For those of you who didn’t reach the end of Far Cry 5… what are you playing at?
If you didn’t quite manage to finish off every mission and survive multiple kidnappings you may not have known that Far Cry 5 had multiple different endings.
We won’t spoil too much but, in one of those endings a nuclear bomb was set off destroying Hope County and characters’ fates up for debate.
The latest instalment in the series, Far Cry: New Dawn takes us back to Hope County, 17 years after nukes were dropped leaving not just the US in chaos, but the world.
This is a giant step away from the usually isolated incidents of chaos that we are used to from the Far Cry series.
This time the whole of Earth is in turmoil, not just a small island like in Far Cry 3.
The setting
A lot has changed in Hope County since the bombs dropped.
People have died, animals have transformed, the planet and communities have only just started to recover.
From the gameplay, we got to see the world is vibrant with colour. It’s bright and the animals are exotic and new.
Think a post-apocalyptic nightmare like Fallout, but with the colour palette of Borderlands.
The emphasis of New Dawn is on rebuilding after the devastation and while playing the game you will recognise certain characters from Far Cry 5 as well as locations.
Sound like more of a mod? Well, Expeditions go some way to flesh New Dawn out.
What’s new?
Expeditions
In New Dawn, you will be able to travel via helicopter to different regions of the US to collect resources, information and liberate the inhabitants of tyrannical regimes.
As the game is very focused on co-op , these missions are best played with friends or with one of the many Guns For Hire (GFH) available throughout the game.
Guns and Vehicles
As you can imagine, there are not a lot of salvageable guns and vehicles in the wake of a nuclear apocalypse.
Hence, Far Cry: New Dawn focuses on the makeshift when it comes to your weaponry and transportation.
Take the awesome Saw blade crossbow, for example, crafted from spare parts you find in the wild.
The weapon wheel has also been developed to make accessing all of your guns and medical supplies far more simple.
The Highwaymen
As we have come to expect from Far Cry games, there is a band of villainous criminals who are out to wreak havoc for their own twisted goals.
In New Dawn, they come in the form of the Highwaymen run by two identical twin sisters who believe there are two kinds of people in the world: “Problem solvers and problem makers”
You can expect to have numerous violent run-ins with the Highwaymen as you liberate Hope County from the modern day pirates.
Pets for hire
Boomer, the beloved Alsatian from Far Cry 5, unfortunately, met his demise during the nuclear explosions.
However, two new pets for hire are replacing him, in the form of Timber – a giant Shiba dog – and Horatio a wild boar.
The best part is that Timber can ride in the sidecar of your motorcycle. ‘Atta boy.
The narrative
The story starts in typical, epic Far Cry fashion, seeing you emerge as the sole survivor of a train crash.
Rallying survivors and rebuilding communities seems to be the main objective throughout New Dawn.
In order to rebuild, the emphasis is on your new home base, which can be upgraded, added to, and expanded as more survivors join your community.
This seems to give the game more meaning as you won’t be going from camp to camp, feeling nonchalant towards the NPCs of the world.
The game seems to have been designed to be played cooperatively, however, the guns and pets for hire can step in and be controlled by AI should you have no friends.
Far Cry New Dawn comes out for PS4, Xbox One and PC on February 15.
Check out the teaser trailer below.