Game completed: Far Cry New Dawn

Immediately after I was done with Far Cry 5 I picked up Far Cry New Dawn. And the reason I picked up Far Cry 5 last month was because I really wanted to play Far Cry New Dawn xD It all comes back around :D I felt like I had to play Far Cry 5 first because they both take place in the same area. New Dawn is just 17 years later.

I enjoyed New Dawn a lot more than Far Cry 5 and I think it was due to New Dawn being more of a survival RPG than pure FPS. I'll always be an RPG girl at heart. New Dawn still had the mechanic of taking over outposts and the option to redo them afterwards at a harder difficulty. In earlier Far Cry I have mostly ignored that option because there is no real point to it, but in New Dawn there was most definitely a point. Retake the outposts to gain more ethanol so you can upgrade your base - yes, please. With an upgraded base comes upgrade weapons, more health, better medpacks, more info on the map etc etc. Doing the work to upgrade the base made the game better. I also really enjoyed going on expeditions. Small missions to far away places all over the (former) US to collect rare mats. It was great!

The story centers around some of the previous inhabitants of Hope County who emerge after fives years living in their bunkers to a world they barely recognise. They start rebuilding but all of that is ruined when the Highwaymen come along taking over everything. They are led by the twins Mickey and Lou. The settlement of survivors is called Prosperity and they seek help from outside, from a man who has helped settlements all over the country. The train is intercepted by the Highwaymen on the way to Prosperity and from there our adventure starts. The twins and the Highwaymen have the upper hand for the first part of the story, and the survivors are eventually forced to seek help from the New Edeners. Basically the surviving Peggies and Joseph from Far Cry 5. The Peggies now live in a kind of stone age settlement, but they have a drug that makes them kind of superhuman (leftovers from the Bliss).

The most haunting moment in the game for me was when I found Dutch's Bunker, where Rook and Joseph took shelter during the fallout in the end of Far Cry 5. Reading the notes inside the bunker I realised that the companion you get from joining the Peggies, called The Judge, actually is Rook (the player character from Far Cry 5). The Judge doesn't speak, just like Rook, and from the notes you realise that Rook was overcome with guilt, blaming themselves for the nuclear fallout, and eventually starts to believe in Joseph as a prophet and following his word. And I was so sad discovering this!

Towards the end there are several life and death choices you get to make. First regarding the twins and then regarding Joseph. I entered New Dawn ready to kill Joseph for what he did in Far Cry 5. I finished New Dawn feeling sorry for him, and decided to let him live even though he literally begged me on his knees to kill him.

The most common criticism I've seen towards New Dawn is complaints that it's too much RPG and not enough FPS. That's something I actually like about this game, so no complaints from me! I really enjoyed New Dawn, but Primal still remains my favourite! And New Dawn was probably the most visually stunning of the Far Cry games and definitely the most colourful!