Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness DLC
Developer: Ubisoft
I am a big fan of the Far Cry series. It delivers a lot of the things I look for in a game. I can pretty much pick it up whenever and not feel lost and I am a sucker for collectibles and challenges. That said, Hours of Darkness is understandably a smaller experience. I’ve heard a lot of complaints about how short it is but I think people are forgetting that their $30 season pass comes with 3 of these and the entire port of Far Cry 3 which is a fantastic deal if you ask me.
Hours of Darkness shrinks the Far Cry formula down and transports it to the Vietnam war. There are some unique features, most notably the new take on heroes for hire. It’s up to you to rescue 3 members of your squad and as you do they are available to join you on missions, but if they are killed they stay dead, adding a new level of stakes to the game. I did finish it in about 4 hours, and that was taking my time in a big way. If you rush you could probably finish in about 2 hours but why would you want to do that?
I did miss a lot of the elements that make the recent Far Cry games great. Crafting is completely gone, as well as shopping and vehicles are way more sparse. If you do find a vehicle, grab it! It takes a long time to traverse the game area on foot and that’s usually your only option. The gameplay also felt a lot more repetitive seeing as most of the variety and fast-travel options are gone so you are basically doing the same 3 things over and over with no real control over when you do them. Still, taking one of my favorite series and transporting it to Vietnam is an extremely appealing concept to me and I almost wish I would see a fully fleshed out Far Cry game in this setting, if not just this era. For now, I will settle for this and gleefully look forward to the next two Far Cry DLCs where I’ll be taking out zombies and aliens respectively!
