Far Cry 6 – Review

While Far Cry has always been a popular Ubisoft IP, the series gained a lot of popularity with the release of Far Cry 3 back in 2012. FC3 offered a massive open-world experience, with a lot of things to do, and a villain that kickstarted Ubisoft’s obsession with finding an even bigger villain for each of the Far Cry games that followed suit. Sadly, the series, while still very fun, have also reached the point that you’re just doing the same thing every new release, albeit in a new skin. Even though we very much enjoyed what Far Cry 6 had on offer, it also felt like we were still playing Far Cry 3, with a lot of small distractions thrown in the mix hoping you wouldn’t notice that this is basically still the same game.

Story

In Far Cry 6, we are taken to the fictional nation of Yara that has been in turmoil since Antón Castillo has overthrown the government. Castillo originally promised that Yara would once again become a great nation and that everyone would be deemed equal. Sadly, it doesn’t take long before he basically enslaves people to work on the fields where he grows Viviro, a medicine that is supposed to be effective against cancer. People get rounded up to serve in the military or to work the fields, and you’ll be playing as Dani Rojas, who wants to escape the country. Sadly, things go south quickly and you soon find yourself surrounded by dead friends and family. Even though you still want to make it to America, you join the resistance to overthrow Castillo’s fascist grip over Yara.

The story is quite good and it’s presented via a lot of voiced dialogues, which certainly helps with the immersion. Even though there is a lot of filling, the pacing feels okay, and the basic underlying plot works well for a game such as this.

Graphics

We have tried the PS5 version of Far Cry 6 and we were left with very mixed feelings. The islands that make up the whole of Yara are beautiful. We loved exploring the (somewhat empty) world that opened up around us, and we were treated to many beautiful views. We loved the backdrops, we loved just gazing at the distance, and more than often we just stopped to take everything. Sadly, when we came closer to inspect certain parts of the world, we noticed a lot of reused assets, clipping errors, poor textures, and even more rough edges. This was especially noticeable during cutscenes where the lip-syncing felt particularly off. Nonetheless, Far Cry 6 is a pretty game for the most part, but it’s clear that this one was developed as a last-gen release, rather than a PS5 or Xbox Series game.

Sound

Let’s immediately address the elephant in the room concerning the sound department. It seems to be a trend now for movies and games to act out inclusiveness by adding weird accents or random words to English sentences, to make it feel as if the characters are speaking their native language. And; even though this gimmick works from time to time, we personally believe the world is ready for games such as this that are just completely spoken in that native language. We wouldn’t have minded a Spanish original version of Far Cry 6. True, it makes it harder to follow dialogues in the background, but it would add another layer of immersion to the experience. Yes, we are aware there is a Spanish dub, but this one doesn’t have proper lip-syncing and Giancarlo Esposito is dubbed over by Gerardo Reyero.

That being said, we did very much enjoy the voice acting in the game, as every actor (even those in minor roles) realistically brings their character to life. This is further emphasized by a great soundtrack and bass-heavy sound effects for your massive arsenal of weapons. We did very much appreciate the massive oomph that came with many of the weapons, as this actually gave you the feeling of being in the midst of a warzone.

Gameplay

Far Cry 6 is, like its predecessors, an open-world action-adventure first-person shooter. The game still follows the same formula it had since the third installment, where you are dropped in an open-world situation, where you can opt to follow the main storyline, or go rogue and complete all side-objectives first. This game puts a heavy emphasis on side content, to drown out the feeling that this is once again the same game in a different skin. Is this a bad thing? Not really. Is it a good thing? Not really.

The gameplay portion of the game is what you’ve come to expect of the series over the years, and the very big map is fun to explore. Sadly, we felt the map was sometimes very empty and that a lot of time was spent going from one objective to another. Also, Ubisoft is putting too much focus on DLC and microtransactions that it immediately ruins a big portion of the fun. Nonetheless, we enjoyed exploring the world and even experience all the extra things we could do. Once again we find base-building components, side missions for extra gear, small text-based missions where you send out recruits to find materials, or even the newly added cockfights. The latter adds another item to the gameplay, namely collecting roosters to expand your roster of ‘fighters’.

Once again, we very much enjoyed the content on display, but it just felt like we’ve been here before. The Amigos (pets) are also a fun addition, but they just kept dying on us versus every single enemy they encountered, taking away from the overall fun again. The cars handle somewhat poorly, as do the horses, and the mode that allows you to track the road automatically is so bugged we were constantly heading the wrong way, or simply got stuck in random objects. It feels as if the early adopters are currently beta testing the game, as there are quite a few clipping errors, instances where your Amigo just gets stuck in a wall, where enemies spot you through walls, and so on.

Conclusion

Rest assured, those who are looking for a similar experience as the last games will have an amazing time with this new installment of Far Cry. Those expecting Ubisoft to truly spice things up may end up very disappointed, as you’ll be going through the same motions once again. The game is a lot of fun, offers a lot of content, has an interesting premise, but it also needs a whole lot of polish to truly stand out from the previous entries. We hope that the next Far Cry game will mix things up a little again, but for now, this one will make sure you can spend your time exploring a massive map while killing loads of bad guys.

Ibuki

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Aspiring ninja.

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