Far Cry 6: An even farer cry

 Cry harder

Do you know where the term 'Far Cry' comes into the far cry games; it's significance and meaning? I only ask, because I'm starting to think that Ubisoft themselves have blanked once or twice with the definition. It's simple actually, the 'Far Cry' refers to being put in a situation that's a 'far cry' from your typically world and day to day. Now if we take that to be directed at the gamer than this is a pretty stupid and meaningless title because literally every game lines up with that, but if we instead match that up with each game protagonist then it sort of makes sense. This is a series about people being thrown vastly out of the depth and struggling to survive against the odds; that's your 'Far Cry' in a nutshell. Far Cry 1 had a mercenary who ended up stranded on an island which eventually became overrun with mutants; Far Cry 2 had another mercenary who rocked up for a quick assassination and ended up being at the centre of an African civil war. Far Cry 3 starred a gang of annoying rich kids being abducted by pirates and 4 had a young man returning to his land of birth before ending up a freedom fighter in a civil war against a king-tyrant. All examples of characters thrown out of their depth and hoping to survive. Far Cry 5 was perhaps the greatest test of this model, as it was specifically designed to be based on cookie cutter recognisable America, but the murder cult systematically brainwashing the local populace really pushed things back into 'Far Cry' territory. As such, I think that Far Cry 6 might represent the first major deviation from the concept.

Don't get me wrong, at paper on face value it works. We have a military droppout in a fictional south American country trying to escape with their life and ending up as a guerrilla warrior for their homeland. Sure. Except something doesn't sit right by me. It starts with this being the land of your birth, something that's been stressed in the trailers we've already seen, which means this place and it's dictator are well known to the character before the events of the game. Then there's the fact that this is a person thrown into a position of warfare, which is a situation they'd be familiar with being a military drop-out. (I've always loved, and thus will miss, the unexplainable lunacy of 'this trust fund kid just gutted an entire boat of hardened pirates without breaking a sweat.') And the kicker, the part which really makes me scratch my head and wonder if Ubisoft have completely lost their reference guide for their games, is the fact that we as gamers have been here before. A country on the verge of civil war because of the tyrannical machinations of a charismatic despot? That's Far Cry 4! I played that game, it was good. Why are we looking at the exact same premise just lifted to another continent? Are Ubisoft truly that lost on ideas that they're forced to cannibalise their old ones? (Big if true.)

It fits a pattern in Ubisoft that I have been signalling about for a while now: the homogenisation of their games to the detriment of each franchise's soul. Assassin's Creed, for example, literally has no right to bear it's namesake anymore because it has nothing to do with Assassination and only adds those systems as poorly implemented afterthoughts nowadays. Rainbow Six, is a freaking zombie shooter game now that we'll go into at a later date. Splinter Cell is totally missing in action for another whole year, unless you count that garish mobile game which Sam is set to make a cameo in. (I don't. You shouldn't really either.) So whilst fans who watched the Ubisoft E3 event were picking through the scene we saw an critiquing the quality, or lack thereof, of the visuals; (It actually had worse visual atmosphere and lighting than the Far Cry 4 intro) I was looking further and wondering if we're getting to the point where Far Cry is going to start losing it's soul like Assassin's Creed has.

Having to think like that is a total shame too, because barring this anaemic footage in Ubisoft's pretty rough E3 showcase, I think that the Far Cry 6 footage we've already been seeing is actually pretty cool. It's very cool in fact. I think Yara, the fictional country we're 'liberating' this time around, is actually incredibly beautiful and expansive, maybe enough to justify some more topographical variance then we saw in the last entry. I love the fact we're going to have a large built-up urban area to explore at that will be the first time in the series for such a battlegrounds, and the fact we're even looking at getting to pilot tanks sounds nigh-on transformative. (Heck, at this rate we may even be granted the chance to finally get in one of the those attack helicopters that have plagued us since Far Cry 3) There's also the atmosphere of Yara that seems a formula for success, with half of it leaning on this wild untamed wilderness and the other going towards a locked-down military state with barbed wire and nighttime patrols everywhere. (I just hope that's actually represented in game and is not just trailer talk.)

I also really love the amount the effort that's going into the combat side of the game this time around, as often times it has felt like that has taken a back burner during improvements to gimmick stuff that you don't even end up using all that much. Sure, melee weapons are great and all but you'll just end up using those assault rifles at the end of the day, same for all those fancy takedown animations that they obviously put considerable effort into coding. This time around they've taken time to actually get really creative with the guns that you have at your disposal, resulting in very unique fabricated tools that seem like they'll be a lot more memorable to shoot. (Of course I'm talking about the CD-gun which shoots CD fragments at the enemy whilst playing the Macarena)

As for the stars of the show, we could hardly ask for a stronger front man to represent the insane villains that Far Cry retroactively decided they were all about after 3 in Giancarlo Esposito- I mean Giancarlo- wait, his name in game is... ahh who cares. It's Giancarlo. This isn't the first time that they've thrown all their chips behind the villain, but it is the first time they've taken the easy route and just thrown a character actor to do the thing they want. I'm not saying that I'm opposed to Giancarlo, I love him, I'm just not clasping my hands in anticipation for what he might do next. I know this character. I've seen him in Mandalorian, Breaking Bad, The Boys. They've tried to shake things up by giving him a son; "oh he's human now because he has a son and it's all for him, even if it's twisted." Imma be straight with you, Ubisoft, my very first question was "Can I shoot the kid". I sure this villain will be fine, but knowing Ubisoft I'll bet he's underutilised and quickly gone too. (I remember Joseph Seed)

The other star, the protagonist, is where I'm a little more interested for the time being. Far Cry 6 is allowing for a customisable protagonist, like last game, but this one actually has a voice! Whatsmore, and I may be extrapolating above my station here, but it almost sounded like they had a personality in some of the dialogue I've seen. Now that could, and likely will, amount to little more than 'I have the drive to do some stuff I guess', but there's a potential there to create something meaningful and maybe have a protagonist who isn't total trash compared to everyone else. (You know, like Far Cry is known for.) I want to see Dani undergo some form of journey and become someone else by the end, rather than show literally no character development and simply get told that they've evolved in the middle of some incredibly trite side-villain monologue. (>cough< Far Cry 5 >cough<)

So once again I'm of two minds coming towards Far Cry. On one hand I think the game looks like a lot of fun, and on the otherhand I'm losing faith in Ubisoft's ability to provide the quality their studio should be capable of. And I know that fans of these games have been brow-beaten to the point where they consider these 'turn off your brain' games and want for nothing more substantial, yet I'll always be asking for more because I know the team can manage it. There's no reason why Far Cry can't have strong characters and story, and heart, to match it's strong gameplay and I won't rest until that potential is reached. All that being said, Far Cry 6 does look just decent enough to keep my attention so far, even if that special little something hasn't jumped out at me yet. You know what I mean? That little elusive spark of "Oh! That completely turns things on it's head in a creative way." I wonder if Ubisoft even knows what it's like to feel that anymore...