It’s clear from watching and reading other reviews that people wanted to see some serious innovation in this formula. But I have to disagree, I think Ubisoft knows the audience here. I’ve put a couple of weeks into the game, cleared the story, and around 90% of the total content. So let’s answer the burning question.

IS IT GOOD?

Story

I won’t be spoiling any of the story during this review. Honestly, it’s ok, not spectacular and not the best thing about this game but I do want to touch on some things I do and don’t like here.

First and foremost, this is a Ubisoft game. So you can take for granted there will be the usual Ubisoft touch in here. Quirky characters and half-statements on social and political issues. But, that’s ok, I know the deal by now and I can get past this, I’ve played Ubisoft games before and I wasn’t expecting anything else. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and I think it’s for the better given the amount of death you’ll be dishing out during your playthrough. The voice acting (and acting in general) is good, and so is the mocap and all that jazz, as you’d expect from a AAA game.

So, let’s just set the scene. We, Dani Rojas, fight for a small guerilla faction called Libertad. We have Clara, the Leader. She’s cool and pretty much a typically likable character. Her right-hand man, Juan, who is an ex-KGB, ex-CIA, ex-Legends of 67, and so on... Well, he’s a bit of a dick, and yet you do a couple of questionable favors for him throughout the story and just sort of laugh it off, and after finishing the game I still don’t really know why. It’s jarring and contrasting but it seems Dani is more of a tool for the will of others than somebody that can make decisions for himself.

Here and throughout the game there’s a cognitive dissonance between helping Juan on his corrupt missions or slaying thousands of military folk for a laugh in your spare time and then getting these moral compass moments in the game's cutscenes. Where for some reason Dani has a conscience now. I know this is a very Last of Us 2 issue and I shouldn’t really care in a game that doesn’t take itself that seriously in the first place. But I still want to know why they do this? Why? WHY?

This brings me to one of the major shortfalls for me. For such an otherwise fantastic sandbox, ‘why is there such a lack of choice in moments that ultimately didn’t matter anyway. Games do this all the time, where you get a menial outcome at best and make no effect on the main story arc. But that’s not the point, the point is I get to decide and it becomes MY story.

I don’t always agree with Dani’s choice to help certain people, I would have liked the game to give me more choice when it came to interacting with certain people. For example, Bembe, who I would have happily shot dead in the first meeting, but yet I am forced to do multiple missions for this slime ball to pay off somebody else's debt. And the game even shows it can be done by letting you either kill or not kill a certain character in a mission towards the end of the game. So why not give me more of these choices to make? Even if they don’t meaningfully change the plot, they would enhance my personal story.

But one thing this game does do, I hope intentionally, because I think this is why the story actually worked for me. I know, plot twist. It makes me conflicted about the people I’m helping and getting to join my revolution, but at the same time, I also need them for the revolution to succeed.

I mean, I probably don’t. I’m Dani fucking Rojas and I could probably overthrow the US military with my eternally refilling enemy shredding backpack and go gettem attitude, but I digress. For the purpose of the story, I need them.

Among the factions there’s also a few pretty good characters and story arcs that are worth your time. You know, given that you actually tackle them in an order that makes sense and remember what story you’re following. And each faction having people you can relate to as well as people that you don’t, does really drive home how important it is for cooperation between even ideologically opposed parties to stop corporate and political corruption. Ultimately, differences aside, they are fighting for the freedom of Yara and so are you.

Presidente Castillo is also, as I’m sure you’ll know by now, a little less involved in the players journey. But I feel like this is okay, he’s much bigger than you are in the contaxt of Yara and he only really starts to acknowledge you existance once you have become to big of a threat to ignore. His and his sons characters are built well throughout the game and it makes the ending genuinely shocking.

So, as you can see I have a bit of a clusterfuck of emotions going on here. It’s not perfect, and honestly for a game of this scale, in the timeframe it was made, it would be a miracle if it was. But above all, this is ultimately a game about clearing map markers. What the story does extremely well is it serves what is truly great about this game.

That sweet, sweet sandbox.

Gameplay

Gameplay is what this experience is all about and it delivers in so many ways that it’s hard to boil it down to a single catchy sentence, so instead I’m going to cover every element and option this game gives you in this fantastic sandbox.

Supremos

These devices, courtesy of Juan. I guess he’s good for something. Makes Dani a walking war machine. You can buy these from Juan or his merchants and you can upgrade them too. These are great fun and I think a fully welcome addition to my Far Cry arsenal.

Weapons

As for the weapons, there are many, and they feel good too. You shouldn’t have a problem finding a fun combination, whether you’re into a stealth approach or running in gunz a’ blazin’. There’s a ton of customizations and if crafting isn’t for you there’s even some nice combinations you can find around the map. There’s a variety of ammunition and modifications too, which can be fun to play with.

Amigos

Amigos are your combat companions. There are 5 in total and they can do a variety of things, from distracting enemies to straight up murdering them. Honestly they don’t add much to the combat, but they range from cute to carnage and you’ll pick the one that best suits your style. Or sometimes just forget they exist all together, whatever works.

Getting around

There are a bunch of vehicles and ways to get around the map. Everything from horses to napalm dropping aeroplanes. There’s also my personal favorite, the parasailing buggy thing. It’s flexible depending on the anti-air in the area and it’s got a grenade launcher. What’s not to like? There are also a handful of customizable rides. And last but not least, the way you’ll usually get around the map, by skydiving from almost anything that you liberate, which is an enjoyably fast way to get around the map and you can even scout out your targets from the air as you approach.

Gear

There’s a lot of gear in this game, but instead of just giving off stats. Every piece gives a buff of some kind. And even though I know deep down this is kind of the same thing. These mini-buffs mean that you find yourself thinking about the gear that’s good for your playstyle, activity, or approach to an encounter. Instead of just wearing the one with the highest number. I like it!

Loot

There’s a lot of loot in this game and most of it is just crafting materials. Which is good, because it actually feels like you’re looting for a reason and you can actually see what you’re picking up, so you’re not wasting time picking up the stuff you don’t need when you have an abundance. It is quite easy to get through your materials though, so might as well loot it right?

Currencies

The currencies you need to play the game are all freely available during gameplay, and it’s not hard to get any of them in particular. You get yaran pasos all over the place and you get spec ops money “Moneda” from completing the special operations. These can be spent as usual with a vendor called lola, and you can buy more powerful “overclocked” variants of weapons here and some other good items too. You can spend the meat you collect from animals on buffs and use most of your other stuff for crafting. The economy works well here.

But as is the norm in any modern ubisoft game, there’s a cash shop. It has a variety of items, from cosmetics to guns, ubisoft has what you need, as long as you’ve got the benjamins. It’s not too intrusive, and honestly it doesn’t really seem necessary. It’s just there, so be aware of it, but you can pretty much ignore it if you want to.

Los Bandidos

This is a surprisingly mobile-like mini-game. This mini-game takes time to do stuff, so you select your mission and then carry on playing the main game. After however many hours, you come back and go through the mission. It’s not bad to start with but gets a bit old after a while, this is ok though because it only sometimes has worthwhile rewards. So you don’t need to pay too much attention to it if you don’t want to.

Treasure Trails

Treasure trails have been a pleasant surprise, they can take you on their own little adventures and have some genuinely decent challenges and rewards. There’s even one special one that nets you a pretty OP supremo, weapon and pet combo… They bring consistent challenges and fun obsticles to tackle.

World

The world in Far Cry 6 is stunning, especially on the XBOX Series X, which is where I played it. It’s not super realistic but it looks like a far cry, and your mileage may vary but I was cool with it. Some of the things I really liked, at least on the series X version as you can see here were things like foliage density, the colour grading and the overall scale of the map, which has plenty of unique landmarks to explore, destroy and vandalize.

The Sandbox

The Far Cry sandbox is as fun as it’s ever been, whether you’re setting fields ablaze, blowing up some silos, or the AI is running your pet over with a variety of land and sea based vehicles. There’s plenty to love about the flexability this world gives the player.

Level design

These combat spaces feel good to play in, there’s adequate room for movement. Places to isolate enemies, lookout points, and much more. It’s very much a Ubisoft sandbox, but the spaces serve their purpose really nicely. Some of the areas are really well designed, like the caves, which are actually good fun to explore.

Map

There’s plenty of bases, anti-air, supply drops and much more to go out and explore. It’s a Ubisoft game, of course there are. But this is right up my street and I took down a nation’s worth of military units and overthrew a dictatorship over the course of about a week.

Live Service

Which brings me to something new, there’s an endgame now. Which at the time being is pretty shallow, but it steps in the right direction to give me a Far Cry fill from time to time when I need my fix.

Spec Ops

There are spec ops missions, which were available before the endgame. These are missions where you have to actually plan your movements or else “they’ll be scraping you off the road”. I’m sure I’ll revisit these when more have been released, as they tie into the endgame content!

Generals

In the main game world factions will try to take control of areas of the map. This changes every week and it seems there’s more content to come.

The AI

The AI are a bit stupid, but once they see you in numbers, they can unleash their holy fury upon you. So keep your wits about you if you want to stay alive. If you’re experienced with shooters you shouldn’t really have any issues dispatching them. But thank the holy lords I don’t have to loot them like I did in far cry 5.

The friendly AI are pretty stupid too… But this doesn’t really affect you in any way.

BONUS ROUND!

Fishing

Is it really an RPG without fishing?

Hunting

Because, you know, Far Cry.

Cock Fighting

Yep, and it’s weirdly fun.

Collectables

You’ll find notes everywhere and if you're lucky, a new prize fighter for your cock fighting roster.

Racing

Yep, you can race a variety of vehicles!

Multiplayer

This worked fine for me, pretty much all of the game but with a second player. Very nice, but as somebody who is regularly in a party of 3 I would have liked to have the option for more players.

Conclusion

So that’s it, that’s what you get. To answer my initial question, is it good? Yes, this game is good. It’s the usual Far Cry fun, and I’m ok with that. Sometimes it’s nice to fall back on a classic formula. I don’t think every game should or even can innovate with every release, but what they have done is polish the already extremely fun sandbox that they gave us in Far Cry 5. This game has a boat load of content and I’d highly recommend it. As somebody familiar with the series, I think this is as good as it’s ever been. A strong outing from Ubisoft.

Thanks for reading!

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Far Cry 6 is fun and flawed... But mostly fun! (Full Review)