Developer: Ubisoft Shanghai
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 4
Tested on: PlayStation 4
Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars DLC – Review
Ubisoft Shanghai probably pitched this idea along the lines of: think DOOM – the reboot of 2016- with a Ubisoft flair to it. Upon which the investors probably shot the idea down as a main game, but didn’t seem to mind it as a DLC. So Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars came into fruition. It’s the second piece of DLC in the series. With a third piece on the way. This DLC, too, is being developed by Ubisoft Shanghai who are the minds behind: Far Cry Blood Dragon, so expect some over the top action as you shoot up another planet.
Story
You are Nicholas Rye, and one night you are driving, minding your own business as you get a call in your truck. It’s your old buddy Hurk, and he reminds you of a favor you still owe him. You begrudgingly accept and get teleported to Mars. There you find Hurk had kind of an oopsie, and has misplaced his body. It’s up to you to retrieve his body and activate the towers and research centers across the map so ANNE, an A.I. can prevent the Spidercrab infestation that’s overrun Mars, from overrunning Earth.
Where the first DLC was more show over tell, this DLC is mainly telling you stuff, with Hurk being the obnoxious redneck idiot who’s expositioning. A lot of the information is just exposition dumps and it doesn’t add to the experience. After a while the ignorance of your cohort starts becoming annoying as his idiotic responses are quite grating. Think Claptrap from Borderlands, equally annoying. It might be intentional, but that’s like winning the Olympic ‘cut off your own legs as fast as possible’ event, sure you might have won, but you’re not walking home anytime soon.
Graphics
Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars is a lot of brown, and orange, a bit of turquoise, but mostly sand brown with gravel brown with a sprinkle of dusty redish brown mixed into it. The environment is barren, but then again, Mars isn’t a life sustaining planet, so you couldn’t possibly expect a forest on its surface and have the gamer suspend their disbelief. There’s only so much a mind can take. Especially because Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars is already pushing the ‘just roll with it don’t ask questions’ envelope quite far, the developers couldn’t push it any further without breaking immersion completely.
Sound
The voice acting in Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars is decent, Anne sounds like an A.I. and Hurk sounds his idiotic redneckish self, the main protagonist however doesn’t get a lot to say in comparison to the constant nonsense that your sidekick spouts. Hurk is good at picking tunes when you mow down the alien hordes.
The cries of the aliens echo across the sandy wastes. You can hear them burrow underneath you when you walk across the sands. This creates tension as you try and dodge them before they tear into you from underneath.
Gameplay
Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars is the second piece of content for Far Cry 5 and is an action/adventure first person shooter. You’re tasked with finding Hurks body which is spread across the map and clear out the research centers so ANNE can be powered to 100% to save Earth.
Remember those pesky towers which were done away with in the main game? They are back! You get to climb them and activate them with power crystals. You get these power crystals by killing Alien Queens. Other than that you’ll be shooting and shooting a lot. After the first hour the game becomes quite repetitive and tedious, it feels like a grind and the game doesn’t break away from it. So after the first Alien Queen and the first research center, you’ve basically seen it all, there are different guns, some power ups you can activate, but nothing that changes up the core gameplay. Sure it’s an action/adventure first person shooter, but there’s nothing that really makes this DLC shine. It’s not bad, because the core gameplay is solid, it just becomes too much of a checklist of tasks that feel more like work than like a time away from it.
Conclusion
Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars is a Ubisoft extravaganza with a map littered with things to do, and lots of enemies to kill and a planet to save. If you want some short bursts of shooter thrills you can play this in between other games as playing this for longer stretches will make the tedium levels spike. The development team could have done a little bit more to switch up the gameplay mechanics so the game doesn’t become a grind after the first hour.
Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars DLC - Review,
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