The return of Far Cry 5 jerkface Joseph Seed to Far Cry: New Dawn was revealed when the game was confirmed in early December at The Game Awards. I said at the time that it would be quite a twist if we ended up playing as ol' Joe, emerging from our bunker and restoring order to the new world that he predicted with such unexpected accuracy.
That will not be the case, but the story trailer released today reveals that you will, maybe, be working with him. And not just him, but the entire Project at Eden's Gate, the religious cult you worked so hard to shut down in Far Cry 5. It looks like the Peggies have done a far better job surviving and adapting to the apocalypse than Team You Guys, and now it's crunch time—and you need their help.
This could be cool. Ubisoft's claim of taking a "light RPG approach" to Far Cry: New Dawn was met with a certain amount of skepticism, but making the genocidal Peggies a force for "good" in the game—and actually committing to it, rather than whipping out a silly twist where you blow up both sides and live happily ever after as a brahmin rancher in New Fall's End—would be quite a bounce-back from the limp story of Far Cry 5: It came out looking like a bold commentary on the rise of religious extremism and the hard-right in America, but ultimately settled into a generic round of shooting people because that's what you do in videogames.
I'll be honest, I wouldn't bet the ranch on it, but I dare to dream, and if nothing else I'm looking forward to learning how—or, I suppose, if—17 years in the Cursed Earth has changed Joseph's perspective. Far Cry: New Dawn comes out on February 15, and before that you can get a closer look at what it's all about in Wes' recent hands-on preview, which includes a charming tale about an entirely unremarkable encounter with a totally normal mountain lion that sounds like it went perfectly smoothly.
