Far Cry New Dawn is a not so serious FPS in a post nuclear war world.
[Epic Games version] [45.36GB] [i7-8700, GTX 1060 6GB, 16GB RAM]
Story
2/5
They call it Collapse when the world was bombed and people were forced to stay hidden for 10 years.
Dialogues are somewhat funny and I don't think most of the characters should be taken seriously.
Main story is decent and side quests are fun. There are many notes to read, spanning from clues for treasure to filler stories. Most of the notes are nonsense, the same as some dialogues with side characters.
Gameplay
4/5
It's very focused on combat, searching for resources to craft and rebuilding the new home. We will slowly improve it up to 3 levels, that is better weapons, companions, fast travel, more health, vehicles, explosives and maps.
There is loot everywhere and we'll have many weapons, vehicles and upgrades to choose from. Some loot will be locked away from us until we upgrade certain perks or find certain objects, sometimes clues.
We can take on the special expeditions. These are all with the same objective and maps are big, unique and filled with loot.
We will have to find some specialists in the world to rebuild Prosperity. They all have their stories and require us to do side-mission first as a favor.
There are some perks to unlock, they mostly upgrade the existing ones and make us more resistant.
The country has a lot of fauna and flora, we can pick up a few kinds of plants and hunt almost all the animals we see, fishing is also available.
Strolling through nature is quite easy as many of the small trees and bushes will break upon impact with our vehicles and we can pass through them on foot as well.
Sadly, the animals as well as people respawn beyond a certain range of us so if we think of sniping down some of them from a distance and collecting their loot, the game will disappoint us because their corpses will disappear and new enemies will respawn close by or none at all.
Some locations with buildings and loot around will have enemies but if we die, we respawn nearby needing to loot the place again and enemies not there anymore, the exception are the outposts which require us to fight the resistance.
There is a part of the game that works surprisingly well and that are the followers which we can pick from our roster. First we have only one choice, and if our companion falls, we need to revive them, they can do the same for us, even animal companions which is neat.
Companions gain extra perks after reaching a kill threshold, they can be upgraded at home base.
People are able to drive vehicles and take a driving seat when we set up our destination, animals will either follow us on foot or sit on the passenger's seat.
Replay value
3/5
We can explore the vast world freely and pick our own arsenal, companions and ways to level up.
We can unlock everything by the end. Despite that we can mix our gameplay a bit our own way.
We can collect photographs to compare with the real in-game places, music players that are usually locked up somewhere inside.
We can capture outposts and do expeditions on 4 difficulties making the game challenging and sometimes frustrating, though it is not necessary to grind, the end game becomes tricky.
Saving system was almost automatic, I could not save whenever I wanted and even if I did, the game spawned me at the closest checkpoint, sometimes wasted on repeating the same thing over and over without any progress being saved or even loot to be considered looted.
The game runs through Ubisoft launcher and can run in online co-op but I did not try it.
Graphics
3.5/5
It's impressive but the big open world is not realistic as it seems, there is too much of a pink and blue color. Enemy outposts and encounters grow out of thin air just behind us.
We will see enemies silhouettes through the walls when they are tagged. It's handy when sneaking around.
Animations of climbing, jumping, sliding are nice. We get to explore water, earth and the air. The world looks pretty spacious and desolate. Not the most beautiful sceneries, however nice faces and color differentiated enemies with more protection as they get a higher level.
Music
3/5
Voiceovers are pretty good but the music is not to my taste, and it is very loud around enemies and even my own car. Moreover, I can't adjust the volume of voices and music separately, so it's either a bit silent or I keep changing the volume depending on where I am.
Difficulty
Normal. There are four tiers of enemies so it can be pretty hard if you pick the wrong fight but normally it's pretty balanced. Especially, I like that both us and enemies can kill each other with a few shots, dying easily to explosions, strong weapons and vehicles.
Hardware requirements
Mid gaming. It mostly runs smoothly.
Similar games
It's obviously similar to Far Cry 5 but also to Just Cause 3. Even the story is comparatively ridiculous.
How long to beat
36 hours. I spent a lot of time recapturing outposts and fighting outside of the main story.
Beat on 3rd January - version 1.0.5.
Verdict
6/10
It has a laughable story with some decent spins, annoying and loud music, the same colors that are overused. The core elements are fun though, so there were more moments of laughter than of seriousness.