Far Cry 5 vs Far Cry New Dawn

If you’re trying to decide between Far Cry 5 and Far Cry New Dawn, I’m going to save you some time: play Far Cry 5 first.

It’s not just because Far Cry 5 came first. New Dawn is a direct sequel, and while you could technically jump straight into its colourful post-apocalyptic version of Hope County, you’ll get much more from it if you’ve already experienced what happened in Far Cry 5.

More importantly, I simply think Far Cry 5 is the better game.

That’s not to say New Dawn is bad. Far from it. New Dawn has some great ideas, some of the most entertaining weapons in the series, and a completely different take on a familiar location. But if I could only choose one of them, Far Cry 5 wins.

Is Far Cry New Dawn a Sequel to Far Cry 5?

Yes. Far Cry New Dawn takes place 17 years after Far Cry 5 and returns to Hope County, Montana.

I’m going to keep this comparison as spoiler-free as possible because seeing what happens for yourself is one of the biggest reasons to play them in order.

The important part is that New Dawn isn’t simply another Far Cry game that happens to reuse the same location. The world, returning characters and state of Hope County all build on events from Far Cry 5.

You can understand New Dawn without remembering every tiny detail from Far Cry 5, but its world has much more impact when you know what Hope County used to look like and what its people have already been through.

Winner: Far Cry 5, because it should be where the story starts.

Story and Setting

Far Cry 5 drops you into rural Montana as a junior sheriff’s deputy attempting to arrest Joseph Seed, the leader of a doomsday cult known as The Project at Eden’s Gate. Things don’t exactly go according to plan.

What follows is a fight to liberate Hope County region by region while taking on Joseph and the rest of the Seed family.

The setting remains one of my favourites in the entire Far Cry series. Hope County has a rural, rustic feel with forests, farmland, mountains, rivers and small towns scattered across the map. You can be driving down a quiet country road one minute and fighting half a dozen cultists outside a church the next.

New Dawn takes that same location and completely transforms it.

Nature has reclaimed huge parts of Hope County, with bright pink flowers, overgrown buildings and improvised settlements replacing much of the familiar landscape. The post-apocalyptic setting is deliberately colourful rather than the grey and brown wasteland you might expect.

It’s a great idea, and there is something fascinating about returning to places you recognise and seeing what became of them.

But I still prefer Far Cry 5.

Its version of Hope County feels more believable, more varied and, importantly, more like a place people actually lived before everything went wrong.

Winner: Far Cry 5

Joseph Seed vs Mickey and Lou

This one isn’t particularly close for me.

Far Cry 5 puts you against Joseph Seed and the rest of the Seed family, with each controlling a different region of Hope County.

Joseph is calm, unsettling, and utterly convinced that what he is doing is right. That makes him considerably more interesting than a villain who simply wants to watch the world burn.

Personally, I’d put Joseph Seed just below Vaas when ranking Far Cry villains. That’s fairly serious praise considering how memorable Vaas remains.

New Dawn replaces the Seed family as the primary threat with Mickey and Lou, twin sisters who lead the Highwaymen.

The Twins are dangerous, violent, and perfectly suited to the lawless world they grew up in. I certainly wouldn’t fancy meeting either of them down a dark alley.

They just don’t have the same presence Joseph does.

Far Cry is at its best when its villains make you want to understand what the hell is going on inside their heads. Joseph did that for me. Mickey and Lou didn’t do that to the same extent.

Winner: Far Cry 5

Weapons

Finally, New Dawn gets its revenge.

This one goes to Far Cry New Dawn.

The post-apocalyptic setting gave Ubisoft an excuse to get creative, and some of New Dawn’s makeshift weapons are ridiculous in exactly the right way.

The Saw Launcher is the obvious example. It fires circular saw blades at enemies and immediately tells you that New Dawn isn’t particularly interested in keeping things sensible.

Weapons look as though they’ve been cobbled together from whatever survivors could find, which fits the world perfectly.

Far Cry 5 still has a strong arsenal, and its weapons feel more grounded, but New Dawn’s improvised equipment has considerably more personality.

If your favourite part of Far Cry is finding increasingly stupid ways to kill enemies, New Dawn has plenty to offer.

Winner: Far Cry New Dawn

Gameplay and Progression

This is where the games differ more than you might expect.

Far Cry 5 sticks closer to the traditional Far Cry formula. Explore the world, complete missions, liberate outposts, unlock perks and gradually dismantle Eden’s Gate.

New Dawn adds a much stronger RPG influence.

Weapons and enemies have ranks, so a low-rank gun can become noticeably less effective against stronger opponents. You’ll need to collect resources, craft better equipment and upgrade your home base, Prosperity, to gain access to increasingly powerful gear.

I’m mixed on this.

I like having more reasons to collect resources and improve something tangible. Watching Prosperity grow gives progression more purpose than simply watching numbers increase on a menu.

But ranked enemies aren’t necessarily something I wanted from Far Cry.

There are moments where New Dawn’s progression can make combat feel more dependent on whether you’ve brought an appropriately ranked weapon rather than simply whether you landed the better shot.

Far Cry 5 feels freer in that respect. If you find a weapon you love, you can generally just get on with using it.

Winner: Far Cry 5, although this comes down heavily to personal preference.

New Dawn’s Prosperity and Expeditions Are Great Additions

One area where New Dawn deserves more credit is the stuff it tries that Far Cry 5 simply doesn’t have.

Prosperity acts as your home base, and recruiting Specialists lets you improve its facilities. Those upgrades feed back into the rest of the game by giving you access to better weapons, vehicles, and other useful abilities.

Then there are Expeditions.

These take you outside Hope County to separate locations across the United States, where you’re tasked with stealing resources from the Highwaymen and successfully escaping.

They’re essentially concentrated bursts of Far Cry chaos.

Expeditions also help solve one of the potential problems with revisiting Hope County. Even though New Dawn drastically changes the map, Expeditions give you completely new places to explore rather than forcing the entire game to take place on familiar ground.

New Dawn also lets you scavenge liberated outposts, allowing the Highwaymen to reclaim them at a higher difficulty in exchange for better rewards.

These systems make New Dawn more replayable than its relatively short campaign might initially suggest.

Which Game Has the Better World?

New Dawn is certainly the more visually unusual game.

Its bright pink flowers, colourful weapons, graffiti-covered structures and reclaimed landscape give it an identity that is immediately recognisable.

But I’d still take Far Cry 5’s Hope County.

There’s something about simply driving through Montana, seeing the mountains in the distance and stumbling across some bizarre encounter that works incredibly well.

Far Cry 5 also has more contrast. A peaceful fishing spot can be minutes away from a heavily defended cult outpost. The beautiful landscape makes the darker parts of the story feel even stranger.

New Dawn looks good, sometimes extremely good, but its deliberately exaggerated colour palette never grabbed me in quite the same way.

Winner: Far Cry 5

Is Far Cry New Dawn Too Short?

This was probably my biggest disappointment with New Dawn when I originally played it.

I remember playing for roughly an hour and looking at my progress only to realise I’d already made a surprisingly large dent in the story.

New Dawn isn’t trying to be as large as Far Cry 5, and its repeatable outposts, Expeditions and resource systems give you reasons to keep playing beyond the main missions.

Even so, Far Cry 5 feels like the more substantial game.

That’s not automatically better. Plenty of games overstay their welcome, and there is something to be said for a shorter experience that keeps moving.

But when I enjoyed Far Cry 5 as much as I did, New Dawn ending sooner wasn’t exactly a selling point.

Winner: Far Cry 5

Is Far Cry New Dawn Worth Playing?

Absolutely. One of the problems I had when I first started New Dawn was actually caused by how much I liked Far Cry 5. I spent too much time comparing everything.

Do I like these villains as much as Joseph? Is this version of Hope County as good? Are these missions as memorable? Why isn’t this exactly like the game I just loved?

It’s the gaming equivalent of watching a sequel immediately after a film you thought was brilliant. You can become so busy comparing the two that you stop judging the sequel on what it’s actually trying to do.

Once I stopped expecting New Dawn to simply be more Far Cry 5, I enjoyed it much more.

The improvised weapons are great, Expeditions are a genuinely good addition, Prosperity gives you something meaningful to build towards, and seeing Hope County completely transformed is fascinating if you’ve already explored it in Far Cry 5.

It’s just not as good as Far Cry 5.

Far Cry 5 vs New Dawn: The Verdict

If you’re only buying one, buy Far Cry 5.

It has the stronger story, better villains, a bigger and more memorable version of Hope County and, for me, a better overall progression system.

New Dawn does win in a few areas. Its weapons are more creative, upgrading Prosperity is satisfying and Expeditions are something I’d happily see return in another Far Cry game.

But New Dawn works best as a companion to Far Cry 5 rather than a replacement for it.

If you’re planning to play both, don’t overthink it:

Play Far Cry 5 first, then play Far Cry New Dawn.

Far Cry 5 gives you the Hope County story as it was originally intended, while New Dawn lets you return years later and discover what became of the world and people you left behind.

Both are worth playing.

Far Cry 5 is simply the one I’d choose if you made me pick.