Reviews
[Review] ‘Far Cry New Dawn’ Presents a Shallow Interpretation of a Post-Apocalyptic World
In our Far Cry New Dawn review, Bloody Disgusting discovers that the New Dawn rocks, but doesn’t exactly prove to be a new day for post-apocalyptic shooters.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll play the majority of Far Cry New Dawn with Timber, the doggo, by your side.
It’s not that the rest of the roster of Guns for Hire aren’t capable. Pastor Jerome is handy with a shotgun. The Judge, a hooded assassin, is silent in stealth. And Nana, a vulgar old sharpshooter, can pop Highwaymen heads like the balloons she deploys to test your marksmanship skills. But, all of them have a habit of talking. And after any length of time, the characters in New Dawn begin to grate.
One makes a gross crack about her face looking like a scrotum. The slogan for one fledgling entrepreneur’s company is a forced reference to reacharounds. A dad’s heartfelt note to his son quickly devolves into dick jokes. While it gestures to themes of hope and survival, New Dawn just doesn’t take its characters seriously.
The most striking example occurred when I was recruiting a specialist to join my crew. This character is the kidnapped father of the Gun for Hire I happened to be tackling the mission with. When we killed off the Highwaymen who were holding him captive, he thanked me, then—with the dead eyes and wooden delivery I’ve come to expect from the lion’s share of NPCs in open world games—noticed his daughter, who he hadn’t seen in years, and said, “Carmina, what are you doing here? Go tell your mom I’ll be home soon.”
That’s it. That’s all she gets?
At the end of the mission, a cutscene showed the family’s emotional reunion back at Prosperity. Carmina and her mother run and hug him like she’s seeing him for the first time. It’s tearful, played as an attempt to tug at the player’s heartstrings. But, it didn’t work, because the real reunion, for me, at least, was that pathetic throwaway line a few minutes before.
That’s what’s great about Timber. Aside from him being a very happy, very helpful good boy, he does what’s needed in battle. He lets me pet him. He rezzes me when I’m down (and helps me understand those “Who Rescued Who?” bumper stickers). Yes, Timber is the best of Far Cry New Dawn; he’s a cute character (if crassly created to reach the dog lovers in all four demographic quadrants) who doesn’t distract from the solid mechanics on display, and I don’t have to pretend he’s anything more than that.
Honestly, the best thing I can say about Far Cry New Dawn is that those mechanics are, indeed, still solid. Unfortunately, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything new or great here. If you’ve played a few open-world games, there’s likely nothing in here that you haven’t seen done elsewhere. Not necessarily done better, just done. This is a fine game (I enjoyed the majority of the 25 hours that I spent completing the campaign and about 70 percent of the side quests), but there’s no reason to try to convince you that it’s an important one. Instead, like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider before it, Far Cry New Dawn aims to offer a shorter, polished take on the series’ previous entry.
In that respect it mostly succeeds, though I was surprised—given the story set-up—how closely New Dawn hews to Far Cry 5. Set 17 years after the conclusion of 2018’s entry, the Earth has bounced back from nuclear annihilation in a colorful “superbloom” of lush pink and primary colored flora. After the bombs dropped, the Project at Eden’s Gate—the cultist enemies from 5—retreated to a compound in the north, and do what organizations do in times of crisis: they rebrand.
For years, the renamed New Eden keep to themselves as another group of survivors— the group the player character joins up with in the game’s opening hour— are holed up in a camp called Prosperity, building a new life in the south. They coexist peacefully. And then the Highwaymen, a violent gang led by a pair of blond-dreadlocked black twin sisters, arrive, setting up outposts (as Ubisoft baddies are wont to do), and raiding New Eden and Prosperity. (The twins, Mickey and Lou, don’t have much in the way of motivation, but they do have charisma and their monologues are the best character moments in the game). With an enemy in common, New Eden and Prosperity make peace, squashing the beef that fueled the previous game’s conflict.
While the enemies are new, not much else is. In general, New Dawn mostly just offers up more of what Far Cry 5 did. As noted, Guns for Hire are back, the main players are back, and New Dawn maintains 5’s removal of towers. Instead, you’ll gain access to missions by discovering them in the world; sprinting past them or getting a tip from a journal entry or helpful survivor.
One addition is a base-building mechanic. You’ll spend the crafting materials you find out in the open-world and on Expeditions—basically, outposts meet capture the flag—on upgrades for Prosperity. In contrast to last year’s Red Dead Redemption 2, Prosperity is humorously video game-y, with in-world posters explaining progression and in-world banners labeling each station.
Most significantly, the map is the same, though some areas—like the Peggies’ church—have changed quite a bit. But, the world of Far Cry New Dawn feels far less post-apocalyptic than I had expected. The weapons look rickety—one shotgun is crafted using a boar’s snout for the end of the double-barrel—but don’t expect Far Cry 2-style mechanical jank. They work as well as their military-grade counterparts; they never rust or jam.
There’s one big addition to New Dawn’s armory: the Saw Launcher. This Mad Max-y bit of weaponry does what its name suggests, firing off circular saw blades which slice through soft bits and ricochet of hard bits making for bouncy, chaotic fun. After a while, I mostly stuck to my shotgun and silenced pistol, but the Saw Launcher is a genuinely cool addition.
Iconic Horror Houses Recreated in Far Cry 5
The conceit of the “superbloom,” makes for an unexpectedly lively map. Trees and flowers are everywhere. Lush green grass covers almost every inch of the ground. This is not your father’s post-apocalypse; it’s a bright, Horizon Zero Dawn-style take on life after the end of the world. That game, though, was set hundreds of years after the apocalypse; this one is set close enough that Far Cry 5 antagonist Joseph Seed is still rocking the same man bun. This society doesn’t seem post-apocalyptic; it seems pretty… normal, like the nukes dropping was little more than an inconvenience.
That normalness applies to the violent fauna you’ll encounter during jaunts through the wilderness, as well. It seems like a major missed opportunity that a series known for siccing wild animals on players, didn’t mix any weird mutants into the mix. Buffalo, wolverines, wolves, pronghorns, deer; they all inhabit the world like nothing changed after the Collapse. The apocalypse didn’t wipe out or radically change any familiar species. The mooses have orange antlers and there are some big angry fish swimming around in the rivers, but that’s the extent of it. Essentially, Far Cry New Dawn’s end-of-the-worldness boils down to a fight pit, a Deathrace track and bright pink and yellow cars that jut from the ground like Bumblebee’s tombstone.
Everything still works well. Stealthily taking down outposts is a grand time, and the guns feel punchy and have a satisfying kick. There are some genuinely interesting stories out in the open-world, and recruitment missions are all well-designed and unique. I never felt like I was playing the same mission twice, a major benefit that New Dawn’s shorter length enables.
But, after completing New Dawn, I’m suddenly much more excited for Rage 2. While multiple brightly colored post-apocalyptic shooters dropping around the same time is almost certainly a net negative for Ubisoft and Bethesda, I’m curious to see how the other hot pink, Mad Max-inspired shooter handles its apocalypse. Will it lean into it? Will it feel like things are breaking down around me? Or will it feel like the world is basically the same? Like nothing really changed when it ended?
And, most importantly, will there be a very good dog for me to pet?
Far Cry New Dawn review code for PS4 provided by the publisher.
Far Cry New Dawn is out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Books
‘In Search of Darkness’ Book Review: A Must-Have for ’80s Horror Fans
In 2019, the documentary of 80s horror In Search of Darkness became an instant hit with horror fans. Now, a beautiful coffee table style companion book is available and is a must-own for all fans of one of horror’s greatest eras. The book is a walk down the horror aisle of the best mom and pop video store in the heyday of VHS, featuring full color photos, poster art, insightful essays and more. More than just a nostalgic throwback, In Search of Darkness is the kind of book I wish I’d had back in my years as a burgeoning horror fan but is also satisfying for the film fanatic I have become in the years since.
The format is beautifully and simply laid out, with at least a dozen (usually more) movies from each year of the decade presented in order of release accompanied by informative and insightful essays by the authors Heather Wixson and Patrick Bromley. Both authors have been mainstays of film journalism, specializing in horror, for many years. Wixson began her career in 2007 with Dread Central and has spent the past ten years as the Managing Editor of Daily Dead, from which she recently retired to focus on books and other projects. She has devoted the past several years to interviewing and writing books about the Make-up and Special Effects wizards that have brought so much to film over the years, specifically the horror genre.
Bromley is a film journalist and critic whose work can be found all over the place including right here on Bloody Disgusting. He recently provided the commentary for the Vinegar Syndrome release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and is known as something of a Tobe Hooper expert. He is also the founder and editor of F this Movie!, an eclectic film website, and host of its accompanying podcast. So, to be clear, the authors know their stuff.
Wixson and Bromley divide writing duties roughly in half and though each has a distinctive voice, their writing styles dovetail beautifully into a cohesive whole. Each author plays to their strengths. Being familiar with both their work I didn’t even have to look at the bylines to know that Heather covered Christine and Terror in the Aisles and Patrick took on The Funhouse and Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers. Wixson’s passion for make-up effects is clear and comes through in many of her contributions. In general, Wixson takes on the “big” titles, the movies that defined the decade the most, and Bromley covers what the more cynical among us might call schlock, but he would likely call pure cinematic bliss. There are exceptions and surprises, of course, as there should be (Patrick covers The Shining for example). Each essay dives into the history behind the film, the major players involved, the reception, and legacy with often surprising aspects drawn from interviews with the filmmakers from various sources and insights from the authors.
For all their in-depth explorations of each film, in general the authors keep their critics’ hats safely stowed, keeping in mind that every entry on the book has its fans. In fact, they may well have sold me on finally hitting play on some of the schlockier offerings of the decade like Evilspeak, Nightbeast, and Blood Diner. Hell, I may even give The Beast Within a spin for shits and giggles. The point is that this book is a celebration through and through. The authors are honest about the critical receptions of the films, which were often unkind, and sometimes let their own opinions shine through, but recognize how beloved even the schlockiest films can become given time and availability. And that is an ongoing theme of In Search of Darkness. What may have been dismissed in its day often becomes revered as the years pass. Variations on the phrase “the years have been kind to…” referring to various maligned projects like The Thing, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, The Blob and many, many others, can be found throughout the book for good reason.
Each chapter of the book also includes a rundown of the top horror movies at the box office for the year as well as the top movies of all genres for context. The final page for each year highlights some of the major news and pop culture events including the top songs, albums, and television shows. There is a large central section that pays tribute to the talent involved with the greatest horror films of the 80s including directors, actors, effects artists, and more. This section includes brief biographies of John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Stephen King, Tom Savini, Barbara Crampton, Robert Englund, and many others presented in a dynamic and engaging fashion.
One of the beauties of the book is that it covers so much ground. Sure, you’ll find Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, and the Halloween sequels in it, but you’ll also find deeper cuts like The Changeling, The Being, and Tetsuo: The Iron Man. I was happy to find the same love given to Frank Henenlotter and Larry Cohen as to George A. Romero and David Cronenberg. In other words, In Search of Darkness is extraordinarily eclectic, highlighting the diversity that truly defined what is often viewed as a homogenous decade. The authors make the case that the 80s was horror’s greatest decade, and with what they lay out throughout this book, it’s tough to argue against that. I even came across a film or two I hadn’t even heard of before, which has become increasingly rare as the years go by.
At just shy of $85, the cover price may give some horror hounds pause, but believe me, it’s worth every penny. This is a beautiful volume that every fan of 80s horror will want on their shelf or prominently displayed on their coffee table. Filled with favorite titles, hundreds of full color photos, insightful and informative writing, this is simply a must own.
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