Far Cry 6 Preview – Stoking The Flames

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Since its announcement last summer, Far Cry 6 has been one of the most anticipated games on the horizon. With a revolution against a murderous dictator on the fictional Caribbean island of Yara as a backdrop, the stakes are high in this latest entry. While everything has looked promising up to this point, I was excited to finally get my hands on the new game to see for myself how it’s playing out.

The opening moments of Far Cry 6 feature celebratory tones, but they don’t last long. You play Dani Rojas (who can be a man or a woman), a former soldier looking for a better life. You are on the roof of your house having a drink with your friends Alejo and Lita, excited to leave Yara behind. The plan is to drink in Mexico, then have dinner in Miami. A commotion on the ground draws his attention when soldiers from President Antón Castillo’s army begin firing at civilians. Lita pleads with Alejo not to attract attention, but her hatred for Castillo is too much; throws his beer at the soldiers, yelling, “F — Castillo!” Unfortunately, the soldiers saw him and put a bullet in his head.

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All hell breaks loose when Lita and Dani escape, evading the soldiers and running towards the docks. They board a fishing boat, but the feeling of relief is short-lived when the boat suddenly stops and Castillo comes down the stairs. Actor Giancarlo Esposito, from Breaking Bad and The Mandalorian, plays Castillo. From this scene, he appears to be at the top of the already excellent list of menacing antagonists from Far Cry history.

After his bodyguard murders one of the refugees who yells in Castillo’s face, the president turns his attention to a small boy hooded on his back, who turns out to be his son, Diego. Diego was also trying to escape, and begs his father to let the others go. Castillo doesn’t listen. He takes his son away and his forces open fire on the ship.

Dani wakes up on Isla Santuario with Lita, who bleeds to death on the beach. Hold on long enough to pass Dani her phone with information on how to find rebels on the island. In an emotional moment, Lita dies and Dani grabs her machete and sets off on the journey to escape Yara.

Dani soon searches the camp on Lita’s phone and finds Clara, the leader of the resistance group Libertad. Dani asks for help to get out, but Clara ruins Libertad’s mission, convincing Dani to stay and fight. Dani’s first mission is to track down a former double agent named Juan Cortez.

Juan is known for his love of alcohol, but also for his wit and eccentricity. Naturally, I find him in a bar in a small seaside town. Castillo’s FND military forces are also looking for it, and it turns out that the bartender sold it. After Juan returns the favor to the bartender, he and his pet alligator, Guapo, jump into action and fight the soldiers alongside Dani. Guapo likes Dani and becomes the first Friend, animal companions fighting alongside you, that you add to your list.

Before heading back to camp, Juan says he wants to make a stop at a recent FND supply drop. Together with Guapo, I take out the soldiers and look for supplies. Once back at the camp, I use those supplies to create two types of special bullets for enemies with and without armor, respectively.

Juan then tells me about my next mission: stealing uranium from one of Castillo’s forts. On my way there, I come across a checkpoint that blocks traffic with a strip of spikes. I decide to take out the soldiers and destroy the FND billboard to claim the checkpoint as my own, which places guerrillas there instead of Castillo’s forces. Shortly after I arrive at my destination.

The fort is full of guards, but I notice various ways of approaching the situation after observing it from a close point of view. Do I put on my armor-piercing shells and go with guns blazing? Or do I take a more stealthy route to ease my approach? I see vines outside that I could climb, and there’s a way to swim under the fort and get into the basement. I could also go to the substation on the cliff and zip-line out the window. I decide to climb the vines and take out the patrolling soldiers one by one. After killing the officer, retrieving the key, and finding the uranium, I turn to Juan at Clara’s camp.

Once back, Juan hands me my first Supreme, an ultimate weapon that works on cooldown. The Exterminator is a multiple rocket launcher that traps enemies and wipes them out of existence; is the definition of “hype” against infantrymen, but it is also effective against tanks. Other Supreme you unlock include the Volta, an EMP pulse that knocks down enemies, disables security systems, and hijacks vehicles, and the Medic, which allows you to revive and heal your allies. My personal favorite is El Muro, a revolver with a ton of stopping power used with a hand shield.

After blowing up two of Castillo’s ships and escaping from Sanctuary Island, I land in El Este, where I meet an entirely new cast of characters, fight alongside different resistance groups, and open a ton of new missions. Yara looks huge in its explorable area and I can’t wait to dive into the final product.

Far Cry 6 starts off with a bang from both a narrative and an action point of view. I’m curious if Ubisoft can go through with these emotional hits without falling victim to the cognitive dissonance that Far Cry is often known for. Hopefully, the enjoyment we get from flying in our wingsuits, firing outrageous weapons, and fighting alongside a cute dachshund named Chorizo ​​isn’t too much of a contrast to the story of an island in political peril. Only time will tell if Ubisoft can balance these disparate tones, but in my time playing the game, I had a lot of fun and still felt the weight of the dark narrative rhythms.

Far Cry 6 is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X / S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia, Luna, and PC on October 7.

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