Far Cry New Dawn Xbox One X Review

Far Cry New Dawn serves as an excellent sequel to Far Cry 5, providing much of the same experience with new characters within a mutated environment. Much of the title focuses on optional objectives and building on the story of the previous game, with a set of great brand new antagonists. Far Cry New Dawn captures everything that made the previous game such a hit while ending the story on a high note.

Far Cry New Dawn takes place 17 years after the events of the previous game, with the world decimated by the nuclear holocaust known as the Cataclysm. Without humans, certain parts of the world recovered faster than normal, with a specific section of Hope County teeming with flora and animal life but surrounded by nuclear radiation; like a Garden of Eden. The remaining people are trying to survive in this new world which leads to the events of Far Cry New Dawn. 

You take control of a mute protagonist once again without any ties to the original game. Heading into Hope County to help those in the area you find yourself in the middle of a war against the Highwaymen, led by the violent twins Mickey and Lou. These 2 only care about power, taking whatever resources they find and either recruiting, enslaving, or killing those who resist. Hence begins your journey to protect the people who sent for you and eliminate Mickey and Lou.

Like other Far Cry games, the antagonists are the ones who steal the show here. The main protagonist serves as your traditional hero that can do anything but Mickey and Lou are the stars. The twins are violent and resourceful, showcasing they only care about themselves and power. Throughout the adventure, you get to see how far these 2 are willing to go to maintain control.

Far Cry New Dawn plays much of the same as Far Cry 5, with players taking on objectives and the story separated into a series of chapters. Your job is to build up your home base of Prosperity with resources and Specialists, some are new characters to the universe and others are familiar faces. To gain their favor you must either rescue or perform specific actions to gain their support. Once done you bring one of the specialists along with you and upgrade them further by killing enemies. Each one of the 8 Specialists brings their own unique talents such as Timber the dog's ability to locate items and Ana the Sniper capable of taking out targets long distances. The buddy system was always a popular addition in the Far Cry games and New Dawn is no exception.

Like your specialists, your home base and the main character can be upgraded by specific means. The base requires Ethanol to upgrade specific parts of the base to increase your own health, Specialist's health, or access to more powerful equipment. Ethanol is earned by taking over bases and stealing them from the Highwaymen. If you need more of the precious chemical you can Scavenge the base, which allows you to take it again but with more challenging enemies.

Similar to Far Cry 5 players earn perk points by finding hidden treasure and completing challenges that can be used to upgrade your character with better statistics. There's no experience system here, requiring the player to constantly switch up their playstyle to earn new perks and hunt down treasure locations. The map is big and teeming with activities to take part in such as hunting and rescuing people. If you invest time in the world you'll be able to max out your base and character upgrades easily.

Much of the game focuses on gathering resources, either to build weapons or craft on the fly. This means looting everything you can and going on specialized missions called Expeditions to steal resources. There's a premium currency system that allows the player to unlock powerful weapons, allowing those with extra money to purchase "Elite" weapons right from the start. You can earn premium currency through 1-time means such as treasure hunts but we found having one "Elite" weapon meant that most of the enemies went from challenging opponents to target practice.

The world of Hope County is beautiful. It captures that combination of mutated yet similar to the old world. Unlike other post-apocalyptic titles, New Dawn's world uses a combination of familiar and new landscapes and animals. The flora looks ordinary till you see the splashes to pink and the animals, while familiar, have been altered with different color schemes. It would've been prudent for Ubisoft to include unique aspects to these creatures but most of them react the same as their non-mutated versions.

The soundtrack is also incredible. Using a combination of intense themes that keep you engaged in battle. It sounds very similar to the multiplayer modes found in Far Cry 5's  multiplayer mode, which works in this setting.

Far Cry New Dawn serves as an excellent sequel and conclusion to the story started by Far Cry 5. Those who played through Joseph Seed's tale will find a lot more to appreciate here than those who didn't but will encourage those who haven't to play Far Cry 5. 

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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