Developer: Ubisoft Shanghai
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
Tested on: PlayStation 4
Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness DLC – Review
Developers often find themselves in hot waters when they use events from the past as a setting for their game or in this case a piece of DLC. Ubisoft might have their foolproof: ‘We’re all diverse people as a development team and we’re open to everyone’s viewpoint.’, but this doesn’t mean that they didn’t take quite a loaded topic. Then again the people playing the DLC probably won’t be too bothered with the Vietnam War and aren’t going to be having flashbacks or PTSD as they traverse the map and mow down the enemies.
Story
You are Wendell Redler, an inhabitant of Hope County, but you are on a helicopter that’s flying over Vietnam. They nickname you ‘Cowboy’ because you ride shotgun and are tasked with shooting down bogeys as they try to take down the helicopter. Shit goes sideways, as it always does in a war scenario. The heli crashes and you are captured. The DLC does something very interesting then, because as you find yourself captured in a bamboo cage, you are witness to an execution, and as it passes, you hear someone apologizing from the right side, making it obvious that you are able to look around. It’s a classic case of showing over telling and this isn’t the only time the content does this, and it works wonders every single time. It makes the world around you feel more alive. Doing so makes it so you care about what happens to the world you’re in. If characters are written decently then it’s a double whammy. Though the characters aren’t badly written, Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness focuses mainly on showing the events and thus leaves the personal growth of the characters in the background.
Graphics
Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness feels like Far Cry 3 with the jungle setting and the darkness setting set too high, leaving visibility at an all time low. It doesn’t look bad, but it does add some difficulties when trying to spot enemies. They blend well in the background and if there aren’t any light-sources around, you’ll be swarmed and killed quite quickly. This is by intention, because it tries to recreate the tense environment the soldiers were in, being on unknown territory, outnumbered, with no knowledge on what to expect at any turn. It’s really tense and it’s quite well done, although it can be equally frustrating when you are playing it the way you’d play the main game, because this DLC does not adhere to the gameplay of the main game.
Sound
The sound of silence can be really tense, because it adds to the gripping atmosphere that gets to you. You can’t see properly, but you hear Vietnamese voices, yet can’t make out whether they are friend or foe, just a farmer or a gun toting NVA member. Less is more. The sounds of the jungle also just swallow you whole, with the chirping of bugs and the rustling of foliage. Being as quiet as possible is the way to go. This DLC could possibly be seen as a survival horror game, with the tension built by the lack of audio.
Gameplay
Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness is an action/adventure DLC to Far Cry 5, in which you are tasked to make it to the extraction point after you’ve crashed behind enemy lines. You can play it like the main game, but upon starting, a tutorial teaches you the mechanics of stealth. If you kill people without being seen you gain perks, up to four, which will give you extra powers, like being able to spot enemies through obstacles with your binoculars, being more silent when sneaking or walking, auto tagging enemies if they are about to spot you, or a perk that helps you crouch faster. These really underline the whole stealth gameplay, but make you feel so weak if you lose them. You lose them if an enemy spots you.
This small expansion doesn’t do the whole ‘here’s a slew of quests, wander back and forth across the map as you complete them.’ You’ll wander across the map as you try and make it to the extraction point, and gain quests and things to do as you progress. It’s an organic way of progression and it keeps the backtracking to a minimum. When traveling to the extraction point you’ll come across three of your crew members and you’ll have the choice to rescue them or leave them, but they are your friends, so you should do your best to get them to the extraction point, too. It has to be said, that if they die, they stay dead, none of that respawning allies when they go down. You can revive them, but once that opportunity has passed, they stay dead. You’ll find yourself thinking about the battles, choosing to partake in them or sneaking around avoiding confrontation. This mechanic also adds more tension, because if you die, no biggy, but if they die… Then you are out one ally, so you better play for keeps.
Conclusion
Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness is a DLC that does things way differently from the main game, which is a welcome change of pace. The pace of the game is really slow, but the combination of the audio, visuals and gameplay make for a very interesting and tense experience in a setting that isn’t too popular in modern video games. World Wars have been done to death, but the mainstream developers haven’t really touched upon this war, too much.
Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness DLC - Review,
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