We recently got a chance to preview Far Cry 6 over four hours of gameplay, which allowed us to explore a bit of Yara. This time, instead of taking on a doomsday cult, we’re taking part in a revolution in a Caribbean nation. Our target is “El Presidente” Antón Castillo (played by the excellent Giancarlo Esposito), and we fight his forces in response to their enslavement of Yaran citizens.
The four hours I spent with the game were brief compared to the content that will be available when the game comes out on October 7. However, I got a good feel for the overall tone and what we can expect from the complete package.
You say you want a revolution?
In contrast to its previous works, Ubisoft is definitely taking a (vague) political stance in Far Cry 6. Unfortunately, it’s a crayon-drawn riff on the Cuban Revolution injected with Ubisoft’s trademark awkward zaniness.
Yara is home to a unique strain of tobacco which makes a potent anti-cancer drug when grown with a highly toxic fertilizer. Castillo hopes that profits from selling the drug to other nations will solidify his position and provide a strong foundation for his son (and dictator-in-training), Diego when he. He also wants to make Yara self-sufficient and avoid the failed state malaise that many of his neighbor nations are subject to.
Despite his somewhat noble goals, Castillo is enslaving the population to work in the tobacco fields. This, understandably, makes people angry. When the game begins, a small group has taken up arms against the government, but the cinders of revolution are in danger of being stomped out before they can catch fire.
It’s an interesting enough premise, but once again, Ubisoft has issues with tonality. A character can pine over the loss of a loved one in a cutscene, and then less than a minute later, you’ll be introduced to a pet crocodile wearing a jacket or be given an old, beat-up car with machineguns mounted to the roof. It’s hard to feel for the plight of the Yaran people when every ten minutes, I’m meeting a new zany character with a bombastic attitude with a ton of new quips to say.
Aside from humorous interjections, the revolutionaries have very little that they’re fighting for other than “we hate Castillo.” I’m assuming the full game will show more of the politics behind the rebel groups, but in the time I played, I only deduced that they were vaguely anti-capitalists.
Of course, that’s a safe statement to make now that every multi-billion dollar company is trying to rub shoulders with the proletariat by stating how bad it is to have too much money. Unfortunately, the whole thing comes off as real “Che Guevara t-shirt,” by trying even to cosplay a work that has anything beyond the superficial to say about the subject matter. In the overall conflict, the revolutionaries are portrayed as universally good, and Castillo is cartoonishly bad. I’m hoping for more nuance in the full game, but it’s off to a rough start.
However, a good move here compared to the last few Far Cry games is that the protagonist and player character, Dani Rojas, is an actual voiced and named character, which makes it feel like you’re interacting with the story a lot more. One thing that I didn’t like about Far Cry 5 was the character you played as didn’t have any real tie to Seed County, and it always felt like things were happening to them instead of them having an effect on anything. Dani is from Yara, and he has a stake in and opinions about the revolution.
We all want to change the world
Beyond the narrative, Far Cry is the best it’s ever been. The formula remains largely the same, with more and more of Yara being unlocked as the story continues. Far Cry 6 doesn’t reinvent the wheel gameplay-wise and features the same fun, arcade-style first-person action fans fell in love with in previous titles. Everything here seems a little tighter, and even upgrade systems feel more intuitive than before. I felt like I spent less time in menus and more time playing than I do in most games these days. In a time where every new AAA title has a complex RPG system, it’s nice to just slap some upgrades on your gear every once in a while and keep things moving.
The mission design in Far Cry 6 also keeps things rolling at a faster pace. Points of interest tend to be closer together, and there are shortcuts and different modes of transportation littered across Yara that make traversing the terrain quicker than ever. Far Cry is best when you’re sliding into a situation, guns blazing or blowing things up with a helicopter, tank, or backpack-mounted mortar, and the game doesn’t disappoint in this aspect.
I could only explore a small part of Yara, but it was a blast navigating through the jungles, forests, and mountains with the grappling hook. There are also some great military installations to assault that actually have unique architecture instead of just being the same building pasted in repeatedly. In my time with the game, I attacked an old fort, a massive radio installation, a militarized farm, and two frigates blockading Yara, and they all presented their own challenge.
In my brief time with Far Cry 6, its plot was suffering from the same issues inherent in all Ubisoft titles; it seems to want to say something desperately but leans too heavily on quirky over-the-top characters to constantly fill each moment with hot air. However, its excellent gameplay is shaping up to above and beyond what the series has offered so far, and the thrill of blowing up a bunch of dudes with a tank with your buddy is going to be more than enough for most. I’m excited to see more of Yara when the full game launches on October 7.
