Enjoyed this simple DLC quite a lot for a few reasons.
1. Being a jungle maniac for me hits much closer to the heart of Far Cry than FC5's full blown militia larp.
2. At this point we've gone full circle and an unabashedly hoo-rah, America fuck-yeah military game actually feels more fresh than a deconstructive take would. No surprise when the credits rolled to reveal this actually a product of Ubisoft Shanghai. The west has far too little confidence to do something like this with a straight face anymore.
3. The visuals are great, the world is coated with this overbearing, otherwordly green haze that gives the impression of a psychedelic nightmare. Feels more like you're playing through a dream or memory of the event rather than the real-time thing. This isn't vietnam the country or the historical conflict, it's a walk through the collective hallucination of second hand accounts and movie scenes all muddled together in recollection. The haze gradually gives way to a clear sky as you get closer to the extraction point, out of the nightmare and into the morning light. Only wish it had leaned more explicitly on these concepts but alas, DLC games do b like that.
4. Mechanically we get the kind of pared-back focus a DLC game allows, with every mechanic feeding nicely into eachother. The main game's bloated perk tree is cut down to only five perks that stack, you earn them with stealth kills and lose them when spotted, incentivizing you to stealth the whole way through. I'd encounter search parties that I could easily take out, but would opt to sneak around, avoiding them altogether to preserve my perk streak. Always a great feeling when you notice a game has successfully coaxed you into taking the path of greater immersion.
5. Companions have perma-death, giving that X-Com feeling of weight to these otherwise inconsequential characters. Also calls back to Far Cry 2, the deeply flawed originator of virtually everything this series is now built on (also connected to this in spirit via the somewhat tortured meta-textual link of Far Cry 2 -> Heart of Darkness -> Apocalypse Now -> Vietnam -> this. I would acknowledge that as a stretch if not for the 'Hours of Darkness' title + Apoc. Now being an unavoidable reference point for this setting).
Of course it's held back by that same limited scope, it's very shallow compared to the full game, probably not worth a replay and it's missing both the literary narrative drive that makes mainline Far Crys memorable or the high concept insanity of Blood Dragon. It's "Far Cry Vietnam" delivered in a basic way besides the visual flair, but luckily Far Cry adapts well to a war setting.
1. Being a jungle maniac for me hits much closer to the heart of Far Cry than FC5's full blown militia larp.
2. At this point we've gone full circle and an unabashedly hoo-rah, America fuck-yeah military game actually feels more fresh than a deconstructive take would. No surprise when the credits rolled to reveal this actually a product of Ubisoft Shanghai. The west has far too little confidence to do something like this with a straight face anymore.
3. The visuals are great, the world is coated with this overbearing, otherwordly green haze that gives the impression of a psychedelic nightmare. Feels more like you're playing through a dream or memory of the event rather than the real-time thing. This isn't vietnam the country or the historical conflict, it's a walk through the collective hallucination of second hand accounts and movie scenes all muddled together in recollection. The haze gradually gives way to a clear sky as you get closer to the extraction point, out of the nightmare and into the morning light. Only wish it had leaned more explicitly on these concepts but alas, DLC games do b like that.
4. Mechanically we get the kind of pared-back focus a DLC game allows, with every mechanic feeding nicely into eachother. The main game's bloated perk tree is cut down to only five perks that stack, you earn them with stealth kills and lose them when spotted, incentivizing you to stealth the whole way through. I'd encounter search parties that I could easily take out, but would opt to sneak around, avoiding them altogether to preserve my perk streak. Always a great feeling when you notice a game has successfully coaxed you into taking the path of greater immersion.
5. Companions have perma-death, giving that X-Com feeling of weight to these otherwise inconsequential characters. Also calls back to Far Cry 2, the deeply flawed originator of virtually everything this series is now built on (also connected to this in spirit via the somewhat tortured meta-textual link of Far Cry 2 -> Heart of Darkness -> Apocalypse Now -> Vietnam -> this. I would acknowledge that as a stretch if not for the 'Hours of Darkness' title + Apoc. Now being an unavoidable reference point for this setting).
Of course it's held back by that same limited scope, it's very shallow compared to the full game, probably not worth a replay and it's missing both the literary narrative drive that makes mainline Far Crys memorable or the high concept insanity of Blood Dragon. It's "Far Cry Vietnam" delivered in a basic way besides the visual flair, but luckily Far Cry adapts well to a war setting.