Lost on Mars is the second story DLC for Far Cry 5. You play as Nick Rye, who is sucked into a spaceship and is forced to help his buddy Hurk, who is stuck on Mars. He warns you that an alien species will soon destroy life on Earth unless you manage to power up an AI named Anne, who will then command her robots to quell the invasion.
Mars is as barren as you can imagine, and Nick is tasked with finding energy crystals and using them to power up facilities. Hurk turns out to be just a talking head, so you must also look for his remaining body parts. After a couple of story missions, you are let loose and can complete the objectives at your own pace. You are given a jetpack fairly early on, which helps in traversing the boring and empty world. Barring a few fun missions, you will spend a lot of time jetpacking across Mars and shooting large insects with your laser guns.
Hurk’s constant chatter and style of humour gets annoying really fast. There is fine line between silly yet fun and total stupidity, and Hurk belongs to the latter category. Lost on Mars also marks the return of climbable towers as Nick must utilise the jetpack to solve a platforming puzzle of sorts, in order to power them up. While I did not mind the towers in this expansion, I eventually got tired of the repetition.
As you complete more missions, you unlock more guns and consumables. While some weapons, like the one that turns enemies into chickens, can be fun; the gunplay mechanics of Far Cry 5 do not suit laser-based combat. Since you’re not fighting humans, most enemies ending being bullet sponges. There are some other challenges for you to complete and insect queens for you to hunt, but the core ideas behind the DLC are not interesting.
Lost on Mars is not worth your time or money. The gunplay, levels and encounter design are not at all engaging. On top of that, the characters can easily become annoying in an already boring story. Far Cry 5 is great on its own and you’re better off finishing side-content or replaying it, instead of diving into its latest DLC.
