¡Ay, caramba!
Set on the fictional Caribbean island of Yara, you play Dani Rojas - a guerilla who must unite the various freedom fighter groups on the island to depose Anton Castillo (Giancarlo Esposito) and end his tyrannical regime...
After six games and as many spinoffs, there's a number of elements one can expect in a 'Far Cry' game. Beautiful locations, checkpoints and towers to liberate, an intriguing villain at the centre of the story, lots of chaos, and some frustrating elements that never quite sit as well as they should with everything else. 'Far Cry 6' is by far the best the series has been in years, and it's clear that the issues with previous efforts - 'Far Cry Primal', 'Far Cry 5' - have been taken on board and if not wholly addressed, have certainly been given due consideration.
The gameplay is much the same as previous entries, and what drives it all is the story. 'Far Cry 6' sees you take control of a reluctant guerilla fighter on the island of Yara, which is in the grip of violent dictator Anton Castillo - played by Giancarlo Esposito, no less - that has found a wonder drug for cancer treatment in the local tobacco plantations. Desperate to keep his grip on power and "rebuild paradise", Castillo has introduced martial law across the island, thrown up military checkpoints everywhere, and is generally up to no good. You start off as a member of Libertad, a rag-tag group of freedom fighters on a smaller island off of Yara, but are then sent to the mainland to help recruit other fighters to the cause of freedom by helping them with their own campaigns.
Unlike 'Assassin's Creed Valhalla' or even previous entries to the series, 'Far Cry 6' doesn't feel laboured or burdened with the amount of missions and side quests. If anything, the game feels somewhat like it's on rails, and while you can certainly pull over at any time and explore, go fishing, shoot up a checkpoint, go on a treasure hunt, you're never long doing it as the main quest is so engaging that you'll want to keep following it just to see what happens next, and where the chaos and carnage will bring you to next. Indeed, the way in which the characters deliver their missions to you feels much less laboured than other sandbox RPGs. With well over 50 main storyline missions, this cleanliness is a big help and just adds to the streamlined - not stripped back - nature of the game.
The gameplay itself has a bumpy, splashy feel to it. Just like the 'resolver' / makeshift weapons your character carries around, everything feels like it's on the verge of tipping into chaos, but you're still having fun and it still works a treat. That being said, the chaotic nature of many of the missions doesn't necessarily allow you to get too deep into it. For example, one early mission sees you climbing aboard two boats blockading a harbor. Initially, you'd think it was a stealth mission and you could waste time trying to sneak aboard quietly, but then the mission requires you to basically shoot the entire place up and blow up parts of said boats. Again, you're having fun and the carnage of it all is really enjoyable, but there's always a sense that it doesn't allow for anything more subtle or textured.
As mentioned, with as many entries as this franchise has under its belt, odds are you're already sold on it before even reading this. 'Far Cry 6' is familiar, yes, the design updates are just enough to keep it ticking over, but what keeps people coming back, again and again, is the fun of it all. 'Far Cry 6' is a fun game; it's got a wicked sense of humour, the action is never so serious as to be overwhelming, and the vibrant graphics make for an enjoyable experience, if a slightly uneven one.