Far Cry 6 review \u2013 The definition of insanity UbisoftFar Cry 6 is yet another traditional Ubisoft-style open-world game with an outrageously large map filled to the brim with mostly repetitive content. There\u2019s nothing here that serves to evolve the franchise but if you enjoy that familiar cadence, there\u2019s no reason you won\u2019t enjoy this new installment as much as the last few. If you\u2019ve played any Far Cry game over the past decade, you\u2019ve essentially already played Far Cry 6. Over the first two days of our week-long review period, I jumped in full of enthusiasm, eager to soak up as much digital sunlight in Ubisoft\u2019s new open-world FPS as possible. By day three, though, I felt myself quickly growing apathetic. That\u2019s not to say the latest installment is outright bad by any stretch, purely just that it\u2019s all been done before, numerous times. From the familiar narrative structure to the excessively large map littered with objective markers, bases to clear, and dozens of menial side quests, it\u2019s another Far Cry game through and through. If you have Ubisoft fatigue and are in search of a more innovative experience, one that pushes the beloved Far Cry franchise into new territory after three near-identical games and a handful of similar spinoffs, you won\u2019t find that here. But if you just so happen to love the tried and tested formula, there\u2019s no reason you won\u2019t find another 50 or so hours of fun in Yara. Far Cry 6 \u2013 Key details Price (Standard Edition): $99.95 (AUD) | $59.99 (USD) | \u00a354.99 (GBP) – Developer: Ubisoft Toronto – Release date: October 6, 2021 – Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, Stadia, & PC – Far Cry 6 trailer Mirroring Far Cry\u2019s highest highs and lowest lows Far Cry 6 follows the exact same structure as its predecessors. You\u2019re dropped into a new map, there\u2019s a big bad villain, and it\u2019s up to you to fight back. Along the way, you\u2019ll encounter all sorts of whimsical figures, clear dozens of hostile areas, and gear up for increasingly difficult fights. This time around, Yara, a Cuban-inspired locale, serves as the backdrop for a tale of revolution. You step into the shoes of Dani Rojas, a military dropout that initially wants to flee the island but soon gets swept up in aiding the guerrilla cause. Ubisoft won\u2019t be winning awards for its storytelling here but it\u2019s worth noting that Dani Rojas is one of the most likable protagonists in the Far Cry franchise. Rather than assuming the role of a silent killer once again, Rojas has a lively personality of their own. Whether it\u2019s cussing out pesky creatures nipping at their heels or singing along with a tune on the radio, Rojas quickly became one of the more memorable characters in recent Far Cry entries. Meanwhile, Ant\u00f3n Castillo is the main adversary in this story, serving as a nationalist figurehead intending to restore Yara to its former \u2018glory\u2019 by any means, all while trying to impose his fascist methodologies on an ambivalent son. Yes, Far Cry 6 is inherently a political game. Giancarlo Esposito is as great as you\u2019d expect him to be in the role of Far Cry\u2019s looming antagonist. Castillo sits right alongside Vaas Montenegro, Pagan Min, and Joseph Seed as an exceptionally intriguing character whose mystery you can\u2019t wait to unravel. It\u2019s just a shame how little we see of this ruthless villain. Similar to previous entries once again, Far Cry 6 introduces Castillo with a powerful opening sequence, then you seldom see him until the game\u2019s climax. Outside of a few brief cinematics, delivered at a predictable rhythm, his presence is rarely felt. You can quite easily go 15 hours without seeing or hearing any updates from the central driving force of the narrative. Throughout the experience, Far Cry 6 bombards you with familiar piles of content. There are dozens of bases to capture, an endless stream of hostile areas to take over, countless civilians to rescue, a laundry list of side missions to tick off, a handful of minigames to master, and hundreds of vehicles, weapons, and pieces of equipment to collect. There\u2019s certainly a lot of game, here. On one hand, the cumulative substance could be perceived as immense value. You can stretch 50 hours out of Far Cry 6 if you took the time to see and do everything. Furthermore, there are even weekly updates on the horizon to ensure new reasons to return. Even if you reach 100% completion, there will always be something to come back for. While it\u2019s undeniably great bang for your buck, just how much of this content is actually memorable? If a vast majority of your time is spent mindlessly completing the same tasks over and over, is that better value than a tightly woven 20-hour adventure with none of the tedium? For my money, Far Cry 6 overstays its welcome more so than previous entries in the franchise. While others certainly dragged in similar regards, the scope of Ubisoft\u2019s latest release and the sheer amount of filler content spread across an oversized map makes the experience far too bloated. Even with much of this padding being optional, clearing key areas on the map still feels like a requirement before advancing the story, else you\u2019ll be limited in your approach and constantly in hot pursuit from nearby forces. In case you\u2019re curious about the size of Yara, it\u2019s big. Very, very big. Outside of the core storyline and the unique side missions, almost everything here is copy and paste, by the numbers content. Go to \u2018x\u2019 location, clear out \u2018y\u2019 number of targets, reap the rewards, and head to the next one. No different from every other Far Cry game, and once you\u2019ve experienced a handful of these, you\u2019ve experienced them all. The only thing that changes is their position on the gargantuan map. Read more: Death Stranding Director\u2019s Cut review – Early on, it\u2019s fun experimenting with new tools, figuring out enemy tendencies, and plotting the perfect course of destruction. After you\u2019ve done that a few dozen times, it becomes a chore. Yara is relentless with its near-endless supply of familiar activities. In fact, every single time you fast travel there\u2019s a character waiting for you to add even more markers on your map. The cycle never seems to end. A not so lively open-world While Far Cry 6 lets you pick the order in which to visit its three main regions, this freedom doesn\u2019t help elevate the experience in any meaningful way. If anything, it actually detracts from the protagonist\u2019s development. On one of these islands, you might reach its climax with an epic final battle. One that has you destabilizing Castillo\u2019s military by taking out numerous tanks and helicopters in one of the more thrilling set pieces in the game. On the next island, it\u2019s almost as though none of this happened. Your first mission in the new territory might be vandalizing a few propaganda posters as no one seems to be aware of your accomplishments in Yara. The locals throw you right back at the bottom rung as if you\u2019re just starting out again, despite the fact that the forces at these three locations are all fighting for the same cause. It almost feels as if these sections were developed independently and jammed together towards the very end. There\u2019s very little in the way of cohesion as each island presents its own separate narrative with unique characters, themes, and events. This division also works against the game\u2019s overall pacing. Plodding through one island at a time essentially leaves the first group of characters in the rearview mirror as you advance the remaining islands. If you complete the first core storyline at the 10-hour mark, for instance, there\u2019s every chance you don\u2019t hear from its respective faction again for another 20 hours while you progress the others. Read more: Alan Wake Remastered review – There\u2019s no crossover, no reminders of your previous actions, and absolutely no engagement from whichever characters you greet first until it\u2019s too late to make a meaningful impact on the experience. Playgrounds can still be fun No different from every iteration before it, Far Cry 6 is at its best when you treat its landmass as a vast playground. Planning a perfect approach and executing a stealthy takeover, experimenting with various tools of destruction, and forging an optimal path through each territory is still some of the best FPS fun on the market. Is it the exact same chaos as before, with equally goofy AI and repetitive objective layouts? Absolutely. If you didn\u2019t like it in Far Cry 3, 4, 5, Blood Dragon, Primal, and New Dawn, you still won\u2019t like it here. But if you\u2019ve been a fan of the series all this time and can never clear too many markers from a map, you\u2019ll feel right at home once again. There are very few innovations to be found this year and of the limited new features that Ubisoft introduces, most fail to meet the mark. Take Amigos as an example, a handful of AI companions that can \u2018help\u2019 on your fight to reclaim Yara. On paper, these should give you an extra leg up in any combat sequence just as they did in Far Cry 5. In practice, they often do the opposite as their nonsensical AI alerts nearby guards, sends the place into a frenzy, and more often than not, ruins your best-laid plans. Barely a few hours into the experience I disabled these Amigos altogether, just so there\u2019d be no distractions to ruin any stealthy approaches. Another new addition is the Supremo, an ultimate-esque ability capable of one dramatic effect with each cooldown. Whether that be a self-revive or launching a few quick rockets at nearby foes, these are flashy at first but do nothing to move the needle. A few hours into the game and it was all too easy to forget they even existed. Though on the positive side, skill trees are now a thing of the past. Instead, Far Cry 6 opts for an equipment-heavy approach with buffs and abilities now tied to gear directly. Want to be more agile? Equip the boots with better movement speed. Want resistance to poison gas? Chuck the hazmat set on and you\u2019ll be good to go. With every single piece of loot viewable in the menus from the jump, this gives you something to strive towards and a clear path to track down desired upgrades, rather than grinding through an extended skill tree to get the one perk you want. Far Cry 6 does a great job of allowing you to really lean into your ideal play style. Whether you prefer the cautious strategy, scouting ahead and tagging enemies before sneaking through a base, or you\u2019d rather push for an adrenaline-fuelled approach with no regard for being overwhelmed, you can build towards the perfect loadouts to compliment any method of your choosing. Moreover, this gear system also comes with a transmog feature on day one, meaning you can pick your ideal set of abilities yet still change their appearance to match your favorite set. All in all, this is a welcome shift that gets you to your preferred builds much earlier than usual. Over the course of 40 hours we spent with Far Cry 6 on the PlayStation 5, the game didn\u2019t miss a beat technically. Graphics were stunning throughout, load times were quick, the frame rate never took a noticeable hit even in the most hectic scenes, and not a single quest bugged out. Considering the scope of Yara and the sheer quantity of things to do in the vast open world, Ubisoft deserves a huge amount of praise for the level of polish on display here. Read More: Deathloop review – It\u2019s worth noting, however, that in our brief review period with Far Cry 6, servers were offline. Thus, we were unable to test this iteration\u2019s coop features ahead of launch. If you\u2019re a huge Far Cry fanatic hoping to drop dozens of hours into another visually stunning open-world, there\u2019s no reason you won\u2019t enjoy your time spent with Ubisoft\u2019s latest installment. Far Cry 6 still does everything the same as before, so if you loved it then, you\u2019ll love it now. But if you were hoping for some notable additions, a pivot in the game\u2019s overall structure, or just something fresh, you won\u2019t find it here. It\u2019s this lack of evolution in the franchise combined with a few key missteps that have the experience feeling more stale than usual. 7\/10 Far Cry 6 feels like the franchise is begging for its \u201cAssassin\u2019s Creed Origins\u201d moment, where its underlying core systems are tweaked and overhauled. It still offers plenty of fun and carnage, but the formula has begun to wear thin. After three mainline entries with almost exactly the same structure, along with numerous spinoffs and expansions that hit the same notes, it\u2019s definitely time for the series to either take an extended break or move on in a new direction. Reviewed on PlayStation 5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Far Cry 6 review \u2013 The definition of insanity UbisoftFar Cry 6 is yet another traditional Ubisoft-style open-world game with an outrageously large map filled to the brim with mostly repetitive content. There\u2019s nothing here that serves to evolve the franchise but if you enjoy that familiar cadence, there\u2019s no reason you won\u2019t enjoy this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80789\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}