Far Cry 5: Lost on Mars (DLC)

Lost on Mars is the second DLC chapter in the Far Cry 5 season pass, and it does exactly what the name promises: yanks you off Earth and drops you onto a red, dusty planet crawling with oversized arachnid aliens. You play as Hurk, the lovably dim recurring Far Cry character, working alongside Nick Rye's disembodied AI brain to stop a Martian invasion before it reaches home. The tone is aggressively comedic. If the base game's Eden's Gate cult felt a touch too grim for you, this is Ubisoft Montreal going full B-movie and not apologizing for it. Gameplay sits on the same foundation as Far Cry 5 - open areas, gunplay that feels snappy, and a decent loop of clearing enemy zones. What changes is the setting and the enemy roster. The Martian arachnids come in several types, each with distinct behaviors that push you to swap between the handful of sci-fi weapons on offer. There are jet-pack traversal sections that open up vertical movement in ways the base game never really does, and a handful of antenna-activation objectives that serve as the structural spine of the short campaign. None of it is deep, but the pacing is brisk enough that the thin mechanics rarely overstay their welcome. Co-op is available, and honestly this content plays better with a friend. The banter between Hurk and the AI version of Nick already carries a lot of the entertainment value, but having another player alongside you amplifies the chaos in ways that make the repetitive encounter design easier to ignore. Solo runs are perfectly functional, just noticeably more one-note. Where Lost on Mars stumbles is in ambition. It runs about three to four hours, the weapon variety is limited even by DLC standards, and the Mars environment, while visually distinctive, starts to feel samey well before the credits roll. The jokes land more often than they miss, but the whole thing has the shape of a sketch that runs a little too long. There is a level editor included via the Far Cry Arcade system if you want to squeeze more life out of the assets, though that depends entirely on how much you enjoy that toolset. This is DLC for a specific kind of Far Cry player - someone who burned through the base game, likes Hurk's brand of humor, and wants a low-stakes palate cleanser before the third chapter. It is not a complete experience on its own, and there is nothing here to convert someone who bounced off Far Cry 5. Grab it as part of the season pass or Gold Edition if you know you want more time in that world. As a standalone ask, the short runtime is the main thing to weigh. Alex, Scout Team