Far Cry 6 – Review

Far Cry’s tendrils can be felt in more or less every open-world game to come out in the last decade or so. Whilst the series has moved away from tall towers and cinematic camera sweeps, the series dedication to combining the baffling, the goofy, and the serious have remained well and truly intact. Far Cry 6 manages to deliver on its series promises but also dabbles in some new things here and there to make it feel fresh – although not always better.

Join Libertad

First things first though, the story. Yara (based on real-world Cuba) is suffering under the iron fist of Anton Castillo – a fascistic dictator with a vision. The idea of a “perfect” Yara, filled with “True” Yarans, and the construction of “paradise”. You better believe those buzz words are on a loop for all of Yara to hear. “Fake” Yarans – basically the poor and the forgotten – are enslaved to make the literal cure for cancer.

I say enslaved quite literally too. The process of making said cure requires splicing tobacco with toxins that slowly kill the unprotected workers who are tilling the fields. Throw in military executions, curfews, and all manner of abhorrent practices, and you have a regime that is truly messed up, but also shockingly believable. Propaganda aside, Castillo is one of the most charismatic bastards to grace the medium.

Giancarlo Esposito, the voice and body actor for Castillo, does an excellent job at portraying the mad dictator. His commanding presence and over-the-top villainy are a joy to behold and are only enhanced by the fantastic motion-capture work that injects his vocal performance with the emotion and gravitas needed to sell such a character. He isn’t the only character in Far Cry 6, of course, and his son, Diego, is a wonderful counter-balance to Castillo’s madness.

Tad Forgettable

Outside of that, the supporting villains in Far Cry 6 are universally forgettable. Whereas the Castillo’s are painfully believable, their underlings are comically evil. They all more-or-less have the same personalities, so you could swap the nasty Admiral for the despicable Nephew and nothing would change. So much effort was put into the primary antagonist, so it’s a shame lazy writing tarnished the villains you will be spending the majority of your time dethroning.

That being said, the good guys are much more likable. Practically every actor delivers a fantastic performance, and whilst the cast tends to lean heavily on the goofy, but lovable, veteran trope, it’s certainly more engaging than the psychopathy that infects the ranks of the villains. Your character, Dani (I played the female Dani), is also very likable. She is willing to goof off with the comic relief, get serious with the grizzled few, and you better believe she will pop the head off of anyone in her way. 

Overall, the plot plays like a butter chugging, coke-guzzling, popcorn flick. It ends up being rather predictable as a result. You can tell who is going to die in a dramatic fashion to spur the revolution on long before their final scene. It’s enjoyable and it tackles some poignant topics, but it’s really being held together by Castillo – which is not exactly a bad thing.

Amazing World

Yara as a backdrop is truly beautiful. Mostly set on one large island with a few smaller landmasses scattered here and there, Yara is a gorgeous tropical hellscape. For every charming mountain village, there is a military outpost filled with Yaran’s waiting to be executed. For every quirky Guerilla Den, there is martial law being forced upon a nearby town. Whilst it’s nearly all trees, grass, sand, and ocean, there is variety under the hood.

When you are not fighting the good fight as part of the main story, you can go out and just wreak havoc. You won’t go more than a few miles without bumping into something to do, whether that be a hidden cache, outpost, convoy, or side quest. Side quests are nearly all interesting diversions that help build the story of Yara nicely, and more often than not, they enhance the supporting cast. Lorenzo’s tumultuous first relationship springs to mind (no spoilers).

Completing side stuff has never been so fun either, and Far Cry 6 really nails the gameplay. Whether you go in guns blazing or with a smidge of skullduggery, the game feels fantastic. Weapons feel powerful, the handling is spot on, and if you are on PS5, the haptic feedback and trigger shenanigans help make every gun feel a little bit different. One aspect of the combat I enjoyed was how varied each enemy was, making target priority a major consideration.

Great Gameplay Loop

Scouting locations to figure out who’s who, and tactfully eliminating threats was always fun. Officers had a tendency to call in airstrikes, medics pick up their fallen comrades, and snipers will end your life before you know what hit you. This is amplified by damage resistances. Certain weapons and ammo types are less effective against different targets. Unloading soft-target ammo into an armored foe is not going to go down well, for example.

This leads to the crafting system, which is fairly basic but allows you to really customize your loadout. Practically every gun comes with a bunch of mod-slots that allow you to add a variety of scopes, suppressors, ammo types – the works. I modded a beefy light machine gun to fire explosive rounds so I could quickly deal with light vehicles, and a suppressed sniper rifle with armor-piercing rounds so I could dome even the hardiest of enemies. The materials required for modding can be found by doing side stuff, and that’s a mighty fine incentive to explore.

The final piece of your arsenal is the hilariously destructive Supremos. Essentially a backpack with benefits, these blighters give Dani new ways to deal with any given scenario. Some have rocket launchers taped to them, others unleash devastating EMP’s, and some just turn you into a melee powerhouse. Unlocking new Supremos once again requires materials found from side activities, and these are a lot of fun to mess around with.

Getting Around

Yara is a big place, and getting around quickly, effectively, and whilst having as much fun as possible is important. There are all manner of vehicles to find out in the wild. Cars, buggies, quads, trucks, tractors, etc. Sometimes you want something a bit bigger – like a car with rocket launchers strapped to it, a mechanized battering ram, or even just a big stonking tank. How about jets filled with napalm, or helicopters? The game has everything you’d ever want, and then some. There are some truly outlandish vehicles to uncover, and I won’t spoil their reveal here. 

One of my favorite ways to traverse Yara was actually on foot. You gain access to a parachute and wingsuit very early on, so launching off of high places and gliding down like a doped-up squirrel was my go-to method of mobility. There are also armors that you can find that can add extra abilities. Some are obvious, like taking reduced damage, but some increase your movement speed significantly. Yara became this giant playground where I was able to run almost as fast as a car, yeet off mountains and glide around effortlessly. 

Unfortunately, Far Cry 6 does stumble here and there. Firstly, platforming is terrible. As much as I liked being on foot and running around, I hated climbing. This is partially because the first-person animations felt off, and partially because it was inconsistent. It’s not always clear what you can and can’t scale. Sometimes Dani will leap onto a building with the grace of a puma, whilst other times she will jump helplessly against a thigh-high fence.

Gripes

The inventory system is also a nightmare. As much as I loved the combat, the weapons, and all the variety it came with, it did mean I had to mess around in menus far too often. Dani can only hold 3 primary weapons at a time, which seriously limits your combat options. A larger weapon wheel would have helped fix this issue, and I don’t really understand why it’s so arbitrarily restrictive. You can’t even set favorite loadouts for quick cycling either. If you like to run around in parkour gear, then you are forced to jump into the menu to change your armor too, since enemies will melt you if you aren’t packing some defense. 

One last niggle I had was the clunky inputs. It took at least a second for any contextual input to be recognized whilst playing. Reloading, changing weapons, deploying parachutes – it all felt terrible. Why Ubisoft thought this was a good idea is beyond me. It’s not like the whole game has input lag either, it’s just specific actions, so I can only assume it was intentional – maybe to add weight. Either way, it left a sour taste. I was also not a fan of the time-wasting quest mechanics. Every quest boiled down to – going somewhere to start a quest; going somewhere else to talk to someone to really start the quest; going somewhere else to do the quest. You could skip the first part in every single quest and the game would be better for it.

Rounding out the package are multiplayer expeditions. I was unable to test this feature, however, every expedition can be played solo, and they are pretty darn fun. I imagine playing with a mate would only make them better. Minigames also make a return with the questionable Cock Fighting being the “highlight”. Essentially a giant Tekken gag, the Cockfighting will probably rustle some feathers – understandably – but Cock Fighting is legal in Cuba (which Yara is based on), so it’s basically just a cultural thing. It’s also a bit bland.

Verdict

Far Cry 6 is just dumb fun. It has its issues, but I couldn’t help but jump in for an hour here and there just to mess around and have fun. The story was a hoot too, and honestly, grinding missions just to see more of Giancarlo Esposito was more than worth it. It’s not going to blow your socks off, but there is a lot to see, a lot to do, and most of it is pretty darn good. 

FAR CRY 6 IS RECOMMENDED

If you enjoy Action games, perhaps you’d like to take a look at Lost Judgment?

Many thanks goes to Ubisoft for a PlayStation 5 review code for this title.