Far Cry 6

Far Cry 5 was my introduction to the series when it became one of the free monthly downloads last year. I wasn't overly keen on the story but loved the open world setting and the gameplay itself. That is what got me excited for the latest release, and I have looked forward to it all year.

Well I can say that it certainly is not a disappointment. Firstly, the scenery is absolutely beautiful, and has been intricately detailed, so even when you are in the back of beyond, there is always something to see or do, or a cave to explore, or wildlife to hunt, or do as I do, which is just to explore and observe the breathtaking views. Although the map is huge, every area has some kind of landmark, whether it be part of the story, or just there to explore, and does not have that empty dead space of huge maps, such as the Just Cause franchise. There has clearly been alot of effort put into the design and layout.

Secondly, there are loads of weapons to choose, all individually upgradable by collecting scrap items, scattered around the map, as well as unlocking unique weapons in hidden chests. Although the upgrades don't seem as in depth as other specific first person shooting games, there is still plenty to keep the majority of players happy, not to mention the ridiculous and crazy guns you wouldn't see in any other game anyways.

The vehicle choice is adequate with the usual planes, helicopters, boats, cars, trucks in previous games, but I feel they easily could have added alot more choice for a game of this size. It was nice to see the mini hovercraft, and strangely enough, horses too.

As for the story, it is very long. I'm around 30 hours in and I couldn't even tell you if I'm half way through or not. But I love it so far. There are numerous characters you cross paths with, some likeable, some not so much, but they are all part of the exciting journey. There are some very nice and unique missions throughout the whole game and what I personally enjoy the most, are the ones where you have to think strategically. You cannot go in all guns blazing in every mission because you will literally die every 2 minutes. As the story progresses and enemy soldiers become harder to kill, you are almost forced to take a stealthy approach. Some players may not like that, but I really do, and I'm sure others will too. Having the ability to play co op with a friend will make a huge difference in how you handle missions, as well as being generally more fun. I have only played solo so far but had great times with friends in FC5.

There is so much good to say about this game and I can't praise it enough. I would score it 10 but unfortunately it's not a perfect game for me. As good as I think it is, there are some things that prevent it from a perfect 10.

The radio stations for starters are diabolical. I think there's only 3 songs that I recognise and I do love listening to good music in games.

Vehicle choice as I said earlier. The white player blip/arrow on the radar is horrible, as it merges with other white icons making it a nightmare to see where you are. The game freezes intermittently for 10-15 seconds, launching your car in the air. (Could be an old gen issue). The enemy is very over powered, constantly hitting you before you can even see them. They run whilst fully locking on and shooting, randomly throw a grenade whilst shooting and you are getting hit left right and centre. It can be very frustrating, especially when you have an objective to carry out whilst fighting off endless enemies, reloading, healing, dying and restarting all over again. And the enemy spawns aren't the greatest. There is definitely room for improvement but over all I have been very impressed. I'm very excited to see how the story ends and then work through the side missions and treasure hunts. Last thing is, there are alot of haters out there putting this game down for no good reason, so if you want an honest opinion, go to a small online streamer. Those guys will tell you exactly what this game is like.

Everything is designed beautifully - gun play is the best so far and driving now actually works - the side missions are intriguing and some are hilarious.

I've dropped Valhalla to finish this in time for Horizon 5!

I didn't mind Far cry 5, just saying. Far Cry 6 is better in my opinion. The story had just enough humor and seriousness. Dani the main character actually has a voice and a personality. I liked that too. I will say it's not perfect and there is plenty for people to pick apart. But I needed a game that was going to be fun and not necessarily so serious and this game has fit that perfectly. I hope you enjoy to try not to listen to all the negativity!!! If you like Far Cry games then definitely play it :)

.story

Far Cry 6 is set in the Republic of Yara. Fictional island that resemble Cuba. Our character is Dani, male or female is your personal choice and his background story is as thin as easily forgotten right after the exciting opening game's sequences. Dani is basically the tool, the Pistol of this Revolution against the new tyrant. Since Far Cry 3's Vaas, this series has been known for having great charismatic villains. This year's Far Cry has the honour of featuring Anton Castillo. His role is played by the famous Giancarlo Esposito. The Castillo family has been holding Yara in his hands for generations and thanks to Doctor Reyes invention, a drug called Viviro, the world avoid to put a word on the inner conflict between the Castillo and the rebels. Viviro is basically described as a drug that can cure cancer. Through the whole storyline we can see different characters taking over, most of them with a huge reverence on themes such as racism and LGBT+. Sometimes this all appears all over the place and out of context but we know, it's 2022, and this game wants to be inclusive even at the cost of being ridicolous. This said the game features great cut-scenes and all are pretty well acted despite the plot never really thickens and most of the villains just randomly die and Anton Castillo, like Pagan in Far Cry 4, has not much screenplay. Overall plot and characters are forgettable and just an excuse to go there and do this/that. Side-note: I have never seen so much swearing in a single game. Every single dialogue ends or begins with F words. Also it was a waste to not see Giancarlo Esposito more and with an extended role and dialogues.

.gameplay

Far Cry is always being known for having giant maps and a shooting gameplay that doesn't take itself too seriously. FC6 unfortunately is a huge hole in the water because of bad game-design choices and a map that is too big and too empty and when you combine these two with a lot of backtracking between missions you can clearly see the fun is out of the game. Let's start by the fact that to accept a mission we need to go to the campbase each time and soonafter accepting we have to take a 5-10 minute walk in a map that is hard to navigate with a lot of verticality and a main character with no exploring skills. I said this because Dani can jump, yes, but most of the climbing is scripted and he/she cannot climb when it's not programmed to. Same goes for the grappling hook, whicht is a nice feature but hardly implemented in the course of the game. With such a huge map you expect a good placement of checkpoints and fast travels: that's not happening. More than in a handful of occasions I died and had to walk all the way back to the mission..and FC6 is probably the first time I see an open world game where I cannot change the time of the day. Let's talk about the main missions. Most of them require the player to complete basic tasks like killing a target or collecting intel. Some of them required me to find some sort of collectibles or find specific prompts that were not marked on the map, so, although I like the exploration it ended up being quite frustrating. Missions features always a similar pattern with Dani looking for something, getting ambushed, killing the horde and having to deal with a chopper or a tank that we kill with a single shot of Supremo. This is basically a special move, an Ultimate, to destroy huge threats at once. Far Cry 6 quits the good old skill tree and the outcome is a widely classic gunplay that results very stale and basic, without crazy twists that are left to just a few mods for our beloved guns. I wish they took the risk to create some more creative ones. Sure we get special weapons that fires CDs and fireworks but I liked some crazy skills as well to give some more variety and style to the game. Enemies AI is on of the worst I have ever seen with soldiers charging you with all themselves or completely forgetting you are even there. Most of the challenge lies in the fact that the game is divided using the (in)famous rank level and this might left you out some areas for some time unless you are happy to take lot of damage from dumb enemies. There are lots of checkpoints to conquest and missile bases to destroy to open flyzones but they are so boring to reach, having to walk a lot between them, that it is just not fun. Most of the mini-games are pretty common, copy pasted, unfun stuff. I am talking about race games, hunting and fishing. I really enjoyed Cockfighting though, a very easy copy of Tekken but I am sure there was a lot of controversy about it..

.sound

Voice acting is okaish. Most of the dialogues have a bad, bad writing and are full of swearings and hardly fun or enjoyable. Anton Castillo and his Son, Diego, have probably the best depth scripts but even this doesn't shine with so many games out there focusing on great storylines.

.graphics

Yara is gorgeous and Ubisoft did a lot of work to create a map with lots of vertical options. Far Cry 6 is one of the best optimized game for PC and it features PS controller layout and tons of accessibility options. Most of the character models are well detailed and animated and Giancarlo Esposito is simply a 1:1 game model of himself.

Ubisoft tried to revive Far Cry once again but it is probably time to put it to sleep for some time. Hiring Giancarlo Esposito might have lured some people to buy in this new episode of the franchise but I am sure they have been disappointed and will think about it twice next time.

I must admit i had pretty high expectations for Far Cry 6, but i was severely disappointed by the finished product. Don't get me wrong, Far Cry 6 still features plenty of the same exploding action and beautiful nature we are used to find in the world of Far Cry, but they made a mistake when they removed the skill tree from earlier titles. It just doesn't work as well as it should. I find it annoying to change shoes, pants or headgear just to be able to do certain things. (I just ended up not using any of the features) Not to mention the fact that you have to shoot enemies 20 times to kill them if you have the "wrong ammo type for the enemy" by simply adding a feature like in Far Cry 5 where you could change the arrow for your bow on the fly it would be way better. What really killed the experience for me though, was the fact that all the characters seemed to be written for gaming journalists and the Twitter community, you know.. The worst part of the community on Twitter. Every single character was extremely annoying and very hard to like. I didn't care about any of them. I would complain about the story being so short but in this case it's a blessing.