Far Cry New Dawn is set 17 years after the explosive events of Far Cry 5, and it’s safe to say that the fictional Hope County is unrecognisable. Nukes decimated the modern world and forced humanity underground, but in the absence of man, nature flourished; weird and wonderful flora blankets rotting cars, destroyed buildings and other remnants of the ‘old world’ while mutated animals roam the wilderness.

You can think of New Dawn as a substantial standalone expansion to Far Cry 5. It's not as ambitious in scope or story as a traditional sequel, but ultimately, that works in the game's favor. Ubisoft trimmed down Hope County, gave it a vibrant makeover, and slipped a few novel quirks into the established formula. It was the right call. As much as I dug Far Cry 5, it was too big and uneven for its own good. New Dawn keeps most of what worked and bundles it together with a better sense of levity and pacing. Some emotional heft was left behind, but New Dawn's narrative never barges in to hold up your fun.

For prolonged periods of open world play, New Dawn is fun. At times, it borders on being really fun, but it never quite hits the highs that it likes to tease. It bigs up certain story missions as non-stop thrill-rides, but in practice they just consist of the same things that you've been doing for hours out on the game's map. You shoot people, you blow things up, and you enjoy the gruesomely satisfying knife-kill animations. Come to mmocs.com now, you can buy Far Cry ND Credits with fast delivery and 100% safety.

That sense of freedom has been diminished, however. It's not the fact that you're revisiting Hope County, but rather how New Dawn sets up the pins. In Far Cry 5, you began in the middle of the map and were allowed to explore in any direction you wished; New Dawn starts you off in the bottom corner of the map and basically pushes you in a steady, linear sweep north as you slowly reclaim territory, and asks you to regularly bring resources back to your base in that starting area to bolster it.

Ubisoft recycles much of New Dawn’s map from its predecessor. After all, it took years to create such a colossal swatch of Montana to explore; why limit it to a single use? Not that many sites remain easily recognizable with the cotton candy-colored palette swap and overgrown foliage retaking the landscape, transforming it into a gorgeous charnel house. As in Far Cry 5, the entire environment becomes accessible after the opening cutscenes, though the addition of tiered enemy classes prevents me from rushing into the most dangerous areas unarmed and underequipped.

By the time New Dawn reaches its rushed third act, it’s broken down entirely. After failing to convey what it might be like to live through nuclear war, the game simply begins to emulate what films like Mad Max have already depicted about the end of days. The last few levels forgo the open-world features and varied weaponry that make the Far Cry games worth playing for and instead make their way down a post-apocalyptic checklist: a Thunderdome-like fight club, a demolition derby, and even a prison break.