Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars DLC Review

Over the decades, we’ve come to expect that people from rural areas of America are more prone to alien abduction. Well, in Far Cry 5’s second DLC Lost on Mars, Nick Rye (the pilot guy) isn’t abducted by aliens - he’s abducted by his good buddy Hurk!

See, Hurk’s gotten himself into a spot of bother, and been tasked by an artificial intelligence (called Anne) with restoring its control over a facility on Mars. He’s enlisted Nick because, well there’s no two ways about it, Hurk went and got himself dismembered. He had been on Mars a couple of weeks, and just had to call in a favour from Nick to get this place back up and running. And to kill all of those aliens.

There's a lot of buried buildings on Mars...

Oh, he didn’t mention the aliens? Yeah, they’re a mite bloodthirsty, and are just making a pitstop on Mars before they head on to Earth to wipe out humanity. So, you have to gather energy crystals to restore Anne’s control in order for her to stop the Arachnids. But don’t worry, you don’t have to save humanity single-handedly (I mean, that’s Anne’s job, but just go with it), Hurk will help!

Yes, I did say Hurk had been dismembered, but now he’s a flying head - until you outfit him with a kick-ass robot body! Then he’s your unkillable sidekick, although he can be disabled after enough damage, until he gets back up (or you help him). This means that Hurk is with you throughout the entire DLC - so if you weren’t a fan of him in the main game (or Far Cry 4), then you will not enjoy this.

Brobot!

Thankfully, I think he’s brilliant, and laughed my arse off through almost the entire DLC. The back-and-forths between Nick and Hurk are brilliant, and Hurk always interjects with some one liner about each weapon you unlock. The tone of this is vastly different from Hours of Darkness.

Of course, since it’s a sci-fi DLC, the weapons are all lasers of various types. The first type of each weapon look pretty much identical, and it can be difficult to tell if you have the laser blaster, or the ray gun selected. I was about an hour into the DLC when I finally unlocked a weapon that wasn’t white, though the “barrel” design is the same on almost all of them. There are pistols, rifles and shotguns, but each of the nine (three per category) fires differently. There’s a pistol with homing rounds, and a shotgun which blasts a single, massive shot, for instance.

As well as those, you have grenades, electric grenades and chicken grenades. It’s better not to ask. You also get a Gravity Belt fairly early on, which will assist greatly with climbing the antenna towers to re-power them. Yes, the DLC is well aware that you only have to climb a single tower in Hope County, and it hangs a lampshade on it.

There's more to do than you might think

While you’re going around Mars and powering things up, you have to avoid stepping on the sand - because BTW the Arachnids are like the things in Tremors. Sadly, not all of them are underground, so you have to also contend with killing the dozens which are above ground too. Also, the Arachnid Queens, who take roughly 10 minutes of solid shooting before the die, with the first weapons you unlock.

Returning Anne’s control to more areas also unlocks more weapons, and upgrades (more grenades, more damage, etc). It’s not the only thing you have to do on Mars, though. What happened to Hurk’s body? It’s spread across the three kilometer map, so you’ve got to gather his parts. There are also 15 Arachnid Queens to kill, and some challenges which make you hallucinate being back on Earth with various things going on. They definitely vary the gameplay somewhat, as does Clutch Nixon.

CLUTCH! NIXON! Riding through the storm!

Yes, the most famous stuntman in known creation, Clutch Nixon, makes his triumphant return. Last seen in Hope County 30 years ago, it turns out he was so amazing that he went into space, and traveled to Mars by sheer force of will. He did six challenges, gained the adulation of “the aliens”, and was never seen again. So his challenges stand ready for you to complete using your Space Wingsuit. Unfortunately, there are no vehicles on Mars… But the challenges are certainly not easy, as experience with the Hope County Clutch Nixon challenges would tell you.

Now, I know that the final DLC, Dead Living Zombies, isn’t out yet, but if you only play one of these DLC then I totally recommend Lost on Mars. The storyline is pretty good, the humour is on-point, there’s plenty to do, the variety of weapons isn’t too bad, the enemies are a real threat… It’s just a really good DLC.