- Joined
- Nov 19, 2011
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- Reaction score
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In 2013 I played Far Cry 3 and really enjoyed it.
I didn't play Far Cry 4 because I heard it was a half-sequel, not making the necessary advancements in gameplay to justify calling it a full sequel.
Two weeks ago, I bought Far Cry 5 & New Dawn (its sequel/expansion) for the SeriesX after hearing its been optimized for modern consoles and runs at 4K/60FPS.
It was on sale for $20 during the Black Friday sale. I imagine it will be on sale again for Christmas for those who are interested.
I played Far Cry 5.
Then New Dawn.
And finally Far Cry 5 on New Game Plus mode on the 'Very Hard' difficulty exclusive to that mode.
Graphics & Open World
*Montana is beautiful. The wilderness is vast and the environments are not as monotone as I previously heard. The fields, forests, mountains, lakes & rivers are a joy to explore and I found myself relaxingly strolling from one location to another than constantly fast-traveling. Haven't done that since Skyrim.
*The 60FPS is consistent with no slowdown. The drawdistance is as far as 300 meters, or that's where I saw NPC vehicles appear. Unfortunately screentearing is quite common with turning quickly.
*The cutscenes with the Seed family (the antagonists) are almost current-gen worthy.
*The activities like fishing & hunting are... quite lackluster and what I would have expected from a game from two generations ago. Very reminiscent of Far Cry 3.
*In New Dawn the post-nuke world, set 17 years later, is a unique experience to discover the same locations but partially destroyed... and covered in purple flowers that practically cover everything. I much prefer this asthetic to Fallout.
Gamefeel -
The 'feel' of the game is quite concise with the accuracy of firearms with the controller being very CoD-like. That's a good thing.
I was easily pulling off headshots with sniper & assault rifles.
The movement is standard First-Person-Shooter. Nothing unique with no aspects exceeding expectations.
The menus for switching weapons/ammo or throwable items (grenades/molotives) quickly is creative and appreciative in high-pressure situations.
*In New Dawn there's almost an RPG-damage system, somewhat like Borderlands, but aside from the mechanics of your weapons being ranked 1-4 with the enemies having the same rankings (your weapons do little damage to enemies with higher ranks) there's little difference to FC5 other than asthetically. I can see why this wasn't carried over to FC6.
*I absolutely adored the bulletdrop. So many open world games ignore the reality that bullets drop quite significantly when fired over long distances, and with it in FC5&ND it gives you the most satisfying feeling from nailing a headshot from over 100 meters.
Gameplay/Missions -
*Taking over outposts is the highpoint of the experience in FC5 and while there's around 24 I feel like there should absolutely have been more. You're only able to do each only 1 time, and they only takes a few minutes at most... if you go in guns blazing.
*The stealthy sniper approach has always been my preferred method for taking over outposts. Finding the alarms and disabling them, and then silently taking out the enemies from afar with a supressed sniper rifle. Unlike FC3 enemies don't mysteriously know your position upon realizing some of their friends are dead, so those mechanics have been improved at least.
*In New Dawn outposts can be taken over 4 different times, and the awards for each grow with the difficulty. At first there may be one alarm and a few enemies.... then the alarms increase in number, as do the enemies, and the toughness of the enemies. Hands-down this is the best new addition to the New Dawn expansion.
*Besides the outposts.... the missions of both FC5 & ND are pretty basic. Nothing particularly interesting or revolutionary.
*In FC5, with the opening mission & 1 story mission there's on-rails sections that you're shooting from a vehicle with someone else driving... and it pure fucking luck if you get through it or die a dozen times. Fucking agrovating and so much worse on 'Very Hard' difficulty. Wasted 45 minutes on each one.
*in FC5, I very much enjoyed the companions and being able to have two throughout the game, with the exception of story missions. They saved my ass when things got dicey. Unfortunately you're only allowed one companion on New Dawn.
Story/Characters/Companions -
*I heard there was a lack of appreciation for FC5's narrative amongst the fanbase, and while it certainly has many issues I found it very imaginative. Unfortunately every FC antagonist is always going to be compared to Vas... who should be considered a Top10 video game antagonist of all time... but I found Joseph & the Seed family interesting antagonists in their own rights and not in Vas's shadow.
The performances of all four were quite great without a weak link.
*How you were constantly transquilized and abducted for story missions in each of the 3 regions, was... weak. But I guess it was required for the story to progress the way the developers wanted.
*Faith was particularly erie... seeing her constantly throughout your travels in the 3rd region was... unsettling. Made you question your own perspective being under the influence of Bliss. And at the end you question if you ever saw her at all.
*The other protagonists, who you started the game with and were rescuing throughout the story... I didn't particularly care for them with the exception of Joey Hundson - the female deputy you rescue from John Seed in the game's 1st section.
*The companions... you can pick up 9 but only 5 are worth anything.
Boomer - Great Hunting dog that spots animal & spots enemies when you have him scout outposts.
Peaches - Who the hell wouldn't want a stealthy mountain lion?
Cheeseburger - A tank of a bear that absorbs alot of damage & takes out tough enemies easily.
Jess Black - A female archer that can stealthily take out enemies.
Grace Armstrong - a female ex-soldier that can take out enemies from pretty long distances.
I grew far far more attached to these companions than any of the other characters.
*The one companion I basically played New Dawn with was Horatio, the battle warthog, who was like an improved version of Cheeseburger.
*Very few characters go from FC5 to New Dawn.
Yeah, it takes place 17 years later in the same area after nuclear bombs go off, but I was hoping there's be far more characters you'd meet up with again when there's only a few, and they're not very satisfying.
*Overall, I wish the protagonist & companion characters were at least somewhat as interesting as the antagonists, the Seed family, but no attempt was made.
*Same thing as ND regarding protagonist & companion characters, but the antagonists were so fucking lame. 'The twins' had so much potential... but they're cookie-cutter sadists. Nothing more.
Difficulty -
*I played through FC5 on Hard and with 2 companions it wasn't difficult except for the story missions that you don't have companions.
*In ND, if you level up your weapons to Rank 4, it becomes very easy, especially if you dedicate resources to increase the stats indefinitely everything becomes a complete joke.
*On FC5's 'Very Hard' mode it just becomes more tedious on the story missions. It basically is a trial-&-error until it 'lets' you proceed.
*In both games don't bother dedicating any upgrade points into health upgrades. They claim to give you 100%, 200%, 250%, & 300% more health, but I'm calling bullshit. They're lying to you.
Games Length -
Farcry 5 was 30-ish hours.
New Dawn was 20-ish hours.
FarCry 5 New Game Plus was 15-ish hours.
On New Game Plus I already had my weapons, money, and upgrades from the my first playthough so I didn't need to do any exploring, hunting, or needless tasks... but with the 'Very Hard' difficulty it only takes a few hits for you to die, so those story missions were extremely tedious.
Also, the Jacob Seed boss fight with no medkits took me 2 hours of the total 15 hours.
Final Score/Verdict
I'd give this FC5/ND bundle a 7/10.
Very much worth the money ($20) for the amount of content and hours played, but there's many aspects of both games that needed alot of refining. Glad I played through them but I already uninstalled them from my SeriesX to free up more storage.
I didn't play Far Cry 4 because I heard it was a half-sequel, not making the necessary advancements in gameplay to justify calling it a full sequel.
Two weeks ago, I bought Far Cry 5 & New Dawn (its sequel/expansion) for the SeriesX after hearing its been optimized for modern consoles and runs at 4K/60FPS.
It was on sale for $20 during the Black Friday sale. I imagine it will be on sale again for Christmas for those who are interested.
I played Far Cry 5.
Then New Dawn.
And finally Far Cry 5 on New Game Plus mode on the 'Very Hard' difficulty exclusive to that mode.
Graphics & Open World
*Montana is beautiful. The wilderness is vast and the environments are not as monotone as I previously heard. The fields, forests, mountains, lakes & rivers are a joy to explore and I found myself relaxingly strolling from one location to another than constantly fast-traveling. Haven't done that since Skyrim.
*The 60FPS is consistent with no slowdown. The drawdistance is as far as 300 meters, or that's where I saw NPC vehicles appear. Unfortunately screentearing is quite common with turning quickly.
*The cutscenes with the Seed family (the antagonists) are almost current-gen worthy.
*The activities like fishing & hunting are... quite lackluster and what I would have expected from a game from two generations ago. Very reminiscent of Far Cry 3.
*In New Dawn the post-nuke world, set 17 years later, is a unique experience to discover the same locations but partially destroyed... and covered in purple flowers that practically cover everything. I much prefer this asthetic to Fallout.
Gamefeel -
The 'feel' of the game is quite concise with the accuracy of firearms with the controller being very CoD-like. That's a good thing.
I was easily pulling off headshots with sniper & assault rifles.
The movement is standard First-Person-Shooter. Nothing unique with no aspects exceeding expectations.
The menus for switching weapons/ammo or throwable items (grenades/molotives) quickly is creative and appreciative in high-pressure situations.
*In New Dawn there's almost an RPG-damage system, somewhat like Borderlands, but aside from the mechanics of your weapons being ranked 1-4 with the enemies having the same rankings (your weapons do little damage to enemies with higher ranks) there's little difference to FC5 other than asthetically. I can see why this wasn't carried over to FC6.
*I absolutely adored the bulletdrop. So many open world games ignore the reality that bullets drop quite significantly when fired over long distances, and with it in FC5&ND it gives you the most satisfying feeling from nailing a headshot from over 100 meters.
Gameplay/Missions -
*Taking over outposts is the highpoint of the experience in FC5 and while there's around 24 I feel like there should absolutely have been more. You're only able to do each only 1 time, and they only takes a few minutes at most... if you go in guns blazing.
*The stealthy sniper approach has always been my preferred method for taking over outposts. Finding the alarms and disabling them, and then silently taking out the enemies from afar with a supressed sniper rifle. Unlike FC3 enemies don't mysteriously know your position upon realizing some of their friends are dead, so those mechanics have been improved at least.
*In New Dawn outposts can be taken over 4 different times, and the awards for each grow with the difficulty. At first there may be one alarm and a few enemies.... then the alarms increase in number, as do the enemies, and the toughness of the enemies. Hands-down this is the best new addition to the New Dawn expansion.
*Besides the outposts.... the missions of both FC5 & ND are pretty basic. Nothing particularly interesting or revolutionary.
*In FC5, with the opening mission & 1 story mission there's on-rails sections that you're shooting from a vehicle with someone else driving... and it pure fucking luck if you get through it or die a dozen times. Fucking agrovating and so much worse on 'Very Hard' difficulty. Wasted 45 minutes on each one.
*in FC5, I very much enjoyed the companions and being able to have two throughout the game, with the exception of story missions. They saved my ass when things got dicey. Unfortunately you're only allowed one companion on New Dawn.
Story/Characters/Companions -
*I heard there was a lack of appreciation for FC5's narrative amongst the fanbase, and while it certainly has many issues I found it very imaginative. Unfortunately every FC antagonist is always going to be compared to Vas... who should be considered a Top10 video game antagonist of all time... but I found Joseph & the Seed family interesting antagonists in their own rights and not in Vas's shadow.
The performances of all four were quite great without a weak link.
*How you were constantly transquilized and abducted for story missions in each of the 3 regions, was... weak. But I guess it was required for the story to progress the way the developers wanted.
*Faith was particularly erie... seeing her constantly throughout your travels in the 3rd region was... unsettling. Made you question your own perspective being under the influence of Bliss. And at the end you question if you ever saw her at all.
*The other protagonists, who you started the game with and were rescuing throughout the story... I didn't particularly care for them with the exception of Joey Hundson - the female deputy you rescue from John Seed in the game's 1st section.
*The companions... you can pick up 9 but only 5 are worth anything.
Boomer - Great Hunting dog that spots animal & spots enemies when you have him scout outposts.
Peaches - Who the hell wouldn't want a stealthy mountain lion?
Cheeseburger - A tank of a bear that absorbs alot of damage & takes out tough enemies easily.
Jess Black - A female archer that can stealthily take out enemies.
Grace Armstrong - a female ex-soldier that can take out enemies from pretty long distances.
I grew far far more attached to these companions than any of the other characters.
*The one companion I basically played New Dawn with was Horatio, the battle warthog, who was like an improved version of Cheeseburger.
*Very few characters go from FC5 to New Dawn.
Yeah, it takes place 17 years later in the same area after nuclear bombs go off, but I was hoping there's be far more characters you'd meet up with again when there's only a few, and they're not very satisfying.
*Overall, I wish the protagonist & companion characters were at least somewhat as interesting as the antagonists, the Seed family, but no attempt was made.
*Same thing as ND regarding protagonist & companion characters, but the antagonists were so fucking lame. 'The twins' had so much potential... but they're cookie-cutter sadists. Nothing more.
Difficulty -
*I played through FC5 on Hard and with 2 companions it wasn't difficult except for the story missions that you don't have companions.
*In ND, if you level up your weapons to Rank 4, it becomes very easy, especially if you dedicate resources to increase the stats indefinitely everything becomes a complete joke.
*On FC5's 'Very Hard' mode it just becomes more tedious on the story missions. It basically is a trial-&-error until it 'lets' you proceed.
*In both games don't bother dedicating any upgrade points into health upgrades. They claim to give you 100%, 200%, 250%, & 300% more health, but I'm calling bullshit. They're lying to you.
Games Length -
Farcry 5 was 30-ish hours.
New Dawn was 20-ish hours.
FarCry 5 New Game Plus was 15-ish hours.
On New Game Plus I already had my weapons, money, and upgrades from the my first playthough so I didn't need to do any exploring, hunting, or needless tasks... but with the 'Very Hard' difficulty it only takes a few hits for you to die, so those story missions were extremely tedious.
Also, the Jacob Seed boss fight with no medkits took me 2 hours of the total 15 hours.
Final Score/Verdict
I'd give this FC5/ND bundle a 7/10.
Very much worth the money ($20) for the amount of content and hours played, but there's many aspects of both games that needed alot of refining. Glad I played through them but I already uninstalled them from my SeriesX to free up more storage.
