Far Cry 6has released, seeing the popular franchise taking players to an entirely new Cuban-inspired island filled with collectibles, enemy forts, and plenty of things to blow up. A number of new features were introduced inFar Cry 6as well, including upgradeable camps, player levels, and unconventional Resolver Weapons for players to craft and customize. Of course,Far Cry 6also includes a brand new story that sees players attempting to end the rule of an autocratic dictator.
The game’s story mode also has the star power of havingBreaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito playing the role of that dictator, Anton Castillo. The antagonist inFar Crygames have played a large role in the series ever sinceFar Cry 3’s Vaas become an iconic character. While this has had a positive impact onFar Crygames overall, such asFar Cry 6featuring DLC that includes previous villains, it also has led to new entries in the series being compared to previous entries when they release. That’s proved no different forFar Cry 6.
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Reviews for Mainline Far Cry Games
The firstFar Crywas released in 2004 and has a score of 89 on the review aggregator website Metacritic. The game was widely praised for its open-level design that allowed players to tackle missions in a variety of ways as well as the detail it had in its tropical island setting. This was followed byFar Cry 2, receiving an average score of 85 in 2008. Taking the series to Africa,Far Cry 2saw players tracking down the Jackal, while also expanding the scale and detail of the series in a variety of ways.
The series was then revolutionized withFar Cry 3in 2012, which sits at an 88 on Metacritic. It created the template that the series still follows to this day, while also including a creative and engaging story that kept players wanting to play more at every turn.
Far Cry 4was then released in 2014, and received an average score of 80. Many critics and players enjoyed the new options that the title brought to its sandbox, but many felt that the game’s story and repetitive side content detracted from the experience slightly.Far Cry 5then continued the trend of decreasing review scores with a 78 in 2018. WhileFar Cry 5was enjoyed by many for its beautiful open worldand gameplay, more critics and players found its story and antagonist disappointing and lackluster. Many also voiced a concern that the series was beginning to play it a little safe, with each entry feeling very familiar to those that preceded it.
Reviews For Far Cry Spin-Offs
Following the success ofFar Cry 3,the series began releasing spin-off titles in between mainline releases that were a bit more experimental and smaller in scope. The first of these was the standalone expansionFar Cry 3: Blood Dragon. It received an 81 average review score and was even recentlyincluded with the season pass forFar Cry 6. The game has become a cult classic within theFar Crycommunity, with players enjoying its stylish visuals, comedic tone, and over-the-top design that makes it stand out from every other game in the series. Unfortunately,Far Cry 3: Blood Dragonhas so far been the only spin-off title to find such success.
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The next spin-off,Far Cry Primal, released in 2016 and currently sits at a 74 on Metacritic. It took the series to the stone age, complete with throwing spears and taming saber-tooth tigers. However, it was not as well-received as previous entries in the series, as many found it to be very repetitive and missing features from the mainline games that players wished had been included.
The most recentFar Cryspin-off was 2019’sFar Cry New Dawn. A sequel toFar Cry 5, it took place after the apocalypse and sits at a 73 Metacritic score with a user score on the website of 3.9. The new game featured numerous new systems that players found more annoying than fun, and it helped solidifyFar Cry 3: Blood Dragonas the strongest spin-offin the series.
Reviews of Far Cry 6
Far Cry 6, however, just released and seems to have fallen somewhere in the middle of the series' review scores. The game currently sits at a 76 on Metacritic which makes it the lowest scoring mainline entry yet, but does keep it above the less favored spin-offs. However, it does also put it belowFar Cry 3: Blood Dragonas far as critic reviews go. Reviews seem to largely agree thatFar Cry 6will feel very familiarto fans of the franchise, with some critics saying that is more negative than positive.
Most reviews do agree, however, thatFar Cry 6’s protagonist Dani Rojas is a good improvementfor the franchise, with most saying that the character’s personality comes out throughout the game and adds a lot to the experience. Unfortunately, the same is largely not being said for Anton Castillo, as players and critics are finding the villain to fall flat when compared to the previous antagonists in the franchise, not helped by how little he appears throughout the game.
Overall, it seems thatFar Cry 6continues the trend of many feeling that the series is not innovating or evolving enough as it goes on, as well as its story not living up to previous entries. It is great that its protagonist has gotten so much praise from throughout the industry, but hopefully, Ubisoft will be willing to be riskier withFar Cry 7to give the series the revitalization that so many feel it needs. Rumors have circulated for some time thatFar Cry 7will be a big changefor the series, so it will be very interesting to see whereFar Crygoes in the future.
Far Cry 6is available now on Amazon Luna, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
