Review | Far Cry 6 - The New Boss Is The Same As The Old Boss

You wanna know something? I thought I was pumped when Scotland beat the Faroe Islands 1-0 the other night. Then I beat Far Cry 6. It’s odd really as I am conflicted about the entire game. From my research, Far Cry 6 scored roughly 74% (7.6/10) from prerelease reviews and yet I was oblivious to the actual release date. Christ, I didn’t know the game was out until I saw a friend streaming it. Well, after completing the game here is my review.

Before we get started, here is something I didn’t think I would ever say: this game was made for my PC. Now in past reviews, I have often omitted my system specifications when I write for startmenu as it might come off a bit boastful. Well, this time I feel it is relevant.

My Machine

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700k
GPU: NVidia GTX 1080
RAM: 32GB

Bar the RAM, Those are all the exact PC recommendations for this game. So why do I bring it up? I often think how well a game runs is important and how often is it that you can test, almost exactly what the developers recommend you use? 

Damn this slideshow is running at 10 seconds per frame!

Performance

I ran FC6 on “Ultra” (motion blur off). I achieved between 54-60fps nearly all the time. The game looked amazing. However, I did run into one weird issue though. 

I have a very complex streaming setup: My main PC runs the game and the video and audio is piped to another PC. To achieve this I run a HDMI cable from the motherboard graphics chip to the capture card. HDMI carries power though and this means when I turn on the other PC, my main computer picks up a second (or rather fifth) display. Now that’s all well and good, until you realise that the monitor is 144hz and the revision of HDMI in most computers can only carry a 60hz signal. That’s when the game started being funny.

Wanna check out my 3080 Ti?

In short, huge frame losses and stuttering like a skipping CD became started to rear its head. This prompted me to drop the settings from “Ultra” to “Medium”. That did nothing for the huge spikes but kept the framerate at 60fps for the most. The game still stuttered when opening boxes or when a lot was happening, it just did it less. Still, the game was playable, and my setup most certainly is not the norm, so I can’t complain, after all, my system was called for.

Apart from this I never once crashed or froze or even got hard-stuck. One slight issue at the beginning (which I can’t say is performance-related) was a distinct audio desync… or rather lack of audio that matched subtitles. Whole sentences just cut off at the end of some cutscenes, nothing major though - literally people saying ‘OK’ or ‘Shut up’. The sentences still made sense. I have been unable to rectify the jitter issue and I refuse to play the game again (for about three hours) to see if the audio issue persists.

Subtle.

Story

Never have I ever been so uninterested in a Far Cry story in my damn life. Let me give you the short and sweet: You are Dani, you select a gender (similar to Far Cry 2 when you select a character). You live in Yara - which is basically a combination of  Columbia and Cuba. The country has a dictator, played by Giancarlo Esposito, who has a miracle cancer-curing drug grown in tobacco fields (oh the irony) off the backs of civilian slave labour.

Dani dreams of going to America and when her friend gets shot she makes a mad dash to the boat to the states. Well, Gustavo Fring isn't having that, mainly because his child is on the boat, so he stops it, gets his boy (who clearly doesn’t want to follow in Dad’s footsteps) and shoots it up. You survive and find the Guerilla group that plans to overthrow the dictator.

What do you mean you don’t want to grow up to be like me, son? I am just a megalomaniacal, mass murdering dictator hated by his own people… and I look like a premiere prestige TV actor?

Both in premise and execution this is as by the numbers as they come. The only shock was the ending. It’s really hard to say much about this story without giving it all away, but when I say “By the numbers” - you already know what to expect. It’s very obvious Dani is a reluctant hero from the get-go and though that does not make her unlikable - it makes it hard to empathise with the cause.

After a while, yeah Dani cares - too little too late. By the time Dani develops empathy, I had developed apathy. I could relate with Jason Brody, The Junior Deputy & even Ajay Ghale - they are forced into the situation and want out. Prisoner, crashed helicopter… an idiot who didn’t wait five minutes, they need to fight to survive, to leave but Dani? They don’t really seem to want to be here for most of the game. As has become common in the Far Cry games, the player is given the option just to leave, but in my opinion, it’s not clearly telegraphed how. In previous games, you just stood and waited but this time you need to turn around, get on a boat and drive.

Why are you still here again?

Whilst this is certainly different to the norm, clearer telegraphing of this option would have been better. The cutscene shows the boat but there are two boats and you are prompted to take an active part in the story. This however is just a minor gripe and should be expected when breaking away from tradition.

A New Take

In a first for the series (to my knowledge) we are treated to pre-rendered cutscenes. Now I never played the first game in this series and I never completed the second, but apart from the opening to Far Cry 3, the story is usually told in-game from the player’s perspective. Not this time. That shook me.

Granted, some moments deserve 100% of your attention in this game. But it’s weird, you relinquish all control and just get exposition dumped on you, if you’re familiar with the series it’s a jarring change. One which I don’t like it, these moments rip you out of the mundane gameplay and instead forces a prestige television-inspired cutscene on the player. 

Another weird change is the lack of both healing items and progression. Once you take damage you have to wait for a little bar to fill and you heal yourself with the usual flair known in Far Cry. Re-locate a finger or pull a bullet out, no syringes or bandages, you just brutally injure yourself better. 

Wait a second… Oh I get it… Actually no, I don’t.

What are resolvering with a minigun? WAIT A SECOND!

When it comes to progression gone is the series staple of hunting animals for hides which you can then craft into more weapon slots or ammo capacity. Instead, you start the game with the ability to hold four guns. Yup, four: a pistol, two main guns and a resolver weapon. This also excludes the terrorist classification of weapons you have strapped to your back known as a supremo. For me, that was six homing missiles. These over the top super weapons really play into the old Far Cry gameplay power fantasy and is a fun and useful addition. Speaking of gameplay.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Far Cry 6 is your standard fare. Almost. Yes, you still do the shooting and the driving in addition to the odd bit of flying whilst being the errand boy (or girl) for the main quest givers, however, there have been a few changes to the formula.

To pick up where we left off, four guns. The main changes there are the new Resolver and Supremo weapons. If I were to compare them to anything it would be IEDs. It has a function, it achieves that function but it’s not normal. As an example, I had the aforementioned six-shot tracking rocket Supremo on my back.

This could also be replaced with an EMP or a Bane-Like drug pump for extra health. But because helicopters are both abundant and hard to shoot out the sky so I kept the mini-missile launcher. The Resolver slot is basically a special weapon, The first Resolver you are given is a big old flamethrower, which you then promptly use to burn down a tobacco field while music blares. Why is that familiar?

Let’s face it… They know why you are here: Explosions and pretty colours.

A Point of Contention

I had to break away from this, I had to. This is nearly completely irrelevant but I have to say this. How stupid do Ubisoft think we are? You wanna know something about jokes? They don’t work then you have to explain them! The flamethrower to burn the tobacco field? We’re all going to make the Far Cry 3 connection, it's a nice in-joke utterly ruined by the inclusion of the voice like “This feels familiar”.

Not only is it unneeded it also rips you out of a fun moment, why would Dani get deja vu? Just leave it as a nod, you don’t need to wink at us, nudge us and ask us if we really got the reference. FC2 sold 2.9 million units, FC3 sold 10 million units. Fair to say we got the joke guys. This was, however, the only instance I found where the joke was forced but dear god does it leave a sour taste. Anyway.

Back to the Gameplay

This is still your dad’s Far Cry: Liberate the bases, do the bang-bang, vroom-vroom and fight monologuing the big bad. The only twist in this formula is that bases are totally optional. You can do them to get resources (to craft weapon mods) and make the area easier to drive through. Yet they serve no actual purpose.

What if I just hung out on this quiet farm with to good horsie?

In previous games, you took the bases to help progress the story and give you checkpoints. Though there is a story reason to take the bases, there’s no incentive or quests tied to them. This also holds true to road checkpoints. The only difference is they are easier “take” and are a greater hindrance since they are on the main road.

The second new base type is the Anti-Aircraft bunkers. Once taken out these allow you to fly uninterrupted through the skies. Unlike checkpoints and bases though, there is a good reason to take out the AA camps. Depleted Uranium. Now, That’s What I Call Guerrilla Warfare 2021! You use this uranium to make Supremo & Resolver weapons so there’s your story based reason with an added incentive: Build-a-Gun™.

Overview

When I saw this game had launched I rushed to the Epic Game Store (because uPlay was down) and bought the game whilst at work. However, in the end, discovering the game was on sale and buying it was more exciting than the game itself. For everything cool Far Cry 6 does - it does four more things the same way we have seen before. 

The game also is not helped by its cookie-cutter story. Joseph Seed, Vaas Montenegro & Pagan Minn were better antagonists. Hope County, Kyrat & Rook Island were better settings and more interesting maps to explore. In a series that loves to remind us of Vass from Far Cry 3, whenever I met Anton Castillo the only character I could think of was Hoyt Volker.

A photo speaks a thousand words, or something.

This is in no way to take away from the complexities of Anton as his character is ever-present in the gameplay and the story - but your interactions are all in cutscenes and he ends up feeling detached from the story playing a very passive role. In short: Anton is complexly boring.

I can’t really fault the gameplay or performance too much. Though gameplay took away all your progression as you become a better fighter and replaced it with a system where you can buy better black market guns, Dani does not feel like a guerilla. Not in the beginning anyway. Yet she carries four guns.

The story in Far Cry 6 falls flat for me. Usually, it’s the rote gameplay loop that is the killer in these games, redeemed by a great story and interesting setting. Not this time. The only thing keeping me going was the £50 I spent and Camila Cabello’s Havana stuck in my head as I rode horseback through the Cuban-- Ahem, I mean Yaran streets.