The Far Cry first-person shooter adventure franchise always has the same formula. You are always a revolutionary fighting to oust a dictator in some exotic island or place. This place is always an open world that you can explore. If you have played a Far Cry game, you will know the drill with the latest Far Cry 6.
SPECS
PRICE: From S$79.90 (PC, version reviewed; PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S), available in Lazada and Shopee
GENRE: First-person shooter/action adventure
In this iteration, you are Dani Rojas (you can choose to be male or female), a guerrilla forced by circumstances. You are a native of Yara, a fictional Caribbean island country that is clearly inspired by Cuba.
And Yara is now ruled by a fascist dictator Anton Castillo, played superbly by actor Giancarlo Esposito famed for his villainous roles in TV shows such as Breaking Bad. Anyone who defy his rules or tries to flee dies.
As you might expect, you will be the one to galvanise the resistance and mount a revolutionary guerrilla war against Castillo to save your people from tyranny. Essentially, the story is just an excuse for you to explore the beautifully-crafted open world of Yara and shoot the hell out of Castillo’s army.
From the rundown cantinas to the 60s cars, Yara is essentially a virtual re-creation of Cuba. And with my newly-acquired Nvidia RTX 3070 on my PC gaming rig, everything on Yara looks stupendously gorgeous from the taboos on my hands to facial expressions of my enemies when I gunned them down.
FOR
+ Gorgeous open world of Yara
+ Modding of crazy over-the-top weapons
+ Having animal companions, like the crocodile, are fun
+ Plenty of things to do
AGAINST
– Gets repetitive after a while
– Bad vehicle handling
And there are many ways to play Far Cry 6 with many weapons at your disposals. You can sneakily creep behind your enemy and silently finish them off with a machete. Or you can go in all guns and rockets blazing. However, Castillo’s lieutenants can call in reinforcements and even have medics to heal their injured comrades. So decide carefully.
In any case, Far Cry 6 gives you a ridiculous repertoire of weapons to dance with. Apart from the usual rifles and shotguns, there are also the over-the-top Supremo and Resolver weapons that can be unlocked or bought using depleted uranium (which you can collect in the game).
Supremos are backpack weapons that can deliver artillery-like damage or specific damage (like EMP) upon full charge. Resolvers are unique variants of normal weapons like a flamethrower or pistol that deliver different damage.
For instance, there is this Resolver El Besito gun that shoots poison to turn your enemies against each other. Furthermore, there are plenty of modifications that you can add to your weapons as you gain experience and level up.
Audio is superb with solid sound effects and realistic environmental noise. All the actors, including Dani, did a splendid job in voicing their characters. You will enjoy the banter with your fellow comrades or even conversations with a side-quest character.
To transverse across the island to talk to your comrades or get to your enemies, you can either walk, ride a horse or grab a car. However, all the vehicles here handle like drunks. By contrast, a horse is much easier to handle. In addition, it is more idyllic to enjoy the superb views of Yara when riding a horse.
Not to mention, you can even have an animal companion to go into battle. At the start of the game, you have a crocodile companion that you can direct to kill your foes. It is quite hilarious to see the crocodile chomping off the legs of Castillo’s soldiers. Later in the game, you can unlock other animal companions.
The gameplay is similar to previous Far Cry series. The main quests will have you kill some enemies, capture an army checkpoint, recover some weapons or fuel cache and slowly gain the confidence of ordinary Yarans to finally topple Castillo.
But there are also other things to do in Yara. There are fishing, treasure hunts and even hunt for mythical creatures as well as cock-fighting and puzzle-solving mini-games to participate in.
Yet, despite the variety of activities the game offers, it still feels repetitive after you have tried all the mini-games and other side stuff. And in the news recently was the game developer Ubisoft’s email to Far Cry 6 gamers to go back and play the game. This is like an admission to its own flaws.
VERDICT
Despite its flaws, Far Cry 6 is undoubtedly one of the most enjoyable Far Cry experiences. If not, the best. The story itself is worthy for a play-through along with its over-the-top weapons and variety of stuff to do in the beautifully-crafted open game world.
RATING
8.5/10
