Far Cry: New Dawn is the followup to Primal and Blood Dragon

Far Cry is getting another one of its side-sequels. At The Game Awards tonight, publisher Ubisoft revealed Far Cry: New Dawn, which is a direct sequel to the events of Far Cry 5. It takes place in a postapocalyptic version of Hope County, Montana, 17 years after the end of the Far Cry 5.

New Dawn is due out February 15 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One for $40. You play as a survivor who must band together with others to gather resources and rebuild society. But as you might expect, charismatic villains called The Twins (Mickey and Lou) stand in the way of that prosperous future. Together, The Twins oversee the Highwaymen, which Ubisoft describes as a merciless band of scavengers.

To fight off the threat of the Highwaymen, players will focus on building up the population and resources of Prosperity, which is the homebase of the survivors. At Prosperity, you can train your companion characters as well as craft weapons and vehicles. Your home base is also where players can take on the new Expedition missions. These enable players to go on long-distance operations around the United States to acquire valuable crafting materials and powerful items. Ubisoft says these expeditions will take players to wetlands, canyons, and more.

Ubisoft Montreal oversaw development of New Dawn, and studios Ubisoft Shanghai, Ubisoft Kiev, and Ubisoft Bucharest supported production.

This isn’t Far Cry 6

Since Far Cry 3, Ubisoft has taken to building quick, standalone spinoff versions of this franchise. Following Far Cry 3, the publisher released Blood Dragon, which was a neon-drenched open world inspired by 1980s sci-fi action films. To followup Far Cry 4, Ubisoft used that game’s map to create a prehistoric version of the game called Far Cry: Primal.

Like Blood Dragon and Primal, New Dawn is reusing an existing map. But also like those games, Ubisoft is doing a lot of work to encourage players to give the game a shot. New Dawn has plenty of new features, characters, and more. And a part of me almost prefers these smaller side stories because they often feel more focused and silly, which are qualities I welcome in my Far Cry games.

But what about The Twins?

New Dawn is putting a lot of emphasis on its villains. Mickey and Lou are the stars of the cover art for the game, and that means it could portray them as charismatic maniacs. Like with other recent Far Cry games, the cover art is also courting controversy. Most notably, Far Cry 5 featured domestic American religious terrorists sitting like the Leonardo da Vinci mural The Last Supper.

Far Cry: New Dawn, however, is bold because it puts black women on its cover, which is incredibly rare in the video game industry. And the game may frustrate some people because it is making those black women evil.

We’ll have to see if Ubisoft pulls that off. I will say that the villains are usually far more interesting than any other characters in games. So I’m down with Ubisoft making Mickey and Lou the big bads.