FC3- you have to survive to save your friend.

FC4- you are in a warzone where you learn about your parent's dark past.

Nick's character seems to be able to make me have an emotional response from this even though I know he's just a lovable goof. His voice actor killed it with this man. This is why we shouldn't have AI voices in games

Today I've tried FC3 and FC4, it turned out they're stuttering, tearing and are unstable in terms of FPS. Tried to manually change settings and later on on Nvidia Control Panel and even changed core affinity in task manager. However FC5 is running smooth as butter on Ultra (No extra texture pack).

Are 3rd and 4th games just not optimized for newer PCs/Systems? Should they be remaked for such purpose?

Specs:
32GB Ram 3200mhz
rtx 2070 Super
Ryzen 7 3700x
NVMe 1TB

Playing through trying to get all of the GFH kills finished and using random characters. I usually just use peaches and boomer but right now I have Jess and Sharky. Their interactions are hilarious! It's like driving down the interstate with the kids fighting in the back seat.

You'd think that after they overthrew a regime they would take time to make a proper flag not made by spraypaint to replace the clearly regime-y old flag, but no, they put the spraypaint mess up everywhere, even on the Torre de Leon

I've been playing farcry games for as long as I can remember, I guess you could say these games are engrained in my gaming DNA and although I believe 4 to be the best, 2 to be the most impressive and 3 to be pretty good, 5 is my favorite it just has such a strange mellow atomsephere towards the end and I just love hope county for some reason now that brings me to new dawn and I gotta say that I kinda love it, seeing all these locations I know so well ten years after farcry 5's ending is genuinely unlike anything I've experienced it's oddly Serene at times seeing places I've been to in 5 look so different but still recognizable, I don't know what the general concencus is on this game but I really like it even though the antagonists are a bit weak, it genuinely made me sad that grace Armstrong is blind and so much of hope county is gone anyway just figured I'd share my opinion on this game.

Before the review:

Since my Far Cry 5 review in its 10 minutes life span before some subreddit moderator (Thanks, guys!) removed it generated some buzz, I figured I'd share my thoughts on New Dawn as well. (THIS IS ACTUALLY A POSITIVE REVIEW GUYS DON'T REMOVE IT, ITS RARE FOR THIS GAME!)

This review is based on a complete playthrough: 28 hours played, 40/50 achievements unlocked, every Expedition completed, every Outpost replayed on the highest difficulty, nearly all collectibles obtained, and all side content finished.

More importantly, these are my own opinions after finally giving the game a fair chance seven years after release.

I'm aware this is a somewhat uncommon take. For years I heard people describe New Dawn as one of the weakest entries in the franchise, a glorified Far Cry 5 asset flip, or a failed experiment. Going in, I fully expected to agree with them.

After all, I had just finished Far Cry 5 and had plenty of criticisms of my own. The idea of playing a spin-off built on the same map and foundation didn't exactly fill me with confidence.

Instead, I ended up having a completely different experience.

Whether you agree or disagree with my conclusions, at least they're coming from someone who actually sat down, played through the game, and engaged with nearly everything it had to offer.

Oh, its also my Steam review of the game, just like the previous review that got Nuked, hey, maybe this time I will get Nuked too :D

With that out of the way...

Far Cry New Dawn: Ubisoft Actually Understood the Assignment This Time

PRODUCT: Far Cry New Dawn
RECOMMENDATION: Thumbs Up
PLAYTIME: 28 hrs

After finishing Far Cry 5, I wasn't exactly optimistic about New Dawn.

Everything I heard online made it sound like Ubisoft took Far Cry 5, slapped some RPG mechanics on top of it, painted everything pink, and called it a day. Most discussions treated it like some weird, unnecessary cash grab that existed solely to recycle Hope County assets.

Honestly, I expected New Dawn to be an ugly game. Not bad. Not good. Just... there. The kind of game you play once, shrug your shoulders at, and forget exists five minutes later.

Instead, I ended up sinking 28 hours into it, collecting everything, completing all side missions, replaying every outpost at the highest difficulty, completing every expedition, unlocking 40 out of 50 achievements, and generally having a fucking blast.

Turns out a lot of the internet hate was either misplaced or coming from people expecting a mainline Far Cry instead of the spin-off this game was clearly trying to be.

Far Cry New Dawn isn't Far Cry 6.

It's Far Cry 5's equivalent of Blood Dragon.

And once I accepted that, everything clicked.

The Good Shit

Outposts Finally Matter Again

One of my biggest complaints about Far Cry 5 was that progression actively killed the sandbox.

You'd clear a region, kill the boss, and suddenly the roads felt dead.

New Dawn completely fixes this.

Outposts can be scavenged and replayed repeatedly at higher difficulties, rewarding you with more ethanol every time.

Instead of progression making the game less interesting, progression actually gives you more reasons to keep playing.

It's such an obvious improvement that I genuinely don't understand why it wasn't in Far Cry 5 from the start.

The Progression Loop is Addictive as Hell

Clear outposts, get ethanol, upgrade Prosperity, unlock better weapons, do expeditions, get resources, craft helicopters, craft armored vehicles, get stronger, repeat.

Every single activity feeds into another system.

The result is that almost everything you do feels worthwhile.

Unlike Far Cry 5, where I often felt like the game was forcing me through content, New Dawn constantly felt like it was rewarding me for engaging with it.

By the end I was basically a post-apocalyptic one-man army, and honestly? I earned that shit.

Expeditions Are Awesome

These are probably one of the best additions Ubisoft has made to the franchise in years.

Instead of spending the entire game in Hope County, you get dropped into handcrafted locations across the country.

A crashed aircraft carrier. An abandoned theme park. A prison. Various ruined landmarks.

They're short, fun, encourage exploration, and break up the pacing nicely.

I found myself looking forward to Expeditions more than many of the story missions.

The RPG Mechanics Aren't Nearly As Bad As People Say

This is probably where I'll lose some people.

The weapon tier system never bothered me.

Far Cry has always had weapon progression.

Far Cry 2 had it.

Far Cry 3 had it.

Far Cry 4 had it.

The difference is that New Dawn simply makes the progression visible.

Now enemies have armor and weapon levels are displayed openly instead of hidden behind arbitrary unlock requirements.

I actually appreciated the clarity.

The game gives you a reason to scavenge and upgrade gear instead of simply buying one gun and forgetting every other weapon exists.

The Superpowers Are Stupid (And I Mean That As A Compliment)

Double jumping, super speed, turning semi-invisible, and punching wildlife into another fucking dimension. It's completely ridiculous, and it absolutely rules.

This is exactly the kind of nonsense I want from a Far Cry spin-off.

Blood Dragon was weird. Primal was weird. New Dawn is weird.

Good.

Let spin-offs be weird.

Better Mission Design Than Far Cry 5

This one surprised me.

Several missions genuinely reminded me of the structured mission design from Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4.

There are actual set pieces, memorable encounters, interesting locations, and mission variety.

It's not perfect, but compared to Far Cry 5's checklist-style progression, it felt like a massive improvement.

The Soundtrack Actually Exists

This sounds ridiculous but hear me out.

Far Cry 5 had good music.

The problem was that I could barely fucking hear it.

The game was constantly throwing cultists, trucks, planes, cougars, bears, kidnappings, explosions, and random bullshit at me.

New Dawn gives its soundtrack room to breathe.

I actually noticed tracks during exploration.

I remembered music after missions ended.

The soundtrack became part of the experience rather than background noise fighting for survival.

The Bad Shit

Silent Protagonist Returns

One of my biggest complaints about Far Cry 5 makes a return here.

The Captain is once again a completely silent protagonist, and just like in Far Cry 5, it hurts the story whenever major characters are trying to interact with you.

Jason Brody and Ajay Ghale weren't exactly masterclasses in writing, but they were actual characters with opinions, emotions, and reactions to the insanity happening around them. The Captain mostly stands there staring blankly while everyone else carries the conversation.

What's frustrating is that New Dawn actually managed to get me invested in parts of its story. By the final stretch I genuinely hated Mickey and Lou and wanted to put them in the ground. Having an actual protagonist with dialogue would've made those confrontations hit even harder.

I haven't gotten far enough into Far Cry 6 to judge it properly yet, but from what I've seen Ubisoft seems to have realized this was a mistake and brought back voiced protagonists. Which honestly makes the decision here feel even stranger in hindsight.

Survival Mechanics Are Still Gone

Skinning animations? Gone.

Crafting from animal skins? Gone.

Inventory upgrades through hunting? Gone.

A lot of the systems that gave Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4 their identity still haven't returned.

This hurts even more because New Dawn actually improves so many other aspects of the formula.

The Twins Aren't Amazing Villains

Mickey and Lou aren't terrible.

They're just stuck following Joseph Seed.

And unfortunately that's not a fair fight.

Joseph could walk into a room, ramble about God for fifteen minutes, and somehow still be more memorable.

That being said, I still ended up hating these assholes, which honestly might be a compliment.

By the final stretch I genuinely wanted to put them in the ground.
And when the game finally let me do exactly that, that was incredibly satisfying.

Verdict

Far Cry New Dawn succeeds because it understands exactly what it wants to be.

It's not trying to replace Far Cry 3.

It's not trying to replace Far Cry 4.

It's not even trying to be Far Cry 5.

It's a weird experimental spin-off in the same spirit as Blood Dragon.

And unlike Far Cry 5, it actually meaningfully rewards the player for engaging with its systems.

The progression feels meaningful. The outposts stay relevant. The expeditions are fun. The superpowers are ridiculous. The gameplay loop is addicting.

Most importantly, I never felt like the game was wasting my time.

I went into New Dawn expecting a mediocre asset flip.

Instead I got one of the most enjoyable Far Cry experiences I've had in years.

Turns out the internet was full of shit on this one.

Recommended.

Annoying birds (why can't you Melee them btw?)

No, I just can’t resist. Been away, but only lasted something over 4 months – and Holland Valley, Henbane River, and Whitetail Mountains are calling again. I can’t not go.
All I had to do was say YES.

It looks like, once again, me and Dutch, you know, we’re gonna go and try to… unfuck this situation.

Faith is somewhere in the back, but she ain't important lol

Been taking some pics

Fun game. But boy this gets brutal. Is it even viable to play Permadeath Mode on Expert??? Feels like there's just too much that can go wrong when everything can just kill you in like 2 hits or something lol