Far Cry 6
In Ubisoft’s newest installment, FarCry 6, we are taken to the tropical world of Yara where a dictator named Castillo reigns supreme over the lands. Like FarCrys in the past, it is our duty to free ourselves from his control and liberate the world of Yara from his grasp. While this doesn’t sound new to fans of far cry, there are some major changes that make liberating Yara feel different than FarCrys before it.
Graphics & Presentation
The graphics are gorgeous and run at a smooth 60 frames when playing on the Xbox Series X. Occasionally there will be dips in framerates in some cutscenes but never during actual gameplay. FarCry has mastered the tropical paradise with an evil underbelly look and this is hands down their most gorgeous world to date. The high dynamic range mixed with the lush environments left me feeling like I was in a tropical jungle and in the world of Yara. What made me feel truly immersed in Yara were the radio stations and music throughout the game. With a heavy focus on a variety of latin music, it made me feel like I was truly there, and immersed in the Yaran culture. It is the first time I can remember not turning off the car radio in a game in a long time.
The art and graphics style doesn't deviate much from the FarCry’s in the past, but that is expected considering it is the 6th full game installment in the franchise. With that being said, the game looks absolutely gorgeous and I consider it one of the best looking games of 2021 thus far. FarCry and Ubisoft did not reinvent the wheel, but they made sure they put some really nice rims on it.
Gameplay and Mechanics
The gameplay is pretty familiar when compared to previous FarCry games and open world shooters. Stealth is still king when trying to maximize rewards when taking over outposts, checkpoints, ambushes, and other objectives littered throughout Yara. Stealth feels as good as ever with the brutal melee kills, the punchy suppressors, and the excitement of trying to wipe an entire outpost completely unseen. FarCry knows stealth isn’t for everyone, and sometimes you just gotta go in guns blazing. The addition of the Supremo backpacks in FarCry 6 adds an extra over-the-top, and in-your -face way to play the game. While most supremo backpacks are kitted to be big, loud, and highly explosive. There are a few supremos nestled throughout Yara’s side quests that give you supremos with a little more stealth or utility involved. Such as the supremo that lets you see enemies through walls and eliminate them with high caliber rounds. Where FarCry mixes it up in this installment is how they give you options on going loud or quiet in each and every fight with the addition of work benches.
In FarCry 6, they removed the tried and true skill tree from FarCrys past and replaced it with a gear and weapon mod system that is accessed through these work benches. To be honest, I was rubbed the wrong way by this idea at first because I was so accustomed to the skill tree and enjoyed building out my character with a stealth build to start. With that gone, all your talent tree skills are located within gear items ranging from headgear to shoes. Each gear set provides buffs that will make you stronger in stealth, close range, long range, or explosives to name a few. I didn’t like this change at first because I felt like I was road blocked from playing as much stealth as I wanted, but I quickly realized it completely changes how the game plays and feels. you won't have much variety in how you play through the first hour or so, but once gear starts to unlock it gives you more and more options as you enter each and every fight. With work benches littered throughout yara, you can access one at any time to make changes to your guns and your gear. There are often multiple workbenches littered throughout operation missions as well to give you true flexibility. This puts more of a focus on liberating Yara and not doing whatever catches your eye to get XP points for your skill tree. By forcing the player to acquire new gear, weapons, and mods from liberating outposts, completing operations, and helping out Yaran civilians; it's the first time I can remember where it didn't feel like my goal was to just power level my character.
My two complaints with the gameplay and mechanics is that Yara is FUCKING HUGE so seeing how big the map is and knowing that liberating areas is how you gain gear and weapons.. It can feel a bit daunting. However they pace it well so it doesn’t feel impossible or never ending. Second would be that there’s not much difficulty scaling so going stealth on some of the operations or ambushes can feel too easy and a little cheap.
Story & Replayability
Without giving away spoilers, Yara is controlled by a dictator named Anton Castillo (played by the talented Giancarlo Espesito) who took control of Yara through a pharmaceutical meant to help cure cancer. Alongside him is his son, Diego, who he is grooming to be the heir apparent. The story can feel clunky at times, often introducing too many people early on at a fast pace which made it hard for me to care or empathize with certain characters as I progressed through the game. The best part of the story in my opinion is the dynamic between Diego and his father, Anton. Anton Castillo operates in a very “black and white” mindset and wants Diego to follow his father’s footsteps, however Diego is this grey area that is trying to find his own identity and morals. It pushes the story and development in directions that felt fresh to the FarCry franchise, even if the story felt a little clunky outside of the Diego/Anton plot line.
It took me about 25 hours to beat the campaign while also getting distracted by doing checkpoints, outpost liberations, and treasure hunts throughout my campaign run. While it took me 25 hours to complete, there is still so much left to do and liberate throughout yara. Whether you want to go back and liberate all outposts, complete all yaran side story missions, or unlock all the cute and funny companions to have accompanying your side; there’s so much to do post campaign. They also provide a bit of endgame with the Insurgency missions which refresh each week and are a list of missions to help gain intel on a Castillo Leader. Once you complete the list of objectives, it reveals where the leader’s location is to eliminate. With the weekly refresh as well as all the content littered throughout massive Yara, you will have plenty to do after you complete the main story.
Fun Factor and what i loved
There’s something just so satisfying about going rogue in Far Cry. I love knowing that I'm the only one heading to this outpost, and have to use positioning, wits, timing, and a little luck to wipe out outposts unnoticed. When things go south it never gets old having to quickly find a place to bunker down, knowing you have helicopters, tanks, and artillery vehicles now swarming to your location. It’ll put a smile on your face as you let out an exhale after some of those encounters. I also loved the presentation and how they introduced new characters, especially the companions!
The story ended up driving my curiosity throughout as I was left on my seat on what Castillo had up his sleeve next. One of my favorite things to do had to do with an aspect of fast traveling. If you have the skies cleared at any fast travel location and also have your wingsuit unlocked (very early on), then you can drop in on the location from the sky. This was great because it was such a fun way of navigating the massive but gorgeous lands of Yara from above. I found myself opting for the wingsuit when needing to travel long distances, and sometimes even drop in on outposts in the wingsuit.
What did I not like and can it be improved?
With the game being so big, there were a couple times the outposts would get bugged with enemies occasionally spawning in walls or me wiping an entire area but it still claiming enemies we’re nearby. The only time that was ever frustrating would be the RARE occasion when I'm in a stealth situation and a character that's clipped in a tree or wall that I can't see ends up spotting me and causing mayhem.
It's not a dislike for me, but this map is gargantuan which could be overwhelming for some. It's a game that I ended up relying on fast travel quite often because sometimes missions would be 2,000+ meters apart which can be cumbersome at times, especially if fast travel isn't available or unlocked yet. If you’re a gamer that doesn’t want to have to grind, then the size of this map will likely be a sore point for you.
Conclusion
Overall Far Cry 6 is a solid sequel in the well-established franchise. While the story can feel clunky at times, the dynamic between Diego and Anton keeps you wanting to continue to dive deeper into Yara and it’s secrets. The guns, stealth, and explosions feel bigger and badder than ever while giving you plenty of options on how you want to engage in fights. If this is your first FarCry game, you’ll no doubt enjoy playing it and it is a great place to start, especially with the new work bench mechanics. If you’re a Far Cry veteran hoping for something completely different than Far Cry’s before, then you’ll be very disappointed. However, they continue to do what they do well and avoid rocking the boat too much in trying to re-invent themselves. All in all I enjoyed it more than the past couple of FarCry games and would recommend it to anyone looking to enjoy a solid single player/co-op stealth shooter through a luscious yet dangerous tropical island.
