Far Cry 6 is the latest in a very popular game series from Ubisoft. In this game, the player takes on the role of Dani (male or female) and works to free the island of Yara from its El Presidente.
As with all Far Cry games, expect explosive action and scenarios that work out differently depending on how you approach them – stealth or guns blazing.
The Game
As mentioned, you assume the role of Dani Rojas, a Yara local, who is trying to escape the island and its tyrannical rule with his friends to greener pastures in Miami. Dani is a former Yaran military conscript with an aptitude for tactics and guns.
As you may expect, the escape plan doesn’t quite work out as you very quickly see the situation go from bad to worse in 0.2 seconds and you must escape the area, without a weapon and soldiers hot on your tail. Now, this may sound a lot like previous Far Cry titles, and you would be correct for thinking so. Far Cry 6 feels like all the good things from previous games that we loved.
As you try to escape the Island as a refugee, you meet the game’s antagonist, Anton Castillo.
Anton is ruthless, emotionless, and driven – a very dangerous combination when you add power and authority to the mix. He has the single-minded determination to stabilise Yara’s economy with a new cancer treating drug, known as Viviro, which is produced from Yara’s tabaco.
Things continue to look worse for our protagonist as he finds himself alone and stranded on one of the smaller Islands surrounding the Yaran mainland. This is where the game truly starts as you join up with the guerrilla fighters known as Libertad, as they work to destabilise and overthrow the Yaran government and its dictator, Anton Castillo. The Libertad is lead by Clara Garcia and she convinces you to help them by promising you the transport away from Yara that you were looking for in the beginning but, as she makes very clear to you, there’s no such thing as a free lunch and you must “pay your rent” and assist the efforts of the guerrilla fighters.
Seeing as your biggest obstacle to leaving is the government, and they are working to eliminate the government – your interests align and you agree to aid them so as to gain your ride out of there.
The game is played in your traditional Far Cry way – take over the map. This is done by taking over outposts and key strategic locations such as forts, plantations, and stations. Working alone for these – once a place is taken over, the Libertad then sweeps in and takes over once you’ve done all the hard work (but we wouldn’t have it any other way – would we?). These locations can then be used by the player to restock on ammo, get transport, work on your weapons, and potentially get a side quest or two.
There are tons of vehicles in this game and the player gets their own customizable ride to strap weapons on and call to you wherever you are on the map. These vehicles range from tractors to military vehicles and horses. There are even wild horses scattered throughout the map that you can ride.
One big change that Far Cry 6 sees over its predecessors is the introduction of the Amigos.
These are not just any old friends but more like animal companions that follow you all around the map (even when you zip line across a gorge – they’re there, somehow) and assist you in various ways. The first Amigo you are introduced to is Guapo, a massive crocodile with a penchant for human flesh and combat. There are seven Amigo in total to be unlocked during the game and each of them brings their own unique skills and charm to help you in your task to overthrow Anton.
Our Thoughts
As fun as Far Cry 6 is to play, the series itself has remained mostly the same since Far Cry 3, with only minor changes to storyline and mechanics. That being said, for those of you who are fans of the series, this won’t really bug you too much. As the saying goes – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
What Far Cry does bring to the plate is a fresher look at the traditional evil leader, and army, good rebels, map to takeover gameplay. In this, you start as a local trying to escape and are unable to do so, rather than tourists visiting and getting stranded (Far Cry 3) or a local returning and choosing to change the status quo (Far Cry 4).
The Far Cry 6 map is also promised to be the biggest playground we’ve ever seen so far, and in this aspect, they have not disappointed. This map is absolutely massive and even finishing the main storyline won’t have led you into all the corners and valleys to be found in it. So, for me – that means one thing, EXPLORE! As a “slow RPG” player, the thought of so much to explore just because you can and not because you’re trying to get to a quest marker is a massive bonus for me. And it’s rewarding. The map is spectacular and there are lots of oddities and things to be seen as Ubisoft worked too hard to captivate and represent Latin American culture in this game.
One negative for me was the weapons system, and I mention this hesitantly as there are aspects of the weapons system that really works nicely. So, the good – the weapons are completely customizable, and you use parts and junk found throughout the map to do so. Your first suppressor is literally a carton taped to the end of your barrel and that’s great! Also firing it too quickly will result in it breaking and no longer suppressing your shots. Higher-level items obviously last longer, work better, and have less of a negative effect on the weapons stats. Your ammo types are also interchangeable and help you take down certain enemy types easier while being more ineffective against others – armor piercing is great for armored troops but terrible against those not wearing armor. Hollowpoint is true to the opposite.
Now for the bad,
The constant reshuffling of weapons in my inventory, although more realistic, was incredibly tedious and I went through the whole game not really knowing, or being comfortable or happy, with the weapons and weapon configurations I chose to keep as my standard – and I did change these up to try and find ones I was comfortable with.
The game does compensate for this by having workbenches littered throughout the map (literally littered – sometimes it doesn’t even make sense) and near any major point of interest (forts, etc.). So, you can make the changes you need based on your reconnaissance of the area you’re about to hit. This being said, make sure you do your homework and scout out the areas, and make the changes necessary, so you aren’t going in with one hand tied behind your back.
With everything being weighed and measured, Far Cry 6 is still one helluva (can I say that?) fun game to play and I do feel like they’ve done a lot right and learnt from past titles to smoothen out a lot of the kinks in this one.
We award 8 out of 10 stars to Far Cry 6.
Thanks again to Prima Interactive and Ubisoft for the chance to review this game.
