Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: Jun 05, 2018
ESRB: Mature / PEGI 18
MSRP: $11,99 / £9.49
Available Platforms: PS4 [Reviewed], Xbox One, PC
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Hours of Darkness is the first DLC for Far Cry 5 (of 3 big DLCs planned). A copy of Far Cry 5 is needed to play it. It’s available for season pass owners or can be bought separately. Just like the next two planned DLCs this one has nothing to do with the main game’s story. They only share the same engine and general “feel” (gunplay, controls, menus etc). The DLC can be started from the main menu under the Add-Ons section.
Hours of Darkness is based in Vietnam. There’s a short intro cutscene in comic style. You are a US soldier. You and your squad are flying in a helicopter over Vietnam and get shot down. Everyone survives the crash but gets captured by the Vietnamese and separated into different camps. Then the game starts with your character being put in a cage, watching how the enemies interrogate your Sergeant. Suddenly F15 Fighter Jets attack the camp and you can break free and run away.
The DLC is really just one short escape mission in the Vietnamese countryside. The goal is to get to the extraction point. Optionally find/rescue your squad mates along the way and cause some destruction to the enemy camps. There’s not much of a story here apart from the very short intro sequence. The path to the extraction point is blocked off by some mountain chains here and there. This results in you having to pass certain key roads and camps and opens up a lot more later on. If you were to rush it (ignoring all enemy camps, going straight to extraction point) you could speedrun it in about 20-30 minutes. A normal playthrough with freeing your squad will last an hour. If you go for 100% completion (liberate all outposts) then around 2-3 hours.
The map isn’t super large. It’s 3.3 kilometers (2 miles) from east to west and 1.5 kilometers (~1 mile) north to south. It’s a “sandbox” area with many different paths to take. You can choose to engage in side activities or ignore them.
Here’s a list of all you can do for 100%:
- Rescue your 3 squad mates
- Rescue 5 South Vietnamese Prisoners
- Destroy 9 AA Guns
- Eliminate 4 Commanders
- Secure 5 Outposts
- Collect 8 Lighters
- Destroy 8 Propaganda Speakers
Because you spend the most time on foot (vehicles only spawn in last third of the map) it makes the map size adequate for one escape mission.
Graphically it looks amazing, same as the main game. All the technical stuff is on par. It can be played solo or in co-op with a friend (no matchmaking, invite only). There’s also a fair amount of weapons (I found a Bow, two Sniper Rifles, multiple Assault Rifles, Rocket Launcher, Grenade Launcher, Pistol, Machine Gun, Mortar). A new addition is that you can order airstrikes. Airstrike tokens are given for completing side activities. Skills have also been removed and replaced with tokens that you get for stealth-killing 4 enemies in a row. If you get detected you lose your 4 skills. There are also 3 difficulty settings. The default one, then there’s Action Movie Mode which gives you more weapon slots, and Survivor Mode which is hard difficulty. If you want all trophies you will have to beat all 3 difficulties, roughly 2-3 hours total to do them all.
| Gameplay *Overall Enjoyment Factor, Fascination with Game World, Level Design, Variety, Playability, User-Friendliness (Ease of Use / Readability / Controls / in-game Tutorials / Menus) |
| 8.5/10 A big sandbox area with plenty of weapons and enemies. Air Strikes are a new addition. |
| Story/Multiplayer *Quality of the Singleplayer Story, Cutscenes and/or Multiplayer Modes (whichever is available). If a game has no Story or no Multiplayer it won’t be rated (thus no negative effect on score). |
| 4/10 Story: 4/10 (In 1 hour there’s not much they could do. The initial cutscene is fine but in this 1 hour you really couldn’t care less who lives or dies). Multiplayer: Not rated (The DLC introduces no new multiplayer elements, it’s only one mission but it can be played in co-op like the main game. Nothing new here). |
| Technical Aspects *Graphics, Texture Quality, Character Details, Lighting, Weather Effects, Animations, Loading Times, Number of Loading Screens, does it run smoothly |
| 9/10 It looks beautiful, same quality as Far Cry 5 main game. |
| Value *Amount of Content, Production Quality, Replay Value, is there enough content to justify a purchase |
| 6/10 A very short but good mission (around 1 hour on first playthrough, less than 30 minutes on second playthrough). The $11,99 price tag is a bit pricey for this little content but it’s quality stuff. There are 3 difficulties for replay value. |
| Trophies/Achievements *Rates how much fun the Platinum / 1000 Gamerscore is to achieve: Are trophies fun to do? Do trophies restrict freedom of gameplay? Missable trophies? Multiple playthroughs required? Luck-based trophies? Pointless farming/grinding? Glitched Trophies? Are stats/trophies tracked correctly? |
| 9/10 For what the DLC is, they came up with a decent list. It’s a quick and enjoyable 100% to get, pretty straightforward and no glitches. |
| Extraordinary Score Increase or Deduction *Reserved for extraordinarily good or bad features that the other categories don’t cover (such as game-breaking bugs). This score is directly added/subtracted from the final score. |
| Nothing |
VERDICT:
Hours of Darkness is a good start for the DLC trilogy of Far Cry 5. It’s a part unexplored in previous games but is quite short and doesn’t have much in terms of story.
FINAL SCORE:
7.3/10
Played on PS4 Pro, a free review copy was provided by the publisher.
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