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!

Game completed: Far Cry 5

I love the Far Cry series. I absolutely do. But I can see where all the critique about FC5 is coming from. 

Far Cry 5 is absolutely gorgeous and the story was interesting and at least Joseph's part was somewhat realistic (which is pretty scary). But a zealot religious Christian cult taking over a community in the US? Yes, seems pretty plausible. I was originally against the idea of having a Far Cry set in the US, mainly because it was too familiar. Other Far Cry games have always been exotic and taken place far away on some forgotten island or isolated region. Far Cry 5 was smash-bang in the middle of familiar territory and it seemed odd, and not in a good way. 

But having it in Montana was actually pretty nice - there were no alligators in the waters for once! On the downside I have no idea how many times I died because of misjudging a jump during mountain-climbing. Montana is seriously mountainous. Or at least Hope County is. 

The first order of criticism came from the disruptive cutscenes. I didn't get this at first. I started with John's region, to the southwest. He kidnapped me twice (before the final showdown) and always made it obvious that he allowed me to escape. Because he enjoyed toying with me. I didn't think that were too many disruptive cutscenes. Then I moved on to Faith's region, and her cutscenes were literally not disruptive as you actually had to interact with her apparition to see the story sequence. But then I got to Jacob's region, and then I understood. Holy hell, can you just let me do one thing?! Would you please let me finish this... oh, no, alright, I'm back in a cage, so how am I getting away this time?. Jacob's whole brainwashing thing was creepy af and ultimately heartbreaking. While I in the end felt sorry for Faith, and while John was just a nuisance needing to be dealt with (like a bug), I actually enjoyed dealing with Jacob and finishing him off. He was a creepy psychotic bastard. So yes, I can understand this criticism. But unless you start with Jacob's region, it isn't all that noticeable until the end and when Jacob's cutscenes keep interrupting your game you've played it for so long that you might as well stick it out. 

The second order of criticism came from the fact that Rook, the protagonist, had no voice. This made me laugh so hard because I just drew parallells. Dragon Age fans who complain that BioWare won't go back to the Origins model of having a mute protagonist because they like roleplaying. Same goes for Fallout fans who were outraged by the fact that the protag in 4 had a voice. But Far Cry has always had a voiced protag and now, when it doesn't people are outraged about that? I'm aware both DA and FO are RPGs and FC is a FPS (with RPG elements, though!) so they probably have very different player bases, but still it's hilarious. Devs seem stuck in a Catch-22, nothing they do is right in the eyes of the players. There was a nice little Easter egg referencing this point. Personally I like voices in any game that isn't entirely text based. It feels so odd to have other characters talking but your own can't/won't. I would've preferred a voiced Rook tbh (but I also would've liked a voiced Warden). 

Far Cry 5 changed a few things in the old formula that has been around since Far Cry 3. For example there are no more hunting quests and you don't need to gather animal skins to be able to upgrade your inventory. Just do more things and get more perks! And amazingly your wallet can't get full anymore! Hallelujah! However, Far Cry 5 added an element that I just thoroughly dislike in any game - fishing. It's just so boring. And frustrating. 

I did every side mission in the game except for the Clutch Nixon ones. I was so relieved to discover that there were no races in Far Cry 5 (because I suck), but then I happened upon Clutch Nixon, which are daredevil hardcore race things. And after failing about 12 times at the exact same spot on the very first one I happened upon I decided to just not do them. 

The final showdown against Joseph was such a cool fight, and honestly, the adrenaline in the car fleeing from the nuclear fallout was such a high.

Rollspel: Mutant År Noll - del 8

Jonys hund drar iväg till Arkens ingång och när RP öppnar så ser de en ung kvinna ligga på marken. Hennes rygg och nacke är täckta av växtlighet. Danko närmar sig och hon vaknar till och säger "Rör mig inte". Index frågar varför och hon säger "Jag vet inte ifall Grönskan kommer påverka er också". Index frågar vad hon gör här och hon säger att hon var utsänd av Grönskan för att Grönskan vill sprida sig. Men när hon kommit så här långt så kunde Grönskan inte nå henne längre. RP frågar vad Grönskan är. Kvinnan vet inte hur det började bara att Grönskan bor i botten därifrån hon kommer och de som bor med Grönskan kallas Underlevande. Blommorna är en infektion av Grönskan. Det är så det börjar med Grönskans hivemind.

Kvark förstår sig på och inser att de kan försöka skära eller bränna bort blommorna men rötterna kommer sitta kvar. Det enda sättet verkar vara att "rensa ogräs" - dra bort med rötterna. Danko tar på sig skyddsdräkt och gasmask och börjar rycka. Hon skriker och Index ger henne smärtstillande. Jony ger henne vatten. Danko rycker tills allt är borta och Index tar hand om henne. Kvark frågar om hon är smittfri och hon säger ja. Danko bär in henne i Arken. Index frågar hur Grönskan smittar, hur det börjar. Hon vet inte. Hon vet bara att där hon bor så var det alltid väldigt mycket växtlighet. Men på senare år började den ta över folk. När hon sansat sig ber Danko henne att visa dem varifrån hon kommer på kartan. Efter en längre diskussion bestämmer sig RP för att åka dit. De sätter sig i sin bepansrade buss och åker.

När de kommer dit hoppar Jony upp på taket (mutation: grodben) och de andra går runt ett hörn och hittar en bevakad ingång. Jony träffar klan Marak på taket och de andra träffar klan Ohori. Båda sidorna förklarar vad som hänt vid Arken och båda klanerna går med på att skapa en expedition tillsammans med RP och den tredje klanen.

De går ner tillsammans. När de är på fjärde våningen faller en från Ohori genom golvet och dör. De fortsätter ner i grönskan. När de kommer ner ser de Underlevande som verkar vara på stand-by. De reagerar inte när RP närmar sig. De går framåt och en pil kommer farande och träffar Danko. Index känner zonen och märker att det finns fler Underlevande men de syns inte. Kvark förstår sig på pilen och den är definitivt manmade. De fortsätter framåt och en pil till kommer farande mot Jony som hoppar undan. Längre fram tänds ljus och Kvark förstår att det är ett flackande ljus som tyder på facklor. Danko smyger sig fram och ser en glänta med fem facklor i en cirkel. Det är ingen där. Jony skickar iväg sin hund som pekar ut trädet som pilarna kommer ifrån. En varelse hoppar ur trädet. Hon har en gång varit mänsklig men nu är hon naken och hela kroppen är täckt av en ljusgrön mossa som liknar päls. Danko skjuter och hon släpper ut ett moln av sporer och försvinner. Jony skickar iväg hunden igen. Varelsen kommer farande mot Index men missar henne. Index hugger och träffar, kvark skjuter och hon faller ihop. Danko tar pilen hon skjutit och kör in den genom ögat på henne. RP lootar och åker tillbaka till Arken.

(Det här var en himla fummelrunda för mig. Grönskan var skapad som en supervillain med flera mutationer,vapen, HP och en massa mutationspoäng. Problemet blev ju då att jag fumlade vartenda slag jag slog så RP besegrade henne på två röda -.-')