Recent reviews by Steel_Valkyrie

So, I just finished my first playthrough of New Dawn, and I'm going to be honest here.

I liked New Dawn more than I liked 5.
Some of what people who didn't like it say is true. It is much shorter than 5, the "pay-for-loot" system does exist (but it's definitely not mandatory), and the antagonists have, for most of the game, both the complexity and foresight of Mike Pence (basically being your average "♥♥♥♥ you, ♥♥♥♥ everything you do, we're the baddies because we're bad" saturday morning cartoon villain types). However, as I said before, the loot system is really just for those who can't be arsed to go pick up things laying around where they'd be going anyway, and there are multiple ways to get the rarer components, too.

One of the other main complaints I saw a lot of was that it's grindy- and as someone who really hates grindy games, I was apprehensive about that. But New Dawn is grindy in a far cry way, it's optional, and is one of multiple ways to get the resources you do, albeit a more efficient way. Every time you re-do an area, weather it be an "expedition" (think self-contained smaller area somewhere else) or just re-taking an outpost, it levels up the difficulty and the reward, and moves things around. You can still do it multiple ways, attacking from different directions, using different tactics or vehicles, there's no one way to do these replayable parts. They don't take much time, either. I hate doing more "railroad-y" segments in other games (Bethesda games are repeat offenders) but this makes replaying the same part fun and interesting. Vehicles are still loads of fun and more complex than in FC5, with the added ability to booby-trap vehicles, enemy vehicles to be booby-trapped, and a more complex vehicle sabotage system. Enemies aren't just a "re-skin" from FC5, as a lot of people have complained about, but actually are so much more fun to fight (flamethrower enemies especially, it's not a "haha, you have to shoot the tanks on my back three times, I don't take damage otherwise) and enemy facing and even ammo type plays a huge part in this. Combat, for the most part, is much, much more enjoyable.

There are some drawbacks to this game over FC5, however. The removal of weapon modding is a big one, I love my weapon mods, and the whole "tier" system for enemies and weapons (lower tier weapons do a lot less damage to higher tier enemies, and some things, like takedowns are locked behind perks for higher tier enemies) is definitely a downside. Some returning characters aren't as entertaining as they were in 5, and I'm not sure how I feel about health bars on everyone. Overall, though, the cons aren't as bad as many others make them out to be.

I do recommend you play all the way through Far Cry 5 first, though. So much of what's referred to, and the story of the game revolves around the events of 5, and without spoiling everything, they do a certain returning group really right. Yes, this game should have been a DLC-type thing for the original (see Fallout 3's Broken Steel) but all-in-all, it's really good. And I really like the aesthetic choice, it's quite unique.

It's definitely a Far Cry game, it doesn't take itself too seriously, but a lot of the tedium of other open-world games of the type with crafting isn't there for New Dawn. The whole game can be done in about 15 hours, however you'll get a couple playthroughs out of it, especially if you have friends who want to do co-op. A must-buy, provided it's on sale.

Pros:
In-depth events, politics/government, and relations make it so you can play Stellaris however you want
Simple and advanced management systems make it so you can make everything as simple or as complicated as you'd like.
Game provides actual challenge
Multiplayer is great.
YOU CAN BLOW UP PLANETS!
Cons:
Learning curve is pretty steep, and the tutorial is slightly outdated and too simple.
Performance suffers in late-game, especially in multiplayer.

Overall, 9/10, I love this game, both playing by myself and with others, and remember, if you want to use the DLCs (Which I highly recommend), only the host of the game needs to have them ;).