Far Cry 6 review is far from revolutionary

Dany is a supporter. Or at least that's what they say throughout Far Cry 6. Despite a story about revolutionaries, an abundance of DIY superweapons, and a lush new tropical landscape.

This is still Far Cry as it was played nearly a decade ago. That formula is still a fascinating game, but after more than 20 hours battling animal attacks, clearing outposts, and forging friendships with the local weirdos, there's more than a hint of irony in the fact that you have to carry out a "revolution" on the island of Yara.

Following in the footsteps of Assassin's Creed Odyssey - albeit a few years late - Ubisoft has brought light RPG mechanics to its FPS series, specifically the obsession with collecting and crafting gear. Instead of leveling up and unlocking new abilities, Dany's abilities are determined by the weapons and gear he uses. This seems a bit limiting at first. Why can't I have all the different stealth attacks and resistances to all damage types? But after a while you'll start to equip yourself and pick a build that suits you, and as you get more comfortable you'll find new ways to upgrade Dany's arsenal to make you stand out in your chosen area.

You might think that armor that boosts fire resistance is too situational for most battles, but if you arm yourself with firebombs, a flamethrower, and an ultimate (a homemade weapon that acts as a de facto ultimate) that sets fire to to everything around you, you will discover that you are practically unstoppable. The obvious tradeoff is that playing as a bulky Mad Max-esque rebel with a fire-breathing backpack isn't really about staying invisible. I like to mix and match gear sets to include new boots or gloves. Substituting a pair of crouch speed shoes for my road warrior outfit means I now take a bit of fire damage, but in return I can dash through bushes at sprint speed, viciously knocking soldiers down without them noticing .

By forcing you to choose your team carefully, Far Cry 6 allows you to dive right into your preferred playstyle. I had forgotten about full skill trees in Far Cry 5, but in Far Cry I am constantly reviewing the skills and buffs I want to use between battles. Not every piece of gear that is acquired will be included in the kit - some, like the jeans that reduce damage from shark bites, seem completely useless - but it all makes you ponder your choices.

Weapons have been slightly redesigned, with a bunch of mods including ammo types, optics, suppressors, perks, laser sights. Customization made its way into the series in Far Cry 5, but there are a lot more options here. Especially the perk slots, which allow you to add little bonuses like extra damage to enemies below you, faster reloads, and the ability to heal yourself after each kill. For the most part, this works well, providing a satisfying reward for diligently collecting crafting materials, and allowing you to hone your favorite weapons to play to your physical strengths.

What doesn't work are the new ammo types. In Far Cry 6 - which you can buy here - there are several archetypes of enemies, each of which uses a certain type of ammunition and is vulnerable to a certain type of ammunition. So to give yourself the best chance in combat, you'll need to scout out the enemy stronghold, figure out what court cocktail is on the menu, and build an arsenal to combat it. This means choosing different types of ammo for all four weapons, as well as armor with the appropriate resistance. This process is frankly tedious, and if you don't stick to it you'll find that some enemies are capable of downing an entire magazine before going down. Piercing ammo seems to be the only ammo type that will get you through combat reliably without having to constantly switch weapons, but it's so good at piercing enemies that it makes other options redundant.

Similarly, having armor bonuses for different types of incoming projectiles doesn't seem to make sense. You can't always know what kind of enemies you have to face, so you can't always predict what kind of damage you have to fortify against; there is no strategy whatsoever, so when you sometimes get killed by an enemy who uses explosives or poison, you feel unfairly punished. The good thing about Far Cry 6 is that it's hardly a demanding FPS, so these extra considerations only dilute the combat with unnecessary inconsistencies, not hinder it.

These strong-on-strong, weak-against traits are especially annoying when it comes to using resolute weapons, which are the brightest part of Far Cry 6's arsenal. There are cannons that shoot fireworks, crossbows that launch plates vinyl decks, harpoon launchers that can pierce through enemies, and EMP rifles that can knock helicopters out of the sky. The harpoon launcher is my favourite: a huge, ineffective weapon that rewards the risk of its use by pinning enemies to walls. However, despite its large size and long reload animation, the harpoon launcher is unable to shoot most enemies outside of the first two regions of Far Cry 6. Harpoons do not penetrate armor, so that any warrior with helmet and shoulder pads can miss the first shot and kill you while charging the second.

As fun as these weapons are, they also give you the creeps when you're told they're "guerrilla" weapons. I can accept any dramatic license and "cool rules" indulgences, but firing a volley of multi-colored fireworks at a tank is not the way guerrilla warfare is conducted, and you don't have to be an expert at it. those things to understand. So while they are more interesting options than rocket launchers, they do nothing but undermine the experience that Ubisoft is supposedly trying to deliver. They don't make me feel partisan.

Fortunately, Yara's huge open world does a great job with this part of the fantasy. Despite countless outposts, anti-aircraft guns, and roadblocks along the island's main roads, much of the country is wild, and if you draw too much attention to yourself, you can easily escape into the jungle. and the hills to get some respite. The narrow trails wind through dense jungle and around mountains, and in most cases it is faster to travel these winding trails on horseback than to rush across the Yara in a sports car. Smartly, all the time you spend away from the main roads decreases the heat level, which in Far Cry 6 is a version of the level sought in GTA, encouraging you to spend as much time as possible in the shade.

In addition to this new emphasis on the nature of Far Cry, it's clear that Ubisoft has put a lot of thought into making Yara's mountains, caves, jungles, and swamps fascinating to play. The Montana depicted in Far Cry 5, while realistic, was painfully boring to explore on foot, with most of Hope County taken up by spruce-clad hillsides. Yara's varied biomes present a real challenge for Dany, but there are usually a few routes that don't require movement, whether it's using a grappling hook to climb a mountain, a long ride on horseback, or diving into a nearby river. The terrain is also cleverly used around the outposts, and I can't think of a single military base you can approach without heading to a natural vantage point and reconnoitring. Not because I had to, but because it was an organic part of the process.

And yes, as if anything needed to be said about Ubisoft's open world games at the moment, Yara is a breathtakingly beautiful virtual world to look at and walk around. But it's hard to avoid the feeling that this world lacks substance. Yara, its fascist regime, and its revolutionary factions are a hodgepodge of stereotypes and cultural tropes that seem more like scenery than genuine peace or credible tyrannical rule. Much of this is trivial and relatively innocuous, but there are also more serious cases of distortion, such as the notion of "reborn" supporters and the constant alternation of dialogue between English and Spanish.

As for the main story, I'm afraid this isn't the kind of Far Cry game that will ultimately deliver meaningful criticism to back up its tantalizing marketing. The game has some sharp dialogue, little hints of uncomfortable truths that cut through the silliness and make you think for a moment, but for the most part Far Cry 6 is content to bring up topics like racism, American imperialism, and fascism.

That's why the main plot is a bit forgettable. The bad guys that make up the ranks of Antón Castillo, his lieutenants and propagandists, are very, very bad people. They torture, lie, kill and enslave without remorse, and all they care about is what Anton thinks of them. Dealing with them is pleasant, but not particularly memorable. And after multiple games of Far Cry with the exact same main quest structure, it's beyond tedious when you can guess exactly how many more quests are left before the next big event.

Before I give my verdict, one last note about bugs. If you've played some previous installments, it shouldn't surprise you that Far Cry 6 has some pretty outrageous bugs, but while I didn't see anything that would break the game, my experience was constantly hampered by strange happenings around Yara. See one of the main characters catch fire in the background while another tells a tragic backstory; accidentally dying when opening a parachute; the explosives that connect to invisible walls and detonate right in front of me; driving through successive flocks of chickens on the same small stretch of road; watch in horror as civilians rush from security onto the sidewalk to throw themselves under the wheels of my car. Again, nothing game-breaking, but consistent enough that I find it hard to immerse myself in the world at times.