The latest DLC for Far Cry 5, Lost on Mars, has now been released. Although reviewers might not have been blown away by the latest expansion, it was better received than Hours of Darkness, and it appears to be better received among gamers. The DLC sees Ubisoft return to an aesthetic more akin to that of Blood Dragon than their standard settings; the alien-infested wastes of Mars. Most importantly, there are several new Lost on Mars features which help the latest DLC to stand out from the base game.
The Martian Arsenal
One of the most immediately obvious changes in Lost on Mars is the way that the Martian weapons work. The new sci-fi firearms in the new DLC lack ammo of any kind. Instead, all of the guns work on a cooldown system, encouraging players to switch between them during combat. While some of the weapons are fairly standard-fare laser rifles, their names are anything but. With names like “Blaster of Disaster,” and the “Tazer Phazer Annihilazer,” it’s clear that the developers had fun coming up with them! Of course, there’s also the Power Glove, a particularly devastating new melee weapon.
“Big-Ass Space Crabs”
Unlike Hours of Darkness, which swapped the Project at Eden’s Gate cultists for Viet Cong soldiers, Lost on Mars replaces traditional human enemies with monstrous alien Arachnids. Tougher, faster, and more deadly up close than human enemies, these aliens also burrow beneath the sand. Where human enemies die instantly if shot in the head, Arachnids have no such one-hit-kill spots. Most do have exposed weak spots on their backs, however.
There are a variety of different Arachnids beyond the basic form. There are larger variants which use projectile-based attacks, and smaller versions which explode, but the majority are deadly, swarming, close combat brutes. Scattered around the map are also a number of powerful alien queens; larger, stronger, and far, far tougher specimens who function as mini-bosses in the DLC.
The Gravity Belt
The Gravity Belt might be the most significant change from Far Cry 5 to Lost on Mars. Certainly, the weapons and enemies are outlandish looking in comparison. However, the Gravity Belt completely changes the way that the game plays. The belt makes you immune to falling damage, and gives you an impressive degree of mobility. With weak spots on most of the arachnids’ backs, the DLC encourages players to leap around with wild abandon, using verticality to their advantage.