If you’re going into Far Cry 6 expecting anything worldly different then don’t. For the most part, Far Cry 6 is a Far Cry game and is over-the-top, explosive and at times just plain ridiculous. Ubisoft has tried hard to incorporate a few new mechanics into this entry. There’s a new gear system that includes a range of outfits with unique perks, and weapons are now looted from the world around you just like a new pair of shoes. While these new mechanics fail to feel relevant in the game, the sheer action casual shooter themes help carry Far Cry 6 to greatness. Even during the most repetitive hours.
Far Cry 6 has returned to the tropical island. The game takes place in Yara and anyone who has been craving a Far Cry 3 theme will love this setting. Yara is run by a ruthless dictator named Anton Castillo. Played by Giancarlo Esposito. He is by far the weakest antagonist in the series to date. But we will get into that in a bit.
Watch our Far Cry 6 review in video form down below
Yara is a sprawling island paradise equipped with its own Mexican theme. The island is split into various districts and I spent most of my time exploring the beaches, mountains and ruins in search of things to find. After a brief introduction to the game and meeting Anton Castillo, I was dropped into helping a resistance group called Libertad. Their goal is to take back Yara by crippling Castillo’s defences one by one. This meant taking out his military chief, Admiral Benitez, cutting off the supply of his cancer-treating plant Viviro and putting a stop to his slavery by culling his commander.
It is all very familiar to anyone who has played a Far Cry game before. There’s a bad guy and in order to get to him, you need to slowly take down his people and lure him out. You also do this with the help of a rebellion group and in this case, Yara has a handful of smaller groups that Dani needs to get on board. Of course, things happen in Far Cry 6 that I don’t want to spoil but for the most part, that is the gist of the situation.
In-between stealing a tank for El Tigre or getting crocodile meat for Chorizo, Yara is also packed with side objectives to take on. Military roadblocks can be cleared in order to fast travel to that point and compounds are also scattered around the map. These are larger bases that once cleared become Libertad safehouses with shops and vehicle spawn points. The map also packs its own collectables and treasure hunts return from Far Cry 5.
It won’t be a Ubisoft game without a large world to explore. Yara is littered with activities. There’s always something to see and do and running from one objective to another was impossible without being distracted by a box to loot or base to take over. It also helps that Far Cry 6 is fun to play. Gunplay feels great, getting around isn’t so much of a chore and watching things blow up in smoke makes it so much more rewarding.
There’s also a lot of freedom to become the Libertad fighter you have always dreamt of. Far Cry 6 has expanded the gear system in multiple ways. Firstly, we have the Supremo backpacks. These gadgets act as a “super ability” in the game and can be triggered once charged. Some backpacks have missiles, one let me jump around leaving a ring of fire behind and the other let me self revive if I died in combat.
Supremo backpacks also act as a highly customizable mod system. I could equip my throwables on it and kit them out with a handful of buffs and perks. Some increased health regen, others how much ammo I could hold and some dictated how often I could use the supercharge ability. Then there’s the gear that let me equip Dani with a range of items. There are five in total. Different gear item grants specific perks. Each gear item is also tied to a set that revolves around a specific playstyle.
If you opt for a poison approach, you can equip the Hazmat Pants that prevents poison damage. That way if you use poison mines or grenades, you won’t die from your own damage. There’s a lot to explore on this system if you wanted to. Unfortunately, I couldn’t care less about it. You see, Far Cry 6’s gear system doesn’t work because the game doesn’t push its mechanics enough. You can prevent poison damage but why would you when the enemies don’t use it enough to kill you. The same goes for fire. Why wear a fireproof helmet when the flamethrower guys are pushovers and die in a few shots.
This issue then feeds into the Supremo gear too. I could use resources to unlock a Pipe Bomb but why would I when a frag grenade, which you get in the early game, does the same thing? Why would I use a claymore and waste time walking into a compound to place it down when I could just toss a Molotov? The same can be said for weapons. Far Cry 6 has some of the coolest-looking weapons in the series. They come in different ranks and have unique perks. Some even shoot poison and have fire ammo.
Here’s the thing, none of the weapons actually made a difference in the end. Regardless of how cool they looked or the mods I placed on them, I still ended up using a rank 2 rifle I got during the tutorial. I even found a handful of unique rifles and they weren’t able to kill an enemy with a headshot in one bullet like my basic ass starter rifle.
Far Cry 6 has all these cool things you can use but they never become a priority. This is my biggest issue with this gear system. I ended up keeping my Parkour Set on the entire game because I ran faster and my stamina replenished at a faster rate. To me, that was more important than having poison resistance on the odd chance I needed it.
It also doesn’t help that enemies are kind of a pushover. I played on Action Mode, which is not the easy Story Mode and it was a breeze. If perhaps flamethrower guys were harder to kill, then I would have considered the gear to help. However, that wasn’t the case. The gear system also makes most of the exploration pointless because the loot in the boxes doesn’t matter. At the end of the game, I still had the same guns while wearing the same parkour gear set.
I wanted more. I wanted to carefully build my gear around certain challenges in the game and feel the need to find more as the story progressed. Unfortunately, it is all one-note and far from the case. The only real excitement comes from a handful of Resolver Weapons that are pretty cool and unique. But even then, once you have the mini-gun, the rest are pointless.
Even the Amigos, while being cool to have around, just don’t offer enough advantage to be useful. Chorizo is adorable and distracts guards but why do this when compounds only have a handful of them to kill. Even when destroying anti-air sites in order to clear the skies for flying and airdrops, I often approached the sites with caution to discover not one guard was around to defend them. No wonder Castillo is losing, he is doing a pretty bad job defending his country from rebels.
Speaking of Castillo, I struggled to connect with him and find his character somewhat threatening. There was something dark about Joseph Seed brainwashing people with religion to do his dark bidding. Castillo is just another dictator ruling a country. Sure, he might have some twisted ideals and there’s a lot to unpack on his past and his son Deigo but he failed to grab the limelight as much as I hoped he would.
I found the characters, in general, quite annoying. Most of their personalities felt one-note and it felt like Ubisoft was trying too hard to make them stand out. Philly, for example, is this cliche inventor who pretends to be whimsical and a genius. Meanwhile, he doesn’t end up doing anything memorable and I couldn’t roll my eyes further back when he forced his “mad inventor” personality the entire time.
But with these issues aside, Far Cry 6 is a fun game. Its action is unrivalled and the world is gorgeous. It runs at 4K 60FPS on the PS5 and felt amazing to play with full adaptive trigger support and haptic feedback. I could not have asked for more. Ubisoft has also built an incredible co-op experience into Far Cry 6. You can play the entire game in co-op but the real fun is in the dedicated co-op missions. This took my partner and me to a sprawling map in search of a piece of tech that constantly had to be cooled down by water.
We had to plan our route into the area to steal this item while paying attention to the water locations on the map. Be it a tap, a pool or even a drum I had to shoot in order to get the water out. All while enemies hunted us down. The maps are fantastic with one being a dinosaur-themed park and the constant rush to cool this object down kept us on our toes.
Far Cry 6 Review
Far Cry 6 is a good action game and that is what it does best. Don’t expect anything more here. Things will explode, people will die and you will slowly take over a country one stronghold at a time. If you’re looking for something new, don’t expect to find it in the gear system because it isn’t as fully realised as I hoped. But that is okay because it is fun regardless.
This Far Cry 6 review is based on a code sent to us by Ubisoft
Available On: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC | Reviewed On: PS5 | Release Date: 7 October 2021 | Price: From R1,069
