It’s that time of the year. Developers and publishers are lining up for big blowouts of their upcoming flagship releases. Ubisoft recently got in on the action as well with a gameplay deep dive of Far Cry 6, which was accompanied by previews and interviews going up all around. As a result, we’ve learned a great deal about the upcoming open world first person shooter, and here, that’s exactly what we’re going to be talking about.
DANI ROJAS
Far Cry 6’s protagonist Dani Rojas has been briefly mentioned before, but Ubisoft have now shared several new details. As you’d have expected, players will be able to choose whether they want to play as a male or female Dani, and in the recent blowout, we got a look at the latter. Dani is an orphan and a military dropout, but gets swept up in the fight to overthrow the oppressive regime of Anton Castillo, even though it doesn’t seem like she had any intention to join the revolution. It seems like Dani’s going to be much more involved in the story than some previous games in the series, so we’re curious to see how well the game handles that.
THE WORLD
Far Cry 6 is, of course, an open world game, and it seems like it’s looking to kick things up a notch in this area as well. The fictional island nation of Yara serves as the game’s setting, and it seems like it’s really trying to capture the whole breadth of the country in its open world. During the recent gameplay deep dive, we got to see dense forests, tropical coastlines, and towns and cities. Yara’s capital city Esperanza is also fully explorable, which is a first for the series.
WORLD SIZE
Given that Far Cry 6 is a Ubisoft game, it’s sort of a given that it’s going to have massive open world- but how massive exactly? Well, we don’t have the exact numbers, but Ubisoft does say that it’s going to be the largest open world ever in Far Cry history. At the same time, the developers also seem to be ensuring that that size doesn’t come at the cost of quality or variety. In an interview with VGC, lead gameplay designer David Grivel said: “What was important for us is to create points of interest across the map. So we have cities, we have boats, we have airports and everything in between. We keep things interesting also because now we start building things such as outposts, which we now call FNS bases, which offer a classic Far Cry experience.”
He added: “It’s not like, ‘ah, there are ten camps in the forest and they all look the same’. Some might be about a sawmill, some might be about a port, some might be about something else, and it’s not just a theme on top of it, it also affects how players approach it because say if now the output is more inside of a building, sniper players will have to adapt to this situation.”
GETTING AROUND
There are other ways Far Cry 6 is working to make its open world a much more interesting place to simply exist in. How you get around the world is also going to involve plenty of player choice. There’s mounts to ride and vehicles to use, of course, but Yara is a country being ruled by a dictator, and you’re a guerrilla fighter trying to overthrow him- and that’s going to manifest in gameplay as well. For instance, when getting around the world, you can choose to take secret hidden paths through jungles and mountains that were built by the revolutionaries, or you can try and hide in plain sight and attempt to go right through heavily guarded areas and checkpoints. When you’re in an area full of those loyal to Castillo, you’re also going to have to keep your guns hidden to avoid suspicion.
GUERRILLA TACTICS
Clearly, the fact that you’re playing as a guerrilla fighter is going to affect not just Far Cry 6’s story, but its gameplay as well, and not just in terms of how you get around the world. Activities like intercepting Castillo’s operations and communications, sabotaging his equipment and outposts, bribing guards, and more will be a key part of the experience. Far Cry as a series has always toed the line between stealth and combat, and the fact that it’s going to do that more heavily to gel with its central narrative premise is certainly exciting.
WEAPONS
But, of course, there’s plenty of combat to go around as well, for those who don’t want to sneak around- and on that front, Far Cry 6 is making other improvements. Take the weapons, for instance. Variety is clearly something the developers are focusing on, and creating unique and interesting weapons using unlikely tools and components is something that the recent gameplay trailer seemed to emphasize. Weapons built on batter packs, cans of food, or hell, even a weapon made using a CD player that launches blades made out of CDs while playing songs. That sounds equally fun and ridiculous, and we’re here for it. Meanwhile, it’s also been confirmed that Far Cry 6 has more weapons than any other game in the series. There are 49 weapon types in total, and in addition to crafting, all of these are also fully customizable, and upgradeable.
GEAR
As explained by Ubisoft to Wcccftech, Dani can equip various pieces of gear across five different categories – Head, Chest, Hands, Legs, Feet – and different pieces of gear will provide different kinds of boosts. Special gloves will grant greater accuracy with throwing knives, marksman’s goggles will improve headshot accuracy, certain vests or pants or shoes will make Dani more mobile or more capable of being stealthy- you get the idea.
SUPREMO BACKPACK
Another major new combat being introduced in Far Cry 6 is the Supremo Backpack, which, as its name suggests, is no ordinary backpack. It can serve various purposes, each more destructive than the last, from allowing you to use a flamethrower to letting you shoot out a barrage of rockets from your back at groups of enemies. So sure, Far Cry 6 wants you to play as a stealthy guerrilla, but if you’re more about all-out combat and explosive action, the Supremo Backpack is going to let you do just that.
FANGS FOR HIRE
Massive open worlds, finetuned stealth, exciting combat- all of that is well and good. What’s really exciting about a Far Cry game is getting to fight alongside adorable (or ferocious) animal companions- and Far Cry 6 will continue to let you do that. So far, we’ve seen the soldier eating crocodile Guapo, and the adorable dachshund with wheels for hind legs, Chorizo. Those might be the only two Fangs we’ve seen so far, but if they’re any indication, the rest of the roster is going to be worth keeping an eye on as well.
NO GUNS FOR HIRE
Fangs for Hire is returning, but Guns for Hire isn’t. While Far Cry 6 will see players fighting alongside other characters at certain points in the story, they’re not going to be recruitable and summonable the way they have been in previous Far Cry games.
NON-LINEAR STORY
Far Cry 6 is definitely putting a great deal of emphasis and storytelling, but as you’d expect from a Far Cry game, it also wants to give you the freedom to explore its open world however you want. So how is it going to reconcile those two elements? By having a non-linear narrative. In an interview with Screen Rant, lead game designer David Grivel said that players will start the game in the centre of the map with 12 main narrative threads to follow, but you can tackle them in any order you please. “They’ll join at certain moments in the story, but it really allows you to discover and tackle the missions in whatever order that you want,” he explained.
RELEASE DATE
If things had gone according to plan for Ubisoft, Far Cry 6 would already be out, what with its original February launch date. Thankfully, the game still isn’t terribly far away. It’s been confirmed that Far Cry 6 will release on October 7, and will be available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia.
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