Gameternel Far Cry 6 Review

Less than 3 months ago, I went on a journey. A journey I didn’t expect to be finished, nor did I expect it to be finished that quickly (only 3 months for 6 games! I have a problem!). At first, there wasn’t even one; I finally finished building my brand new and powerful desktop computer, and I wanted to re-visit a series that made a big impression on me, back in the days my collection of owned games were as scarce as my available time to play them. I just wanted to give another try to Far Cry 3 and see if all this love for the entry was legitimate or not, motivated by nostalgia or something more. 3 months later, I have played almost all of them, starting from Far Cry 3: FC3, FC4, FC Primal, FC5, FC New Dawn and at last, FC6. It’s time to give my own opinion on a very divisive entry in the series. Going in, I was scared. I had seen all the reviews, I had seen the overwhelming negative ratings. I didn’t get why, knowing this series is so much loved in general, so I gave it a try. It may be good to mention now, before going further, that I did not spend a dime on any of these games; I have borrowed them from friends. The main reason for it is simply that with the bad press Ubisoft as a game studio had, I did not want to support them in any way, shape or form, except, obviously, by playing their games. I mention this detail because this makes a difference; it’s for instance the reason I have found FC New Dawn enjoyable, while others may have been disappointed about its lack of innovation or effort, knowing its full price. What I have learned playing all of these games is that the teams behind Far Cry found many different ways of innovation, and I did not expect that. It’s crazy how the same basic mechanic and setting can be declined in various ways, feeling sometimes ever so slightly different impressions, and other times very distinct ones. FC6 is no exception to that, and I guess I’d agree with what people say about this game: the skill tree is gone and it’s frustrating, the hunt serves no purpose anymore, roads are made for massive vehicles, which kills half of the original beauty of Far Cry, and the shooting gameplay has never been so easy, almost even purposeless. But somehow, this all didn’t bother me that much. I learned, while going from one entry to the next one, that things will be shuffled, features will come and go, and I don’t want to blame them for trying to innovate, knowing how long this series has been going for. The things I just listed are not a hit in this series, but it doesn’t kill the game, at least for me. Then, there were many, many issues with the AI of the game. To put it bluntly: the AI in this game is bad. Enemies give you ten times more time you need to pull out a gun and kill them before warning anyone in the surroundings; NPCs in general freak out when you pass them by and make a box explode (because this game loves to handle interactions with stuff through breaking and exploding, you’ll see that when you’ll embark in a boat); etc, etc. The most infuriating aspect of the game for me were all these times I had to exit to main menu and jump back in to fix the issues I had: the mission doesn’t finish because it expects an already-destroyed tank to be obliterated; allies wandering around or being stuck on roofs while I needed them on the floor, and so on. It definitely felt like this entry had much more of these issues than any other previous one. I even had many landscape generation bugs, where I could see big chunks of pixels moving quickly on my screen while it was generating, I presume. This, I have to admit, felt a bit cheap. The last negative point I want to mention is the length of the game. As usually, when entering into this game, I tought “wow, it’s beautiful, and I want to see and do everything”. More than 20 game-hours later, I don’t feel this way anymore. I have left many Yara stories behind, as well as races, achievements, guns, and even entire map zones I’ve never been into. I remember, deep in the game, maybe 2 hours before finishing its main story at best, going through a sandy/forested environment and saying to myself “man, this place is awesome. Why am I seing this only now?”. And it wasn’t because I took my own path, did things in an unordered way, no, it was intended to be discovered by the end of the game. A game that was the longest of all Far Cry entries until now. And that, I think, sums it up well: this game has resources, has ideas, but it struggles to filter them. It does a lot, and maybe it put a little too much on its plate. But besides all of these points, I enjoyed my time. Even though I once again failed my completionist self, I collected quite a lot of stuff in this game, just because it was tempting and made me curious for a good part of it. This game clearly emphasizes its story; from the start, each time you launch your game, you have this Netflix-style introduction that reminds you of Narcos or Mind hunters, and it works. Some cinematics also make you feel like they’re trying to treat it like a form of art, not just a video before your next gun fight. And to be honest, it worked well on me: some scenes left me with goosebumps, others left me feeling sad or empathetic. Obviously, it’s not only due to the camera angles or the general ambiance; the characters developed are credible, feel distinct and some of them interested me. I’m still blown away by the quantity or characters Ubisoft tries to have in one game, and in this one more than in any other one! But it makes sense: to have a lenghty game that holds, you most definitely need to present interesting stories and people. It did not work for all of them but again, I won’t blame them for trying, it feels like it’s not an easy task to do. Something dawned on me while reviewing this game. I feel like I won’t remember this entry as much as I will remember FC5. And, in fact, when I think of all of them, FC5 stands out quite a bit. It’s funny, because besides FC6 and its majorly poor reviews, FC5 was the entry I was the least excited about before playing. Then, I launched it, and wow… Now, I know FC5 represents for me the absolute reference, the best encapsulation of what Far Cry “is”. It may well be, for me at least, the best setting we will ever get for a Far Cry games. But still, it doesn’t mean they have to stop trying, right? Please. I just wish the next one will happen in the Russian federation, man. I think it’s time.