPS game, Far Cry: New Dawn become an RPGish experience.

The main target of the player in Far Cry: New Dawn is upgrading our main base named Prosperity. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t let you just jump into the story, Ubisoft pushed us to upgrade our main base to continue in the story. It feels just like Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. In Odyssey, developers were forced players to do some side missions to keep progress in the story. But the problem with New Dawn is, there is not much side mission to do. You have to just attack convoys, raid enemy bases, collect Ethanol which is main currency of the game and collect minerals. These kinds of game designs make New Dawn feels like an MMO, more than a single player story is driven shooter game.

So what is New Dawn bringing to our table? In the post-apocalyptic world of Far Cry: New Dawn, there are new dangers waiting for us. The old world is gone, there is a new order, new enemies, new problems, new ways to survive. In Far Cry New Dawn, there are three different communities. One of them is civilians or survivors we can say. And we are one of them. The second group is followers of Joseph Seed, yes they are still there. And the last group is the main villain of the game, followers of Mickey and Lou, our antagonists of the Far Cry New Dawn. Yes, this time, we have two antagonists. And the first time in the Far Cry franchise, they are women. These antagonists have the same characteristics as previous Far Cry games have. They are insane. So while you fighting towards them, you can see the effect I was previously mentioned. You became insane too. So we can easily say that, it’s indeed a Far Cry game.

There is also one more thing to make the game feel like MMO. All the weapons of Far Cry New Dawn has a level. In order to craft a specific weapon, you have to level up. That kind of crafting system makes the game feels more progressive but also a little bit grindy. But this is not a big problem because there are a huge variety of weapons you can choose from. There is always a reason to keep playing and progressing. Amount of content is enough to keep players having fun. But if Ubisoft has added some side missions which is fun, the overall experience would be much more enjoyable. They must improve this formula with more variety.

There is also some survivor genre flavors in Far Cry: New Dawn. It’s pretty normal that Ubisoft is putting different elements from different genres to New Dawn, more content means a better game at last. There are even some things you see in Battle Royale games like Loot Drops from the sky.

Technical wise the game looks like the previous one. But with the more saturated color palette. Actually, it’s interesting to see that, because usually, post-apocalyptic games have darker color themes, but in 2019, every post-apocalyptic game we have seen become a rainbow. We see the same thing in upcoming Rage 2 for example. But overall, the game is looking good. And I don’t think we can see better graphics in Far Cry franchise before next-generation consoles. Ubisoft doing best they can with current generation limitations.

Long story short, Far Cry: New Dawn is a different looking Far Cry experience with usual Far Cry style gameplay design. If you are into Post Apocalyptic experience, you could give a chance to New Dawn. It might have some issues, but overall, you can enjoy the game.