Backlog Busting: Farcry New Dawn

Apocalypse Turned Everything Pink, lmfao

Relentlesly punching through your backlog can feel rewarding, that is, until you reach a Shao Kahn sized obstacle that hits you over the head with a comically sized war-mallet of side-missions and gameplay. This is the reason I'm so reluctant to buy open world games now, adding another 40+ hours to a growing backlog is never wise, but those steam sales... Here we go again.

Following the events of Farcry 5, New Dawn acts as an apocalyptic spinoff title to Ubisofts beloved series. Following the events of Farcry 5, (yeah I played it, but on ps4) the ultimate prepper fantasy materializes and justifies millions spent on surplus ammo, canned beans, and fallout proof bunkers. Seventeen years later, the world blossoms with vibrant greenery and pink flowers, streams flow with clean water, and the wildlife populate the beautiful dense forests of Hope County. But just as mankind emerges from its hibernation, so does it's propensity for conflict. War, war never changes...

Players once again begin as an outsider to Hope County. Already on the way to the troubled settlement, I find I"m playing as the Head Security Guy in Rush's band of merry men. Our initial goal is to continue our campaign of charitable kindness and turn the post-apocalyptic settlement of Prosperity from drab to fab. The do-gooder gameplan is derailed by a pink motocross gear clad highwaymen, fittingly named "The Highwaymen" toss a pink, glitter coated wrench into the proverbial gears of progress. 

Barely escaping with my life, I find Carmina Rye waiting to greet me and provide some exposition/perspective on the right buggered state of things. Here is where the experimental new game mechanics of New Dawn are introduced. Like a magpie on Ritalin, I'm somehow compelled to loot every single item I can fit in my mysteriously clean cargo pants. This mindless kleptomania provides me with all the material I need to craft my first weapon, the Saw Launcher! and use it only once before whipping out my basic-bitch handgun and decimating my first gang of Highwaymen. 

The joy of dispatching my first real group Highwaymen is quickly dampened by the 2nd big game changing mechanic unique to New Dawn: Leveling. Characters, buildings, and even the workbenches all have color coded levels of quality. Need an orange quality handgun? not so fast bucko! you need not only materials, but access to a adequately leveled workbench, only available if you've leveled up the Prosperity settlement to accommodate that fancy new workbench. How do you level up Prosperity? well, it's going to cost you some ethanol, and ethanol don't grow on trees, outlander. 

If you've played Farcry 5, you'd know the joys of outpost raiding, it's essentially the same, taking key outposts from the baddies and filling them with banjo strumming settlers. Now the funnest part of Farcry 5 is the most important part of New Dawn, taking an outpost rewards you with sweet, sweet ethanol, not to mention a load of crafting materials to use on your shiny new workbenches. Now here's a lesson in trickery; you can cede your outpost back to the highwaymen, letting it level up and increase the rewards for re-taking it. Are you writing all this down, Carmina?

Superior bonk stick

Oddly enough, The one thing that doesn't have a new leveling system is the player, there's merely a page of perks that that are unlocked in the typical Farcry fashion, though stealth takedowns are level specific, purple takedowns unlocked for purple Highwaymen, etc. It feels kinda lazy not having a "more damage from pistols, 1,2,3" perks, or "running speed, blue, gold, purple," perk. If the goal of Farcry New Dawn was to experiment with some new elements, they sure played it safe. It's not

 like you can level into a specific tree or develop a meta Character build like Diablo 3. The perk point system stays, but how come it isn't a grind-able XP points? Would it have been so hard to balance the xp rewards for story missions vs shooting random wildlife? Either way, gunplay is still on-point.

The astute reader would notice by now that I haven't mentioned the story or characters for some time, that's because I don't intend to. You should know by now, that Mr. whosit makes a return to wrap up the overarching story from the previous game, but that's far from spoiler. The Twins Mickey and Lou provide the artificially intimidating duo and cover art needed to market the game, but they're about as

interesting as the game makes them  (not very). I was treated to some cut-scenes and character monologues, but I just couldn't care less about a couple of thugs. I think the success of 80's/90's villains wasn't the backstory or ideological insight, simply the costumes and mannerisms that stuck with us for decades. Think Darth Vader, visually striking first, interesting secondly. Mickey and Luo stand out as much as any other pink backdrop in the game, imo. 

The game ends with some decent bossfights, satisfying enough conclusions, and enough closing monologues to put any insomniac asleep, seriously. I had a leading antagonist ramble on in their death throes, only to inform me they were finished and that I could unceremoniously 'off' them, nice . I'm as patient as the next guy, but its kind of presumptuous to force me to idle after a heart pounding gunfight only so that the walking bullet-sponge of a villain can make their Emmy acceptance speech. If I despise this character so much, then why would I give them a chance to recite poetry? This drove me crazy in Farcry 5 too though, maybe it's a quirk of the series. 

Quirks aside, Farcry New Dawn was a decent open world fps. The game sat in my backlog for a while, but not nearly as long as others gathering dust. I attribute this to New Dawn being an overall playable game that's shiny enough to distract a caffeine poisoned blogger with its side quests and loud noises. It's not the Mona Lisa, but it's worth the sale price. Oddly enough I find myself curious as to where Farcry 6 is going to take place, so I am somewhat invested in the series now, that's something of a rarity nowadays when it comes to new games.

Well that makes the pile a little smaller, but there's still heaps more posts to come. Until then, stay away from those mutated Bison, Comrade!