Far Cry 6 however, drew me in straight away. Whilst there are darker moments here, the overall sense of the game is that of fun and the traits of the series return in a way that makes exploration feel enjoyable - not through any real reinvention but rather through the solid gameplay, vibrant presentation, jaunty music, moment-to-moment scenes and satisfying gunplay.
Players of previous far cry titles will be on familiar ground here. From the main mission sequences and side quests, there are also dozens and dozens of Libertad (goodies) and FND (baddies) crates and collectables to pick up that widen your arsenal as well as providing key materials to expand your ever-growing selection of camps and bases around the islands.
There are also some new introductions here such as the use of amigos – animals with various traits that you can command to attack enemies; cockfights - one on one fighting segments that play out like a rudimentary Tekken, a silly but fun, brief distraction; and Banditos missions, which are a sort of mini ‘choose your own adventure’ sequences presented in a text-only format – I found these surprisingly enjoyable.
The games’ frame rate was rock solid for me on the Xbox Series X and some of the visuals and smoothness of the on-screen carnage was such that I quite often found myself appreciating how buttery my experience was. A big help to the atmosphere comes from the joyfully raucous music that kicks in when driving around or in a gunfight, it’s sometimes thematically at odds with the brutality onscreen but again adds to a slight lightness of tone that keeps the game from getting overly serious.
I also found that the wildlife and NPCs featured more here than in previous instalments, quite often I’d see people in fistfights near flipped cars or the Libertad in pitched gun battles with the FND as I drove past – obviously I’d sneak off a few helpful grenades and beep my horn as I whipped past on my motorbike with sidecar (natch).
Many was the time that I’d be crouched, ensconced in darkness and marking distant enemies for picking off with my sniper rifle as I mentally planned an assault on the base….as a family of crocodiles/coyotes / wild hogs burst out of the undergrowth and began ripping at my legs, causing me to unleash a full clip of rifle ammo at them, scuppering my plans and alerting everyone to my presence. Ahhh. Good.
Things aren’t quite so smooth in online co-op, though. My brother, Transvaal – whom I was playing with – was the second player accompanying me on my quest and quite often on his screen my character or vehicle would be jerking around like Michael Stipe on stage circa ’88 and in both single and multiplayer modes, the occasional tedious glitch would raise its head such as my pad getting locked in an eternal vibration fantasy or pop-ups remaining onscreen indefinitely, requiring a restart.
Not game-breaking, but slightly irritating, nonetheless. I will again reiterate that the gunplay is the best in the series, the weapons all have heft and I found myself flicking between loadouts dependent on my mood as well as what the situation in hand called for - the mark of solid balancing - as opposed to just switching to the newest gun/armour that I’d picked up.
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