Far Cry 6 Impressions – Intriguing Aspects Yet Frustrating To Control

Developer – Ubisoft Toronto

Publisher – Ubisoft

Platform(s) – PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S (reviewed), Xbox One, Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, & PC

MSRP – $59.99

Release Date – October 7, 2021

Disclaimer: Code was Kindly Provided by Ubisoft

I’d like to note at the start that I have NOT finished Far Cry 6. This isn’t a scored full in-depth review, these are brief impressions of what I’ve played so far. These Impressions will be strictly from the standpoint of someone who’s got a good feel for the game mechanics, but not for the entirety of the narrative.

I’m not an avid player of the Far Cry series. I played about half of Far Cry 3 but I have next to no memory of what it was even about. I completed about an hour or two of Far Cry 5 and then never touched it again. My attachment or knowledge of this series isn’t large in the slightest.

Most Ubisoft games I’m interested in are the ones that stray from the usual formula that the publisher is known for. Games like Immortals Fenyx Rising come to mind as well as the upcoming Riders Republic. That being said I still thought it would be nice to see what Far Cry 6 had to offer.

Far Cry 6 is set on a fictional island called Yara. Yara is ruled by Antón Castillo, a dictator whose ruthless nature is shown extremely early in the game. Castillo is played by Giancarlo Esposito who you may know from shows such as The Mandalorian & Once Upon a Time.

You play as Dani Rojas, whose gender (male or female) can be decided upon by you. Each fraction of the land is taken over by the tyrannical government leaving you to go do various tasks to take back Yara from Castillo.

I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve played of the narrative so far. It’s a simple story albeit, it’s you working your way to take down a corrupt & ruthless government. The characters I’ve run into are greatly amusing and entertaining to be around. I can’t say that any of the characters are particularly memorable except for one or two but almost every cutscene was intriguing in some way.

The mere presence of Castillo on screen always gets me 100× more captivated on the scene. I will say that I have not completed the game but I do hope Castillo gets more screen time later in the game. There can be a “less is more” argument for giving him limited scenes in the game. Personally, I feel that of all the personalities to give a vast presence to, Castillo would’ve been perfect for Far Cry 6.

It may be a design choice or it may be that Esposito doesn’t come cheap and is only available for a limited time. This is all speculation and I haven’t even finished the game, so this complaint may be defunct as I make my way further through.

Mission design has been varied for the most part. I’ve gone from standing my ground in the front of a large mansion to destroying poison commodities. I have the benefit of not playing a lot of the Far Cry series when it comes to the game feeling overly familiar to previous installments. I’ve seen this complaint in a few of the previews, so I’d like to mention that here.

To put it simply, The narrative, characters, mission design, as well as environmental direction are things that I grew to enjoy about Far Cry 6. It’s just a shame that some of those aspects are overshadowed by how poorly this game has controlled for me so far.

From the get-go, I’ve had a mostly dreadful experience with the gameplay mechanics because of the clunky and cumbersome controls. I played this game on Xbox hardware, I don’t know if this issue is present on PlayStation but it’s still my biggest gripe with the game and why I can’t fully enjoy myself.

The crouch and melee buttons are the same which makes using both abilities awkward (especially, crouching). Riding a horse and driving a car doesn’t feel like you’re in control and are constantly fighting with the game to manage it properly. It’s made worse that you have missions that require you to deliver vehicles like military trucks.

There’s a substantial amount of input lag in some areas, specifically UI management. Shooting is the one area that doesn’t need much work done in terms of controls. There wasn’t a single play session that went by where I wasn’t frustrated with the controls. It’s a shame that this area of Far Cry 6 pales in comparison to the rest of the game.

I’ll give my thoughts on some other minor aspects of the game at the end here. The soundtrack is excellent and is something Ubisoft does consistently welll in their games. There’s a mission where you burn down a plantation field with a catchy tune playing all throughout.

The visuals are fine, it looks much better on PC from what I’ve seen in other previews. It’s unfair to compare the game to current-gen games since this is a cross-gen title. So, I’ll just say that it’s not one of the most visually stunning games you’ll ever see but it still looks good.

I’m not as stoked to explore the world of Far Cry 6 since none of the miscellaneous activities are pulling me in. You have the typical open-world tropes, that’s not a bad thing though. It’s all about execution and this is where I think the formulaic nature of other Ubisoft games hurts Far Cry 6 in terms of the will to explore.

Those are impressions of what I’ve played so far. I do applaud what I’ve seen of the narrative so far and other aspects such as music and mission design. It’s just hard to immerse yourself in this world when it feels like a slog and bunglesome to actually control in my experience.