Far Cry 6: Ultimate Edition [Xbox]

Under the control of cruel and powerful dictator Anton Castillo, played by the magnificent Giancarlo Esposito; the island of Yara is in dire need of help. Ubisoft’s Far Cry 6 sees you take on the role of Dani Rojas - who you will choose an appearance for, masculine or feminine, at the games outset - before learning the ways of the Libertad, a guerrilla group that reluctantly takes you in after you make it (barely) to Isla Santuario. This island, whilst already large in size, serves as just a minor introduction to the world of Far Cry 6, with different areas to challenge you and bring you up to speed with the inner workings of the Libertad, their plentiful guerrilla routes sprawling across the land and the weaponry you’ll have at your disposal. I spent a pretty decent amount of time just exploring this island, before progressing to the main part of Yara - and being shocked at just how much ground I still had to cover. It continues to do what a lot of recent Ubisoft titles have done, and that is have excellent Accessibility options. You’ve got lots of options to toggle to get the perfect settings for your optimal experience, ranging from additionally highlighted outlines on enemies/loot to make them more visible and options for different types of colour-blindness, to Subtitles/Closed Captions and enlarged fonts, to name just a few.

The main story-line consists of Libertad missions as well as separate quest-lines consisting of the three guerrilla factions that you’ve got to sweet-talk into joining forces with the Libertad. To do this, you must complete tasks and generally just help them out, gaining them as allies in the process. You’ve also got a huge selection of Checkpoints that you can gain control of, as well as FND Bases, and making sure to deal with these early on theoretically should make travelling around the world a little easier - however you’ll end up with more frequent enemy encounters passing through these areas, including high-power enemies such as tanks and military turrets to slow you down if you don’t just pass through quickly. Likewise, there are Anti-Aircraft Bases that will shoot you out of the sky if you so much as tip into their airspace, so I made a concerted effort to destroy them as soon as I’d come across them. I’m a big fan of using the Buzzer to get around the world quickly (even if it does feel slightly odd to control), but it doesn’t have very much protection if a missile comes flying right at you - so it made sense to clear the skies.

Visually, it looks great - the world is filled with detail, and the character designs are well varied for the main NPCs you’ll meet along the way. There did seem to be a fair bit of juddering during cutscenes, which was a little off-putting - especially as they’re done really well outside of this. You get to see Anton Castillo at his most ruthless; a dictator with a vision of a greater Yara, but in his own sick and twisted way. Even his own son, Diego, recognises that what his father is doing is wrong and has clear conflict with his circumstances, giving a human side to the Castillo family. The story is in-depth and interesting, getting to meet and find out the stories from the allies you meet, from the Legends of ‘67, fronted by El Tigre; to enemies such as General José Castillo (Anton’s equally as fierce nephew) and Minister of Culture, María Marquessa. There’s a decent soundtrack too, with songs including Camila Cabello’s Havana and Ricky Martin’s Livin’ La Vida Loca that Dani will sing along to on the radio, and that’s always fun to hear. You’ve got access to a few different Amigos as the game goes on, in the form of animal companions that can help you on quests, ranging from Guapo, a vicious crocodile that will tear enemies apart, to Chorizo - the most adorable little pup with wheels that can distract your enemies. For the most part though, I wouldn’t use these Amigos as they would often lead to me getting spotted easier.

There’s a lot of looting to be done this time round, with a whole bunch of different materials to find all around Yara. You’ve got the random pickups such as metal and gasoline that are readily available, but you’ll need to gain a lot of for different camp upgrades - I haven’t found this to be too much of a bother as anytime I come across these types of loot, I’ll quickly pick them up before moving on so that it hasn’t felt like too much of a grind to get what I need, although this is something that has divided a lot of people. There are various unique weapons that can be found, but sadly these ones are unable to be upgraded or altered at all, which is a little frustrating as you’ll end up never using them due to this. Different enemies can require different ammo types, so upgrading your ammo and weaponry is needed to ensure you’ll actually do decent damage to different enemy types; such as Armor Piercing vs Soft Target Rounds, but the combat can feel quite off at times due to this. Powerful, high caliber rifle? Check. Decent damage to the enemy? Nope. On the flip side of this, it can feel like you’re stuck in a totally unfair fight at times, as some enemies - even ones that aren’t all that more powerful than you - will almost wipe you out in a couple of shots, whereas they’ll soak up bullets like they’re nothing at all. It does kinda push you to go for a more stealthy gameplay style, which will affect players differently depending on their preferences; good for me, since I go stealthy anyway, but bad for Allan who wants to rush in, guns blazing.

It definitely does begin to feel a lot more intense as you get further into the game, with enemies descending on you before you’ve even had a chance to think about pulling a weapon out, and unbelievably long loops of tanks and helicopters near to checkpoints (even ones you’ve liberated). It’s super frustrating trying to pick up intel and side-quests from people at your checkpoints due to this, as the constant loop means you’ve got a tiny sliver of time to get their full voiceline out before the next enemy shows up to interrupt them all over again. There’s a lot of repetition in what you’ll do outwith the main story, as while you’ve got a few different things to do in the form of checkpoints, FND bases and Gran Premio races - they don’t have much variation within, as to what you’re doing, so it can feel a bit tedious at times as you rinse and repeat your way through all of them. Additionally you’ve got cockfighting, with a bunch of different contenders, and this is set up to look like a typical fighting game, however it doesn’t feel too exciting. The best ‘activities’ for you to complete are the Treasure Hunts, as these involve a little more variety such as exploring spooky, haunted mini-castles, sprawling caves, mountains and flooded nightclubs - although the rewards for completing these are still pretty lacklustre.

Overall, both myself and Allan were split in our opinions of Far Cry 6. I had a great time, and whilst there were a few gripes I still had with the game, the repetition didn’t bother me - I quite enjoy sinking time into completing tasks and checking off all the areas I can liberate; to just go with the flow and explore, before returning to the main quest lines. Allan on the other hand, felt that this repetition killed a lot of his enjoyment, and the momentum of the game - wishing instead for more variety. Similarly, the looping enemy encounters and pinpoint accurate AI can extinguish a lot of the fun, so you’ll need to keep moving after liberating areas to avoid falling into this trap. It’s a decent game, but it does have its flaws. And there’s a lot of micro-transactions thrust upon you that makes for a bit of an annoyance - but we’ve almost grown numb to this inclusion in Ubisoft’s titles, which is shocking really. Far Cry 6 is fun - admittedly, it’s nothing groundbreaking - but if it’s a quintessential Far Cry experience you’re looking for? Then you’ll find it here.

In the end, we decided to give Far Cry 6 the Collecting Asylum rating of 7.5/10.

Have you played Far Cry 6 yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to Ubisoft for the Far Cry 6: Ultimate Edition Xbox review code!