Far Cry 6 Is More of the Same, Making It the Best Far Cry Yet but Nothing More

Far Cry 6 takes what has worked in the franchise’s past and adds just enough gameplay improvements, along with a unique personality, to really stand tall on its own. It takes what we call standard Ubisoft open-world mechanics, which in recent times have started to become dull, and tweaks them with the right amount of balance so that players who may not have enjoyed the previous entries may do so now. Of course, some of Ubisoft’s more recent design decisions, such as bloating a game’s length higher than what I would call reasonable to cover during a review period, are still present here even if they are done reasonably well.

I’m surprised that I continue to enjoy my time with Far Cry 6 as much as I am, given that I haven’t had as much fun with the series since Far Cry 3, which for many remains the crown jewel of the franchise. A large part of that can be attributed to the fact that Far Cry 6 hits a good balance of being goofy and being serious when required. Giancarlo Esposito’s stellar performance as Antón Castillo makes for a decent villain, although the game’s visuals sometimes fail to capture the nuances of his performance, but then again the game also lets you use a crocodile and a robo-dog to distract and kill enemies from a distance, so I guess it’s not a big issue.

Taking place in the fictional Caribbean island country of Yara, Far Cry 6 features the franchise’s first fully realized protagonist in both performance and voice with Dani Rojas, who can be selected as a male or female character at the start of the game. Unlike previous Far Cry games, the viewpoint of the protagonist now shifts to third person perspective during cutscenes and in camps, allowing Dani to become more than just an empty shell (albeit named) found in previous entries. This gives a more personal feel to tackling missions as Dani journeys across Yara to find other guerrilla fighters to join their cause and take down Castillo’s dictatorship. Likewise, I liked most of the characters I met during my adventure, a lot of whom are written in extremely predictable fashion. Given that the game is (mildly) dealing with or commenting upon real world issues, the stereotypical characters actively broke my immersion.

So much for the “guerilla fantasy” that was plastered all over the game’s marketing. Sure, if you treat the game as a mindlessly goofy blow-everything-up adventure, it may work. But when certain story moments move towards a more dramatic direction, the facade seems to fall apart.

Customisation has been given more focus in Far Cry 6 by way of the “amigos”, the “resolver” weapons, the “supremo” backpacks and more. Of these, the amigos are the most interesting to me, where you can recruit certain animals throughout Yara to be your sidekick in causing mayhem for the military. These include cute dogs, a crocodile, and even a chicken, all of which have been a big focus in the game’s pre-launch marketing. The supremo backpacks and resolver weapons are basically specialised weapons in your arsenal that push Far Cry into the Just Case territory. Armor customisation is also present here, with each piece of clothing coming with their own unique benefits, but thankfully you can change their appearance based on what other accessories and items you have.

Weapons and gunplay feel a little bit better on the PS5 thanks to the DualSense controller, although I can’t say whether you’ll find any meaningful difference from previous games on PC and Xbox consoles. What I can say is that the new inventory system is ridiculously bad. You can only carry 3 primary weapons, one sidearm and one supremo backpack at once. This means that you can’t change your loadout in the middle of an encounter, meaning if you get into a fight you didn’t plan for it may not be fun. Enemy variety is only superficial, and the same goes for the new different ammo types. These systems sound like they were made for a checklist of features Ubisoft wanted to market the game and make it look deep, except they don’t add much to the game and in fact can take the fun away from encounters.

The game also has arbitrary base building and RPG mechanics which are nothing to write home about, when instead one of its most entertaining mechanics is a literal cockfighting mini-game. I’m not joking as it made me chuckle quite a bit, and I recommend any one who gets their hands on the game to try it out.

I could go on about the shallow mechanics present here which are targeted to please the widest demographic possible, but perhaps the root of this problem is the dated open world design formula that Far Cry, and other Ubisoft games, have relied upon for years now. The way point heavy, map clearance focused mission design combined with the dated visuals just reminds me of games of the past, and not in a good way. Maybe by the time the next one comes out, which it will eventually, Ubisoft will have figured out a better design philosophy, the roots of which are already present in Far Cry 6.

Far Cry 6 PS5 Features and Performance

I played the game on the PS5, where it only has one performance profile – a 60fps target at a dynamic resolution reaching 4K, along with providing the usual bells and whistles that come with the DualSense controller.

Speaking of it, the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are used quite well in situations that suit them, although there are certain mechanics for which I preferred turning them off. While those features are well integrated during gunfights, with the triggers responding well to the pull of a shotgun or assault rifle, putting resistance on them during driving feels a little cumbersome to me. The haptics are pretty well suited for most of its use cases though, which particularly add to the immersion when riding a horse. On the PS5, the game also supports activity cards and Game Help feature, which you can use to quickly jump to certain missions or find paths to those collectibles in an easier manner.

I can tell that the game aggressively shifts the resolution to hit that frame rate, even though it doesn’t do it quite successfully all the time. While the opening hours are fairly smooth, some missions in the latter section of the game will see frequent screen tearing, suggesting that the frame rate doesn’t hit its target, while lowering the visual clarity. Speaking of clarity, enemies tend to blend with the environment quite often. That’s where the game’s excellent accessibility options come in, which I’m pretty sure is the most inclusive in the franchise history. Sure, it may not rival that of The Last of Us Part 2, but then again no game has up till this point.

The game doesn’t look markedly better than Far Cry 5, and in some cases the character models arguably look…worse? Or maybe it’s the more casual art design. Either way, I don’t mind the visual design of the game considering what it is, but I suppose we shouldn’t have expected a major graphics overhaul since it is a cross-gen game after all. Bringing the game up to 60fps on the new consoles was an obvious, but nice decision which no doubt had added a lot to my enjoyment of the game.

Far Cry 6 does feature ray tracing, but not on the console versions. Honestly, I’ll take higher frame rates on a first person shooter over ray tracing, but it would have been nice to get an option for those who want it. The PC version includes it as well as AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution, which should help older hardware run the game a little better.

For a more in-depth look at Far Cry 6 in action, check out IGN’s full review of the game, or you can watch the video review below!

Far Cry 6 adds a lot to the already successful formula with an affable protagonist and a good amount of gameplay improvements, although its bloated length and dated gameplay design may dour the fun that can be had in its initial hours.

Far Cry 6 India Price and Editions

Far Cry 6 is available in three editions:

• Far Cry 6 Standard Edition – Rs. 2,999 (PC- Epic Games Store), Rs. 3,999 (PlayStation/Xbox)
• Far Cry 6 Gold Edition – Rs. 4,999 (PC- Epic Games Store), Rs. 6,499 (PlayStation/Xbox)
• Far Cry 6 Ultimate Edition – Rs. 5,499 (PC- Epic Games Store), Rs. 7,999 (PlayStation/Xbox)

The Gold Edition of the game includes the Season Pass and the Libertad Pack. The Ultimate Edition includes both of those and Ultimate Pack, Vice Pack, Croc Hunter Pack and the Jungle Expedition Pack.

Far Cry 6 is out now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles.

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