For many fans, Far Cry 3 was the pinnacle of the Far Cry experience. It cast likeable jock douche Jason Brody as a fish out of water, learning to survive in the jungles and beaches of the Rook Islands. Underskilled, outnumbered and stranded on a strange lump of rock and moss with the psychotic Vaas hot on your heels, it always felt like you were one tiny step away from tragedy and an untimely death.
More recent Far Cry’s have progressively steered away from 3’s set-up, making each protagonist more and more of a one-person war machine – it’s less about survival of the individual and more about the survival of a revolution. With Far Cry 6, we see the culmination of that ideology – Ubisoft boasts that on Yara, you’ll be made to feel like a single Guerilla fighter taking up the space of an entire army. Dani Rojas is ex-military, instantly proficient in all weapons and vehicles, and a natural, but reluctant leader. They were made for this.
Far Cry 6 review
- Developer & publisher: Ubisoft
- Platform: Played on PS5
- Availability: Out October 7th on PC, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Stadia, PS4 and PS5
The developers at Ubisoft want you to feel powerful, they want you to feel like a badass, and so they’ve leaned into the chaos, the explosions and the epic, wacky battles. As a result, as an open world sandbox, Far Cry 6 is a lot of fun. An unfortunate side effect of that, however, is that where story is concerned, Far Cry 6 has lost a lot of the tension of previous games.
You’re no longer a Jason Brody, finding your way, learning your skills and simply fighting to live. You’re now a T-1000 striding through Yara, firing rockets from your nuclear backpack whilst conjuring an almost unlimited arsenal of weaponry out of thin air. Dani always has a quip, is never under pressure and always knows exactly what to do. Which is fine when you’re out mowing down your 20th soldado outpost in a row armed only with a solid gold grenade launcher and the help of your pet crocodile Guapo, but not all that interesting when it comes to investing in Far Cry 6’s story.
Luckily though, the open world fun of Far Cry 6 is as good as it ever was. Yara is both enormous and absolutely beautiful, featuring some of the most incredible vistas you’re likely to find in any video game this year. Exploring feels intimidating and overwhelming at first, with so much out there to uncover – and after a small tutorial island the game lets you go pretty much wherever you want – though once you strike out you’ll quickly find it’s all more or less the same fare as other Far Cry games. There are checkpoints to clear, hostages to rescue from the side of the road, collectibles to hunt down and cross off your lengthy list – mechanically, the framework here is almost identical. Depending on who you are, this might come as either reassurance or a disappointment. Many players love that familiar Far Cry grind – while some may have been hoping for a shake up to that formula.