“Get to the Choppah!!!!”
Far Cry 5 has been an impressive game that took their already open world formula and made it even better. But with their first DLC, Hours of Darkness, does it have the right formula to be a romp in the jungle, or will it have you running for the Exfil before anyone else.
In Hours of Darkness, you play as a Vietnam soldier Wendell Redler that has been shot down behind enemy lines. As you progress through the game, there isn’t much in the ways of a story other than find your 3 other soldiers and make it to the extraction point. As you progress through to the end point, you will encounter NVA bases to conquer, free POWs, find the lighters (that were in the main game) and take down enemy Anti Air Guns.
This DLC is heavily stealth based, making it hard for players that are run and gunners to push through the jungle as the enemy NPCs will gather around the gunfire quickly, causing a situation to go from manageable to cluster f*** in a heartbeat. Hours of Darkness also takes one thing away from the main game, it removes all the different abilities you have and replaces it with 4 perks:
- Adrenaline Perk – Allows players to move faster in crouch and auto-tags enemies within 10 meters.
- Ghost Perk – Reduces the noise players make when walking, sprinting and landing. Fall damage is reduced.
- Sixth Sense Perk – Automatically tags enemies about to detect the player. Also makes predators less inclined to attack the player. (Consider using bait to attract animals while this perk is active)
- Predator Perk – Allows the player to tag enemies through walls using the binoculars. Extends auto-tagging to 20 meters.
which you gain as you stealth-fully move through the map without being detected. They also added some new weapons into the game: M16, SVD, and a Bamboo Stick while also bringing in the Scorpion, 1911, Bow, RPG-7 and the Flamthrower. As you progress, there are special weapons that you can find within Bunkers in the map such as a silenced M16.
Another interesting thing that they added is the fact there is no shops, all you ammo and explosives are obtained through scrounging around the map looting dead NPCs and finding ammo caches around the map.
Final Thoughts
Hours of Darkness is an interesting take on events from Vietnam for a stealthy game that has you trudging through the jungle while doing your best not to get caught and with 2 additional modes (survivor and action hero) Hours of Darkness is a great launch for Far Cry 5’s Season Pass. I give Hours of Darkness a 8 out of 10.
Final Score
