Far Cry 6 Review
Series: Far Cry
Composer: Pedro Bromfman
Mode: Multiplayer video game
Platforms: Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 4, Amazon Luna, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Google Stadia, Microsoft Windows
Developers: Ubisoft Toronto, Ubisoft Milan
Publishers: Ubisoft, Ubisoft Milan
Genres: First-person shooter, Adventure game
"Review Copy Provided By UbiSoft"
The Far Cry franchise has always been a series I’ve loved over the years since it’s original release back in 2004 as it’s a series I feel I have grown up with from my teenage years and truly seen it come into its own as headliner series that continues to define the FPS genre. One of my personally favorite Far Cry games was 3 as I loved the setting and the constant clashing with villain Vaas, following that was Far Cry 4 and the pure zaniness of Pagan Min in Kyrat in the Himalayas. Far Cry Primal and Far Cry 5 were not my favorite entries and felt formulaic, especially Far Cry New Order which I really felt was a poor entry in this series. Here we are 2 years removed from the last entry with a brand new one in Far Cry 6 that looks to give us an incredible environment to be our playground and a new villain that looks to exceed what We’ve experienced with Vaas and Pagan Min. Does it succeed? Let’s find out!
Story
Anton Castillo is the El Presidente of the fictional country in the heart of the Caribbean known as Yara or better known as Republica de Yara. Anton refers to Yara as a paradise and rules it with a ruthless iron fist under his regime the Fuerzs Nacionales de Defense and has no qualms about killing his citizens who dare to speak out against his tyranny and the forced labor and slavery. Anton’s regime is hindered by the resistance known as Libertad that is headed by the charismatic yet mysterious Clara Garcia and the quest to liberate Yara and restore democracy……or so she says. Drawn into this infernal conflict is none other than Dani Rojas who simply wants to move to the United States of America and start a life in Miami until fate decides otherwise. What lies in store for Dani in the liberation of Yara?
Gameplay
Far Cry 6 plays like the previous entries in the series in that it is an open world with looting and crafting mechanics that give it an RPG-ish like feel. Basically, the world you’re in is at your whims as you can do just about anything you can think of from flying a helicopter or plane to shooting rockets from your back to having a pet crocodile named Guapo. This game is insanely fun and opens up more and more as it goes on.
You have access to 3 primary weapons and a sidearm and special weapon that’s strapped to your back. You can have any combination of rifles, machine guns, flamethrowers, crossbows, and more that you can cycle through using the weapon wheel. You also have access to numerous secondary weapons like dynamite and grenades to blow up stuff along with gas canisters you can throw and shoot to explode in areas as well as baseballs you can throw to distract the enemy. You also have other options in your weapon wheel such as a dialogue wheel for speaking to NPCs and other players in the Co-op mode as well as the ability to select a fishing rod to go fishing at various fishing ports as well as the ability (once unlocked) to call for a vehicle delivery.
You move around like most FPS games and can sprint, slide, crouch, ADS (Aim Down Sights), fire off rounds, melee, peep around corners, mount various vehicles and animals, much more. Getting around the environment really comes down to what you feel like doing and how creative you can get. Want to hop on a horse and ride to a armed camp and take out all the enemies and then hop in a helicopter and fly it in hostile territory and hop out the helicopter to parachute down and then hop on an ATV and shred it over to a side mission? There’s nothing stopping you from doing that and much more.
You can find work benches all over Yara where you can craft various upgrades for your weapons which can range from DIY silencers made from milk bottles all the way to official suppressors. You can make extended magazines along with various scopes and even different bullet types from ones that allow you to pierce armor to ones that are deadly on impact to poison bullets that can drive your enemies to attack their own allies and more. You’re able to do this by gathering various items that you can scavenge around the environment from scrap metal and gun powder to animal meat and more.
You’re given your main missions from Clara, Juan, the Monteros and more. When given a mission, you’ll have the scene switch to a colorful background where you have the 3D model of the character talking to you and detailing the mission while giving you the option to either accept and track the mission or decline it. You can find endless amounts of side quests that have you doing various things from destroying enemy compounds to freeing resistance fighters and even finding various patches needed to open special boxes. These side quests and mini quests will give you your money’s worth in content.
There’s also online Co-op allowing you to tackle the main campaign as well as special operations missions. Having another player to play with makes the game substantially better as you aren’t tethered to the games’ dumb AI and can make getting through a lot of sections very easy and make the challenging sections a lot of fun with the mayhem you can unleash.
Graphics
So, this is an area where the game is admittedly a mixed bag because in some instances the game looks jaw droppingly realistic and in other instances it looks like a video game from two generations ago with framerate stutters and texture pop-in and clipping.
Let’s start off with the jaw dropping comment first. There will be moments when you’re roaming about and you’ll just stop and look at the scenery and the environment, lighting, and ambiance just hits you with how stunning it all looks. The way the water looks and the motion of it is so life like that I had moments where I would just stop to go fishing and admire how real it looks. The same can be said of the vistas such as the range of the mountains and the forestry as it really all comes to life and looks so lush and lavish especially with the wildlife that roams about it.
Character models are pretty well done as well with the main villain Antón's Castillo looking every bit the spitting image of Giancarlo Esposito even down to his mannerisms. The player character Dani Rojas looks good in both female and male variants. Clara Garcia and the Libertad characters all look pretty good although they look like video game created characters unlike Antón and Dani. One of the things I really enjoyed seeing with the characters in the game is the wide diversity of Hispanics and how very different we all look and it features not only the stereotype of what we Hispanics look like but also showcases Afro-Latinos and Afro-Latinas.
Running on the Xbox Series X; the game runs at 4K 60FPS and looks incredibly smooth with occasional performance hiccups. On the Xbox Series S the game runs at 1440P at 60FPS as well as at 1080P 60FPS with little if any performance issues and looks just as great on the Series S as it does on the Series X.
Audio
When it comes down to the audio, this game really shines with a phenomenal soundtrack that has several licensed tracks that will have you wanting to get up and dance. The voice acting is superb from the entire cast from the minor NPC characters all the way up to the various members of the Libertad and Fuerzas Nacionales de Defensa factions.
The voices of Dani do an impeccable job of making Dani a very believable and charismatic character. The voice that steals the show is none other than Giancarlo Esposito as he delivers every line with an Oscar worthy performance that is hands down the best voice acting performance in a game in 2021. The flora and fauna all sound lifelike and alive while the guns and explosions all replicate what you would expect them to sound like.
Downsides
I don’t really have much to say as far as downsides because I didn’t run into many outside of a few instances where the performance during cutscenes running choppily and stuttering and oddly running at 30FPS (sometimes down to 24FPS) while in during gameplay the game runs at 60FPS. It’s very jarring to go from a smooth 60FPS down to 30FPS just because of cutscenes so I’m not sure if this will be fixed with a patch later or if this is just done for cinematic effect.
The other issue that I have is the odd hit detection when it comes to firing off you guns as there were times when I lined up a head shot and for some reason the shot either misses or hits the enemy in another area and its strange how I can even be point blank and still not be able to get the shots off properly.
The stealth functionality is basically broken because the AI can be atrociously braindead especially your “Amigos” like Guapo who goes out of his way to run directly into enemy line of sight and draw attention to you even if you are hidden because somehow, they will all know where you are due to Guapo or any of your companion AI. The companion AI also is lackluster because if you are downed, they will not always make the effort to revive you and just like Guapo, they will will run directly into the enemy line of sight and just makes stealth a pointless option. Another odd thing is how rapidly enemies respawn in areas near instantaneously.
I did find the times when the game decides to get political that it’s done in a way that completely contrasts the moments you’re in and feel very……heavy handed and preachy especially with it’s social commentary on America and The American Dream which I personally felt to be incredibly cringe and unneeded and conflicting with the zany instances that the game finds you in. Yes, this game is political in that it’s telling the story of Yara’s people rising up but I feel the anti-American sentiments to be really out of place in this game’s world where I’m firing rockets from my back.
The Wrapup
Far Cry 6 is seriously one of the most fun and creative games of 2021 and will have you dumping hours into it for months to come especially with the Co-op functionality. The story narrative is really good and keeps you engaged except for when it wants to get on a soap box and become preachy on the real world and political which just doesn’t mesh well. The gameplay is insanely fun and the gunplay is fun yet can be finnicky at times which hopefully can be patched out in the future. With a compelling narrative and even more compelling villain in Antón Castillo, creative chaos in the gameplay, an open world to explore multiple massive islands, and more make Far Cry 6 one of the best games of 2021 if for anything then for Giancarlo Esposito’s performance alone.
The Verdict
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