Far Cry 6: Long Live Freedom! | Review PS5

They hold the reins and stole your eyes
Or the fistagons
The bullets and bombs
Who stuff the banks
Who staff the party ranks
More for Gore or the son of a drug lord
None of the above fuck it cut the cord

Someone asserts that history is made up of a cyclical succession of events that define a period. Everything is destined, sooner or later, to repeat itself without the possibility of escaping from this loop (speaking of Loop, have you read the review of Deathloop written by Claudio?) that every time comes back with the same dynamics and new little peculiarities that make it unique in its kind.

Far Cry 6, in its small size, is the representation of this concept applied to videogames both in terms of the game itself and the story. The new chapter is none other than the sixth iteration of a well-proven cycle and expands the concept that Ubisoft gives to the Open World, seasoning everything with a "strong" story, worthy heir of the previous episodes, however, the maximum representation of the concept "like father Like Son” in loop.

The island of Yara, the Cuban-inspired region where our adventures take place, is presented as a corner of Tropical Paradise. Unfortunately, just like Cuba, not all that glitters is gold as its inhabitants have been subjugated by the dictatorship of Anton Castillo, the son of a former dictator who was eliminated by the rebels in the 60s when little Anton was just a teenager.

After years of "apparent freedom" but of economic decline, Anton becomes president by exploiting the discovery of a miraculous anticancer drug to gain folk hero status by promising that the new medicine will transform Yara into a rich paradise.

The only problem is that the drug is produced by spraying Yarano tobacco with a toxic chemical, as well as exploiting and subjugating the population for plantations and to carry out unsafe clinical trials. As people begin to question his actions, Castillo strengthens his control over Yara, becoming a dictator as his father before him. And as his father, Castillo has a teenage son who is preparing to become the next president. The loop will never break!

Soon ad a new Revolution?

Lights Out, Guerrilla Radio

Impersonating Daniel Rojas (character who for the first time in the history of the game can be both male and female) we will take part in the fight against the new Castillo dictatorship following an attack on the boat with which a group of Yarani tried to escape towards the American dream and the freedom of the Miami coast.
Survivor - yes, because I chose to play Dani's female counterpart - agrees to help revolutionary group Freedom with the promise of a new boat for America. But once Guerrilla was forever, and this is how the crusade against El Presidente starts which will see our protagonist fight far and wide over the vast Yarano territory in order to unite three rebel factions to overthrow the dictatorship.

Like all Far Cry, this new chapter does not differ much from the "classic" modus operandi of the series: at the end of the prologue there will be presented a whole series of main missions to be completed to unite all the rebel factions, eliminate the pillars of the empire of Castillo and finally bring the last and final attack on Esperanza, the capital of Yara.
It will be up to us to decide when and how to complete a mission - free to choose whether to opt for a more stealth attitude, really impersonate a Guerrilla and use diversionary tactics and then hit from behind, or enter with weapons drawn and raze everything to the ground - or if we get lost. in the meanders of tropical forests in search of new animals to ride and, why not, carry out some secondary missions.

A big point in favor of Far Cry 6, however, is Dani.
Unlike all the other protagonists of the previous chapters, she is autochthonous. It is a priori part of the game environment. She is not a random protagonist who has ended up on the island for whatever reason and is forced to fight to secure an escape route.
Dani Rojas It's Yara. Dani is an orphan who just wants to help her friends - now her adoptive family - escape from a nightmare. Dani is the revolution that the island has been waiting for for some time.

Playing with this awareness Far Cry 6 makes all the exploration of the territory and the carrying out of the missions more interesting and exciting and has allowed me to identify myself better with the protagonist of the game.

Do it yourself combat

Perhaps the most striking novelty from the gameplay point of view is the absence of what in Far Cry 5 were defined as Perk points. Playing Far Cry 6 doesn't feel like you have a character "castrated“, Dani can do everything right from the first minute of play, without putting brakes or limits on the player's imagination as regards exploration and carrying out missions.
Terrace from which to go down too high? No problem, Dani has a parachute and does not have to unlock it by accumulating points to spend in the late game.
Do I want to arrive from the other side of the island? Well, just go to an aviation point and request a plane; even if a separate explanation is needed on this.

All this freedom of choice and movement comes, in fact, at a cost: reality. It would be strange if a heavily militarized island did not have countermeasures and roadblocks, and it is precisely for this reason that to take advantage of the plane a few lines up, the enemy anti-aircraft base must first be conquered. On pain of premature and insured death.

All make sense, therefore then FND to be captured and "released" in order to have full access to Yara's territory without anyone starting to shoot on sight.

The activities of the previous chapters related to crafting - such as hunting animals for example - are still present in Far Cry 6, even if they no longer have a central role in the economy of the upgrades. Almost everything Dani can equip is purchasable with Pesos and modifiable with parts and scrap found around the map and in enemy Outposts. It often happens in the early stages of the game that you find yourself making a suppressor for rifles with scraps pilfered here and there - and the visual yield is impressive because the weapon will really be equipped with some plastic that will quickly catch fire if used too much - or a front sight sketched with some damaged lenses. Everything refers to the concept of urban warfare: make do with what you have available.

Getting by is not synonymous with giving up though. The do-it-yourself comes to our aid when Juan Cortez, one of the secondary characters that most amused me, opens the doors to the world of Supreme and to the Friends.

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The former are comparable to backpacks that allow you to throw a kind of finisher-move ranging from a wave of flames to a burst of rockets through the EMP shock wave. The Amigos, on the other hand, are gods animal companions that accompany us during the exploration phases and can be useful in battle; among the most "famous" we find the crocodile Guapo, excellent for a face to face approach with the enemy and able to attack and eliminate weaker enemies in the early stages of the game, and Chorizo, the cuddly wheelchair-bound Dachshund who will be able to act as a decoy and distract our target as we sneak up on him ready to quietly take him out.
Honestly, the baddest, and perhaps most tamarrous, Amigo to unlock in game is the rooster Chicarron. Fun is guaranteed with him!

Side note on Chicarron. During our phases of "rest" in the rebel camps it will be possible to do many secondary activities such as sending troops on automatic missions, conducting Special Operations (simply missions to perform that will require you to steal FND cargo or destroy outposts) and the cockfight.
Apparently nonsense, were it not for the handling of the fight itself: imagine of playing Tekken with a very bad fighting cock complete with moves, dodges and finisher moves. This is the recipe for the funniest "pastime" of all Yara.

Small additions to a tried and tested combat system typical of Far Cry which in any case presents the “classic” gear wheel from which to choose the weapon to use based on the game phases. Guns, shotguns or machine guns, everything is instantly available to facilitate the combat phases.
After the first missions it must be said that the outpost conquest phases are perhaps a little repetitive; So what makes Far Cry 6 “attractive”? The answer is Yara.

It is spelled Yara, pronounced Castillo

It is undeniable that the expectations on the first Far Cry for next-gen were also high in terms of purely visual content. Here Ubisoft has really given its best, because thanks to the package of texture in HD - downloadable as a free add-on - the on-screen rendering of Yarani panoramas is phenomenal.

No matter how small or empty a setting like that of an island may seem, I often paused to observe the sunsets and beaches caught in passing by the sun's rays as it went down.

Everything, from palm trees to forest trees is spectacular and gives back that feeling of full immersion in a world that has so much to discover and that above all wants to be observed.

In this regard it was very welcome - and I would say finally - the implementation of the third person view in the cutscenes and in some other moments of the game. Being able to observe Dani's face helps to identify with her, to "feel" her emotions on her skin, which emerge from her facial expressions and movements.

The cutscenes, as well as the graphics of the whole game, run perfectly and i 4K and 60 fps of the new generation consoles make phenomenal the rendering of colors and shadows embellished by the skilful use of HDR (even if everything is not like Ray Tracing).

All of this is exploited to perfection with Giancarlo Esposito who plays El Presidente Anton Castillo. The performance produced by the Italian-American actor is to be commended, and I do not regret to say that thanks to him the figure of the dictator inspires much more fear than expected.
Castillo brings together the iconicity and the charisma of Joseph Seed (Far Cry 5) and all the eccentric violence by Pagan Min (Far Cry 4), and has left me amazed by its peculiarity of being able, within the same cutscene, to go from a calm and loving father to pure and healthy violence; towards both the Yarani and his own son.

For the purposes of Far Cry 6 Yara could not exist without Anton Castillo, This is a fact!

Too bad that, despite boasting a longer on-screen time than all the other antagonists in the series, Castillo interacts little with Dani, apart from the "commanded" Cutscenes and the game does not deepen his background. I would have liked very much to spend even two more hours of play to deepen the reasons that led Anton and his family to the dictatorship of an entire people.

Final judgement

Far Cry 6 certainly doesn't scream a miracle. It represents a further step forward made by Ubisoft towards the improvement of a type of game, the Open World, which is now depopulated on the internet and which has become very uniform on fixed fees.
The absence of a progression tree is certainly a positive note, as is the introduction of the third person view in the cutscenes to make Dani Rojas' interpretation more real and allow the player to make it their own.
Giancarlo Esposito adds that touch of class to Anton Castillo's character that makes him charismatic and fearful at the right point, without ever overdoing or exaggerating and making the blood boil to the point of really wanting to unleash a revolution.
Because in Far Cry 6 we are all Dani, we are all the outcasts. We are the Revolución!