A thin plot doesn’t spoil a far out blast
THE BIG RELEASE FAR CRY 6
PS4, PS5, XO, Series X/S, PC, Stadia ★★★★✩
PICTURE the scene: a cockerel sinks its talons into an ill-meaning militant, as homing missiles rain down like a firework parade, and Livin’ La Vida Loca blasts out of a car stereo. This is revolution, Far Cry-style.
Ubisoft’s latest outing for the open-world FPS adventure series is senseless, silly, and – if you check your brain at the door – a glorious roller-coaster ride straight to hell. Set on the fictional island of Yara, this is Cuba in everything but name. The backdrops are gorgeous, from streets lined with kaleidoscopic facades and fancy vehicles to the sparkling tropics teeming with sunsets and the promise of a thunderstorm. When it comes to looks, the Far Cry universe rarely disappoints, and this version of Cuba-not-Cuba is possibly the most startling of all the franchise’s settings.
If the scenery is picture-postcard then the action sets that postcard on fire and stubs out the flames with a fist. As you step into the combat boots of Dani Rojas – male or female, depending on your early game selection – there isn’t much time to get out the binoculars.
Far Cry makes a mockery of steady exploration, throwing you into the action like a sacrificial lamb. Things get brutal right out of the gate – this is one-man (or woman) warfare with bombastic, cartoonish characters begging to be blown up.
New formula? Not a chance. Refined? Hell, yeah. Far Cry 6 is a free-wheeling adventure of guns, guns and more guns as you go from hopeful activist dreaming of America to utter killing machine.
Pretty much every playstyle is supported by the vast array of weapons on offer and, for the most part, they’re all available early in the game. Fellow revolutionary – and resident comic – Juan Cortez will also build any weapon for you, such as a backpack rocket launcher.
Away from the maelstrom of bullets, Far Cry 6 is stacked with adventures. Hunting and fishing act as calming side activities as long as you’re not chewed on by a shark or a crocodile. You can take a glide in Far Cry’s patented wing suit, loot supplies from baddie bases and checkpoints, capture anti-aircraft installations and roadblocks to open up the roads and skies for travel, team up with an animal buddy (such as a sausage dog called Chorizo) to attack foes, burn around in a car with a machine-gun turret on its roof, partake in a treasure hunt, join a race or simply crack on with the story missions. This is a game you could easily sink 40-plus hours into and still have a checklist to complete.
On the flip side, true to form, the plot is thinner than bad soup: Yara’s underclass are tricked into slave labour by an evil regime and they’ve had enough. A guerrilla movement thus sets out to get rid of the island’s dictator, Antón Castillo, played to perfection by Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito. He’s a high point because, as is always the case with Ubisoft’s franchise, the story’s whys and wherefores are hardly worth a mention. If you’re hoping for commentary on banana republics, buy a book.
Let’s remember that Far Cry 5 climaxed with the start of World War III. This is a gaming series that neither treads lightly nor wants to – it’s pure adrenaline-pumping entertainment and it’s earned its stripes once again. Are they stripes? Or the talon marks of a revolutionary rooster? ’Nuff said.