Far Cry 6 is a dumb distracted donkey of a videogame. Ubisoft, despite the qualities they possess in making open-world adventures, compelling and sometimes excellent games, have in recent years coasted on franchise entries that are overly-sized and stuffed with busywork.
Far Cry 6 will no doubt be seen as more of the miserable same from Ubisoft, but with Far Cry 6 Ubi have proven that they can both play stupid and be stupid at the same time.
Now before I dive in and explain why Far Cry 6 is so idiotic, let me address what I really like about it first.
Far Cry 6 boasts an often-fabulous and scenic open-world that is inviting to explore. Missions where you plunder ships and destroy military bases are still readily enjoyable. The soundtrack stands out thanks to a plethora of Hispanic tunes that really gives FC6 something of its own distinct sense of identity. So yes, there is much you may like in the game but I’m not here to talk about that, I’m here to discuss why Far Cry 6 is dreadfully imbecilic.
Let’s start with the protagonist Dani Rojas. Now Dani can be either a male or a female, but during my playthrough I opted for female Dani because I thought I’d have a change from playing a generic man action hero for once, and see how playing as a female compares in terms of characterisation and status alongside her allies.
Dani does fit in well enough as she is designed in a way that makes you believe she is part of a guerrilla faction to fight the good fight. However, time and again you have to do Libertad’s dirty work, meaning more often than not you participate in drawn out firefight sequences and missions that get you perform rudimentary tasks like defending a computer from an intruding onslaught of Anton’s military whilst data is downloading or decimating a certain amount of stuff to fill a percentage meter.
Though missions tend to run a familiar gamete, they aren’t the real concern here. Dani’s personality is sterile as she seems to lack convincing emotions when the game seems to be on the verge of showing us some depth. Something happens early on in the game that should yield Dani’s emotional response, but what we ultimately get is her yanking a machete out of a dead body’s torso as we gaze at her perturbed face before the title rolls into view.
Far Cry 6 has a penchant for unimaginative writing and this is no clearer than the constant repetition of “guerrilla” at every turn. Seriously it’s hard not to pay attention and groan every time guerrilla is mentioned – I know that’s what Dani is, but we don’t need to be told about it unrelentingly time after time – but the annoyances don’t stop there. Dani and pals like to swear by dropping an F bomb there, a Spanish insult here, usually exaggerating or not being defined readily enough in context. For instance, she’ll say something along the lines of “that’ll blow everyone out of the water” when there is barely anyone around.
Your fellow mission-givers find the lamest excuses for you to go perform a mission because that character decides that you should do the dirty work. Granted there are a few times in Far Cry 6 where there is some memorable fun to be had, but more often than not it’s about shooting armoured men and blowing stuff up.
Anton Castillo isn’t all that interesting, I’m sorry. Yes, Anton is El Presidente and damnit his commanders and others like to remind you of this, but all he really does is manipulate his son into following his ideology – and does evil things just because he’s a villain. Vaas gave you a definition of insanity, Pagan Min gave you flamboyancy and Joseph Seed gave you a false promise of a Mecca, but Anton gives you erm….a reason to revolt? Anton doesn’t show up enough or have great influence in Far Cry 6 in the sense that he only ever exists when the story decided to call for it. You could say the same about Pagan Min but at least Pagan was interesting and enigmatic, Anton just serves to remind you of Juan Castro.
All told Far Cry 6 is very stupid and should be sectioned for how stupid it is. Yet maybe this stupidity is a good thing because it makes you realise and appreciate what good storytelling and character development is whilst experiencing how Far Cry 6 blasts it out of an airlock. In many ways Far Cry 6 just annoys in a way not too distant from being poked by a thousand needles, it’s so poorly written in places that you really will need to turn the ignition off from your brain in order to safely comprehend it. This doesn’t take away from some of the bright spots but by the same token it makes you wonder how many IQ points were killed off during its development. At least Juan Cortez will happily join you whilst merrily offering some booze.
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