Far Cry 5 - Hours of Darkness Reviews
Vietnam could make a great setting for a Far Cry game but it has to be handled with more care than this. I appreciate that at $12 this is not supposed to be a full Far Cry experience, however I still expect more than a glorified two-hour fan-mod. The next two pieces of DLC will have to offer big improvements to make Far Cry 5‘s season pass worth the money.
Although the DLC offers freedom and simplicity, it wasn't well crafted by its weak story, level design, could be finished in less than 2 hours and it's overpriced. Can't recommend it now but you can try it later when future DLCs are out, I highly recommend playing in Co-op mode.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
The expansion is not worth buying without the season pass. There is a feeling that the map and its contents could even be done within the Arcade mode and even the excellent Vietnam environment is not worth the amount charged.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness is like a big map that players made it in the Far Cry Arcade. It doesn't use the huge potential of the Vietnam War and basically doesn't want to say anything. Without an acceptable storyline and a progression system, Hours of Darkness doesn't provide any motivation for exploring and engaging.
Review in Persian | Read full review
This first DLC for Far Cry 5 never really delivers. It is a short and very generic experience that forgets that Far Cry is able to please us and make us forget some flaws by counting not only on its setting but also on its story and characters. And nothing that could help us feel involved is here. It's just a short and uninspired DLC with some forgettable mechanics.
Review in French | Read full review
A visually attractive, if uninspiring take on the Vietnam War, Hours of Darkness feels little more than a re-skinned Far Cry 5 rather than something more ambitious.
Despite bringing a few new mechanics to the table, Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness is a lesser experience when compared to the base game in every possible way. Its story is almost non-existent, the open world is completely generic, and with a fair few features from the original experience missing, it all feels like a step back. The core of what makes this a Far Cry game is still present, but you were probably already tired of that long ago.
Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness lacks a story, unique missions, or really much point. After completing the same generic side quests for two and a half hours, it's over.
If anything, Hours of Darkness has made me wanting next month’s Lost on Mars and August’s Dead Living Zombies to be better and more fulfilling. Far Cry 5 is an incredible game that the Hours of Darkness DLC fails to live up to, story-wise. It does however exemplify how good the stealth can be if you play things right. This Vietnam story carries some weight, but none of it emotional to make it stand up to the main game in any meaningful way.
Hours of Darkness is a solid DLC entry for an already great title. It certainly presents a diverse style of stealth oriented gameplay, alongside a different setting to the main story. Seeing the background context of a previously acknowledged Far Cry 5 NPC is also a neat bonus. However, there are issues with the lack of content and having just one main objective in a relatively straight and linear path means that the realistic timeframe of a play-through is going to be somewhere in the region of one to three hours depending on how incentivised the player is to complete side objectives and collect items.
If you already own the Season Pass for Far Cry 5 give it a go, but we doubt you'd want to buy Hours of Darkness separately. Save your money for the far more fun sounding zombie and alien expansions.
Far Cry 5's first big slice of DLC lasts almost an hour, trading the chaotic mountain ranges of Hope County for a more subdued and streamlined stealth-heavy tour of duty in the Vietnam War that fails at feeling meaningful or having anything to say.
Ubisoft Shanghai’s efforts are enjoyable enough, but one just hopes that the bar of quality is raised even higher for Dead Living Zombies and Lost on Mars.
Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness is a fine expansion to the core game, it adds a large new area yet seems to completely forget the narrative aspect of the series.
As the first DLC from the Far Cry 5 season pass, Hours of Darkness, is somewhat underwhelming; but that is not a reflection on the quality or quantity of the content it provides.
Flashbacks from 'Nam mean in this case similar content as in the core game. That's said, the DLC has a great atmosphere of Vietnam War. It's classic Ubisoft sandbox on a much smaller scale.
Review in Polish | Read full review
An interesting setting that Ubisoft wastes with a DLC that falls too short and shallow to be really interesting.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Hours of Darkness is a clever and fun but brief twist on the Far Cry formula. Its new approach to Guns for Hire AI companions gives you something other than yourself to worry about during battles, and its use of perks as a reward for stealth kills encourages my favorite style of play in an interesting way, but can bring your momentum to a screeching halt when you slip up. Just like the Far Cry series' previous jaunts to new locations, this trip to Vietnam is a good time.