The familiar brown, blighted wastelands of the apocalypse have graced far too many video games over the years – and it looks as though someone at Ubisoft said "enough".
New Dawn returns players to Hope County, Montana 17 years after one of Far Cry 5's endings – where, spoiler: stuff goes boom on a global scale – but delivers a stunning rush of colour and life rather than yet another bleak hell. It turns out, with the few human survivors sheltering underground for a couple of decades, nature reclaims the surface with few of the ill-effects pop culture has primed us to expect. That means no mutants or radioactive monsters, but a lot of aggressive wildlife that's become used to humanity being knocked down a few pegs.
That's not to say New Dawn is the first Far Cry farming sim or anything similarly sedate – as society starts to rebuild, it comes under near-immediate threat from the marauding Highwaymen, lead by brutal twins Mickey and Lou. Enter you: blank slate hero skilled in weapons, crafting, and all sorts of carnage suited to an open-world environment.
Thankfully, New Dawn is more than just Far Cry 5 with a lick of paint. While it's very much a spin-off-slash-sequel, it packs in enough new tricks to warrant its standalone release. There's more of a survivalist streak here, for one. The home base, Prosperity, needs to be fortified and upgraded to better stave off Highwaymen attacks, and the variety of weapons and items you can craft is far more versatile and inventive than in its predecessor. That means a touch more foraging in the wilds, but the balance is just right – picking up ingredients or salvage is always something you can do while pursuing a mission, rarely necessitating wandering just for some herbs. Best of all, the world feels more alive. The Highwaymen feel like credible threats, capable of setting traps or intimidating you with swarming tactics. The whole world feels like it's keeping you on your feet.
New Dawn is more than just Far Cry 5 with a lick of paint.
There are two fairly major new features, too. One is outpost escalation, where bases you've taken back from Highwaymen can be re-attempted at higher difficulty levels, earning better rewards. They'll usually require different tactical approaches each time too, with overwhelming numbers of increasingly dangerous foes often putting the emphasis on stealth. It adds a nice bit of varied replayability, rather than the same experience, only harder.
Then there are Expeditions, strike missions taking you away from Hope County to specific, confined locations. While these are essentially dungeon raids, usually offering rare loot or weapons for use back in the main game, they also serve a small bit of world-building, offering snapshots of how other regions are recovering – or not – from the downfall of society.
While the new mechanics and evolved setting make New Dawn welcoming to newcomers, it will still likely be best enjoyed by anyone returning from the previous game. There are familiar locations to re-discover, a handful of surviving characters to reacquaint yourself with, and story developments that will have far more gravitas – or just make more sense – if you know what came before.
Matters are slightly let down by repetitive elements, especially with Expeditions, which lack variety. The staple Far Cry approach of focusing on dynamic villains is also beginning to feel a little predictable, with Mickey and Lou not making quite as strong an impression as Far Cry 5's cultist villains, but for both its fresh take on the end of the world and for refreshing some of the franchise's more established gameplay elements, New Dawn is a bright light.