Lately I have been putting up a couple of reviews from particular modes found in video games, rather than reviewing the game itself. As much as I love the Far Cry series it isn't something that was a good fit for this blog. Previously I have reviewed the Living Zombies DLC from Far Cry 5, as well as the post-apocalyptic sequel to that game, Far Cry: New Dawn. I seem to recall that there was a planned Stranger Things crossover happening with the latest entry in the series, Far Cry 6, but having had a four month break from playing the game I had totally forgotten that had happened. Choosing a random mission on my return then I was both surprised and happy to discover it was the Stranger Things crossover mission.
The mission begins with you instructed to investigate the disappearance of some C4 from the rebel forces trying to overthrow the dictator of Far Cry 6. Your search leads you to a hut where you encounter a strange voice, this voice is somehow able to communicate with you telepathically and introduces themselves as a woman named Shest'. She leads you to a nearby bunker, a former Soviet installation from back during the Cold War, it is here you are surprised to find not only a bunch of dead Soviet soldiers, but also your dog Chorizo. Before you know it a demogorgon has attacked you and left you for dead. You come around to find the dog has vanished, and soon Shest' tells you about a portal that links to a demonic version of the real world, and that she stole the C4 with the purpose of destroying this portal. Not wanting to leave without Chorizo, you tell the woman that first you need to get your dog back, and so head through the portal to the 'Upside Down' in order to find it.
For a single mission there were a lot of references to Stranger Things which I loved. Of course there is the demogorgon itself, then there is the Soviet base, the portal and the machine that opens it. There is also a large area set in the Upside Down, complete with the flashing lights, ashes and the iconic giant spider monster in the distance. Weirdly however this mission plays like a first person Alan Wake. The Upside Down is full of zombie like people whose weakness is fire. Initially armed only with a silenced pistol, by the time you have sneaked past the Soviet soldiers and gotten to the demon world you have a shotgun that fires flame rounds, and eventually get a flamethrower. This leads to the meat of the finale of this mission which sees you fighting off waves of these zombies while waiting for Shest' to psychically open a sealed door back to the real world. While the demogorgon does make several appearances, this is an invulnerable enemy that needs to be avoided rather than battled.
I loved how this mission plays out, it is split into three chapters with that red text on a black background, it even gets its own intro credit sequence where the Stranger Things theme tune plays out. Once the mission is over there are a couple of fun epilogues to it. While it was strange that you were mostly fighting zombies, this was still a real cool crossover that had more effort put into it than you might expect. To be honest I would love a full sized game set in this world using the Far Cry engine, that would be something. The wave based survival may have been a bit unexciting, but as a free crossover mission there was a lot of fun to be had, quite cool.
SCORE:
No comments:
Post a Comment