Introduction 

Far Cry 6 is in a lot of ways a typical Far Cry game. It follows the same formula the franchise has developed over the last 5 or 6 instalments. But it delivers the familiar gameplay and objectives in a beautiful new open world with a wide range of weapons and gear at your disposal. You fall into a familiar pattern of exploration, outpost clearing, and loot hunting that we’ve become used to in these games, but Far Cry 6 feels like the perfect Far Cry game in many ways. It does what it's always done better than ever before. Minus a story that doesn't compete with the infamy of Far Cry 3, the series feels back to its best. I should preface this review by saying I’m a massive Far Cry fan and I haven’t quite gotten bored of the formula, but understandably a lot of people have. To those who have gotten sick of the formula, read this review with a pinch of Far Cry fanboy salt. 

 

Story - 8/10

The story takes place in a fictional Caribbean Island called Yara, ruled by an evil dictator. You play as a rebel that gets roped into fighting against the oppression, and your job is to unite the three main districts rebel groups to fight together. A familiar trope that we’ve come to expect, but still a gripping tale of Guerrillas fighting back against a government that has turned to slave labour to produce a life-changing cancer treatment drug that can only be grown on Yara. The general premise is that the dictator wants to transform the country and bring it into the modern age by selling this miracle drug to the world, but at the cost of enslaving and murdering Yaran Citizens, and we need to stop him. 

The story by no means breaks the mould or delivers anything we haven't grown to expect from the series, but it’s still an interesting and engaging story. The big difference in this game is you have a more personal connection with the main character you play as Dani Rojas (male or female). As one of the biggest changes to the franchise, the main character is no longer a silent hero. Dani is shown in 3rd person in cutscenes, talks often, and has a much more meaningful contribution which leads to a more emotional connection, as opposed to what we’ve been given in previous Far Cry games. The other main characters are pretty likeable but hardly feel as interesting as Far Cry 4s Longinus for example. My main issue with the story is that it didn’t feel too important. There were no times where the story led to challenging new gameplay in a new setting, as seen in Far Cry 4s mythical missions. 

Overall the Far Cry 6 delivers a solid story that's easy to follow, as they usually are. The story didn’t feel like a breath of fresh air, but its continued trope is one that provides a logical reason for what you end up doing in the game. And the inclusion of Giancarlo Espacito (Breaking Bad) as the evil dictator felt like a classy touch that slightly elevated a somewhat predictable story. 

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Gameplay - 8/10

The gameplay in Far Cry 6 feels like the series at its best. The movement feels smooth, the gunplay is crisp and responsive, and the well-designed world allows for the players to take their own approach. Gameplay largely sticks to the Far Cry formula and improves on it but doesn't Innovate.  What is different in 6 is how customisable the guns are. You’ve always been able to do the bare minimum of being able to add a scope, extended mag, and a silencer to most guns in Far Cry. But in 6 you can choose 5 different ammo types for most guns, a lot of different scopes, a levelled system of suppressors and lasers, and a variety of special upgrades and mods. This is by far the biggest change to the formula in 6. The ability to deeply customise your loadout so that it's perfect for your play style is a welcomed treat. They also included different armour types that give you different bonuses to compliment your play-style. Another new addition is the Supremo, which is a special backpack that can house different types of ultimate abilities. Other than that you’ll spend most of your time clearing outposts, running familiar story missions, and exploring the world for loot and upgrades. One thing that’s brought over from New Dawn is the expedition missions, where you get taken to a standalone mission map to clear out enemies, steal something and get out. These provide a new sort of challenge and completing them gives you Moneda which allows you to buy special items which change weekly. I kind of enjoy these but I hate to say they felt much more fun and replayable in New Dawn. The level scaling in 6’s Expeditions felt a bit unfair and too hard to enjoy. So I would either be playing on a level that was too easy to enjoy or too difficult to complete. 

As a die hard fan of using bow and arrow in Far Cry I would’ve loved some more attention to that. Some exciting new attachments would’ve been really nice. But after a while I ended up not using the bow as much as a suppressed sniper. 

Overall the gameplay is a lot of fun for someone that enjoys the Far Cry formula and provides enough customisation to allow you to play your own way and experiment with a few other styles.

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Graphics/Audio - 9/10

The graphics in Far Cry 6 are pretty amazing. The return to a tropical setting that fans fell in love with in 3 was a clever decision and feels great to explore. It was a shock to many when Ubisoft announced that Far Cry 6 on consoles wouldn’t include ray tracing, but the graphics look so good even without it that it doesn’t feel missed. There is great attention to detail in the graphics department, from water physics to bullets shooting through glass, it all looks great. The only issue I had with the graphics was if you look closely at the ground going up a hill you’ll notice that there is a copy and paste of a picture of grass underneath the 3D grass. It’s a bit of a nitpick of mine but it feels like it breaks the immersion slightly. But overall the graphics look amazing and are what we expect from a next-gen AAA game.

The audio sounds great, the attention to detail in the graphics department is carried over into the production of the sound design. 

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Performance / UI - 9/10

Surprisingly the only issues I ran into with this game were graphical bugs and menu navigation speed. There was occasional tree pop in, and when flying or driving really fast I experienced screen tearing, which was disappointing from a next gen game. 

The menu navigation was quite annoying, because for the first time in the series you can change your gear and weapons on the go, but doing it took too much time. I think including multiple custom loadouts to swap between would’ve helped massively.  

Overall the game runs really well for a world of this size, but the UI falls slightly short by not including something as simple as a menu cursor sensitivity setting. 

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Fun Factor - 9/10

All together there's not much more to say. I enjoy Far Cry games, I enjoyed this Far Cry game. It's nothing drastically different, but it includes enough changes and quality of life type upgrades to make the series feel fresh and fun again. If you’re sick of these games by now then you will probably be a bit bored of this game. But I have to say I thought that when I first started playing 6 but quickly fell in love with the formula as I always do because they have added enough new stuff to make it feel fun again. Yara is a beautiful new open world that I thoroughly enjoyed exploring, with a solid story, and the best gameplay in a Far Cry game yet I can honestly say this is one of the best games in the series. 

 

Overall Score - 8.5/10

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Conclusion

Overall I had a great time playing Far Cry 6. It has the best and most polished gameplay so far in the series, one of the best open worlds, and a fairly engaging story. The game rewards you for exploring the world with great loot and cosmetic items, without ever feeling like a chore. Including the vast amount of vehicles that they did was a welcome treat, given that most games in the series have just given you a handful. But the large library of weapons, attachments and gear is where this game really took the Far Cry series to the next level. It gave the player more freedom than ever before with the gear to compliment your preferred playstyle and some. The only drawbacks I found were the lack of fluidity in the game menu, the occasional graphical hiccup, and a slightly underwhelming story. But all in all Ubisoft have made a pretty great game here, and I look forward to heading back to Yara to scratch my inevitable Far Cry itch.