Far Cry 5‘s Hours of Darkness DLC Gets New Trailer, Release Date

Far Cry 5 is heading to Vietnam in its first downloadable content expansion, Hours of Darkness, and it looks to be grimmer in tone than the base game. That being said, Far Cry 5’s early marketing sold it as a dark critique on the current state of America, but it turned out to be anything but—it was just another loud, excessively dumb riff that used America’s current socio-political moment as a punchline.

Hours of Darkness puts players in the shoes of Far Cry 5’s own Wendell “Red” Redler as they relive his days fighting in Vietnam. The teaser trailer and what minimal plot is given are shown through comic book-style cutscenes and snippets of gameplay. It seems to be more grounded, with stakes that actually matter—saving squad mates and escaping enemy captivity. Yet, it is hard to shake how the base game’s narrative ended up, so don’t be surprised if after an incredibly dark torture scene at the hands of the Viet Cong, the game has you rip-rolling through the jungle in a jeep while you blast enemies away with a grenade launcher as “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival plays. This seems even more likely as the entire DLC is playable via cooperative play. The name Hours of Darkness sounds very similar to Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad’s tale of militaristic madness and sadism at the far end of the world, and Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now is a Vietnam-set reimagining of Conrad’s famous work. On name alone, Hours of Darkness carries a certain thematic and tonal baggage that it hopefully understands, rather than becoming another act of the same failed tonal juggling that plagued Far Cry 5.

In addition to the new story, the expansion also comes with two new modes to replay the DLC’s story: Survivor Mode (a limited load-out play-through of the DLC) and Action Movie mode (think Rambo instead of Apocalypse Now). All of the Vietnam assets will be available in the arcade mode for DLC owners and non-owners alike on May 24.

Hours of Darkness releases on all platforms on June 5, and is free to all season pass owners and available as a standalone product for $11.99 USD. Ubisoft also vaguely dated the other two planned DLC packs for Far Cry 5—Lost on Mars and Dead Living Zombies—with respective release times of July and August.

Check out the teaser for Hours of Darkness below.