Review: Far Cry 5 DLC Dead Living Zombies – PS4

The conclusion to Far Cry 5’s season pass comes to a point where one great and one horrible DLC have launched. As one who’s purchased all of this in advance, I wasn’t expecting much with the final drop involving zombies. It’s a tired and clichéd genre and only Ubisoft’s wit and satire would make or break Dead Living Zombies. Having defeated all the “pitches” I can say the experience is fun but pointless. Far Cry 5’s mechanics definitely work well with the living dead, but the total package here never really amounts to anything you can’t find on a great map made in Far Cry Arcade. Dead Living Zombies falls somewhere between Hours of Darkness and Lost on Mars in terms of greatness and barely made me happy I purchased the aforementioned season pass.
Dead Living Zombies tells the pathetic tale of Guy Marvel before the events of the main game. You may even remember him as the obnoxious director in a few side missions to the campaign. You know the one filming a movie and asking the Deputy to act as a star? Either way this dude is going around to various movie makers and producers while pitching scripts of his that involve strictly zombies. Some are even a satirical or teasing take on famous staples and pop culture. Guy’s glee and naivety will take you through each of his scripts as isolated levels with no interconnecting story. Occasionally the person he’s obsessively pitching these to will provide their own commentary while you play. Often with incredulity.

Gameplay is the standard Far Cry formula and all the mechanics return. In this regard the zombie killing is quite fun for the ninety or so minutes it lasts for. The handful of levels or script ideas you have to complete are pretty straightforward, linear and don’t offer a terrible amount of variety. Some parts are even recycled and reused assets from the base game. While this isn’t a terrible problem or a new one, it’s just something I noticed easily. The zombies themselves aren’t too diverse either. There are ones that will swarm you and act like typical zombies, hot heads have glowing spots in their cranium that serves as an explosive weak point, and ones that will throw goo at you and explode once defeated. There are a collection of zombified beings that will appear, including a zombie bigfoot, but the first two zombies I mentioned will be the ones you interact with the most.
As I loosely touched upon there are commentaries and satires to chuckle at. Which includes decent comedy between Guy Marvel and whomever he engages with. Other set pieces are exaggerated to a ridiculous degree with one prime example being explosions. There were never enough of these and Dead Living Zombies will make sure to remind you every minute. The DLC will also keep you on your toes at some sections due to Guy and a few producers making up the story and surroundings as they go. Just like when an RPG magically appeared in a poof of smoke to take down a Blood Dragon. Speaking of which there are plenty of callbacks and references to the series proper. Fans of this trademark no longer have to worry after the bland time that was Hours of Darkness.

Replayability is here in the form of score attacks once you complete each pitch. Kill as many enemies or finish a level as quick as you can for the best score. You’ll even be able to earn unlocks to help you through this DLC and just Far Cry 5 in general. Although you can probably guess it will be unabashedly zombie related. I personally didn’t think these unlocks or the experience itself deserved a second run through. Especially considering that dying in bullcrap Far Cry fashion makes you start a pitch from the beginning. Graphics, soundtrack, and voice acting are as good as they’ve ever been. Yet there could have been some creativity in half the maps and towards most of the enemies.

Far Cry 5 Dead Living Zombies DLC PS4 Review

• 7/10
  Overall - Very Good - 7.0/10

7/10

Summary

Dead Living Zombies is a rather short sendoff for Far Cry 5’s season pass. It’s fun, it’s witty, and won’t last more than two hours at most. Zombies are a bit contrived and this DLC will do little towards adding to the genre. Still beating up zombies with Far Cry mechanics and listening to the ramblings of a mad man while doing it provided some good fun. Season pass holders could have received a lot worse than Dead Living Zombies and we should all be glad Hours of Darkness was the only rotten apple in the bunch.