Far Cry has come a long way since its first release in 2004. We saw it explode into a huge open world in Far Cry 2, then showcase one of the most memorable stories and characters in FPS history in Far Cry 3, followed by the crazed antagonist Pagan Min in Far Cry 4 which led to an even more deranged Trump-world bible-belt cult culture of ‘Just say yes’ in Far Cry 5 with the Seed brothers and that unforgettable song by The Platters – Only You. Far Cry 6 heads to South America, to a fictional archipelago called Yara controlled by antagonist Anton Castillo (Giancarlo Esposito) and his son Diego.

You are Dani Rojas, a guerrilla fighter that’s caused the capitol of Yara to go into lockdown before fleeing to a far away island called Santuario. After a fun prologue, you’re soon back to the mainland figuring your way through three main stories at the same time. Far Cry 6 is a typical Ubisoft game in that it’s a slow progression through zones, but it’s been simplified into ranks, with rank 9 being the highest area to progress to. We found that it wasn’t too difficult completing missions that were a couple of ranks above the level we were at too, which meant you can progress quickly through the content if you’ve got the skills and coordination to do so.

The map of Yara is one of the largest we’ve seen in the Far Cry series and it’s filled with all sorts of enemies including a large variety of wildlife, both dangerous and harmless. Unlike some open worlds, there’s always something to do in Far Cry 6 which again reminded us of the fun we had in Far Cry 3. At the start of the game, Dani soon joins forces with the Libertad and is told of three different bands of guerrillas that are after your assistance before heading back to the capitol to take down Anton. Each faction has their own story but the missions themselves are very Far Cry-esque and will take you to all corners of the map to eliminate Anton’s forces by various means whether it’s stealing fighter jets or stopping a game of cellmate baseball, and no, there’s no baseballs being used on the pitch – just bats.

Once you reach the mainland of Yara, you’ll be introduced to the first of three hubs. One thing that surprised us was that the game switches to third person in the hub and there’s no funny business, meaning you can’t use your weapons while you’re in the safe zone. Hubs are where you’ll begin most missions, summon vehicles, and even build and upgrade buildings. Each hub can have two unique buildings of your choice, but don’t worry, by the time you’ve unlocked all three hubs you’ll be able to build every building type. One building allows you to purchase and unlock fast-travel safe houses which make traversing Yara far easier, particularly at the start of the game before you’ve taken out all the anti-air guns.

Far Cry 6’s menu system is very straightforward, firstly showing the missions in the Journal tab, categorized by which region they are in. We were pleased to see that it easily showed how far away each mission was, allowing us to choose the closest one on the fly instead of slowly figuring it out on the map. The Arsenal tab gives the option to change weapons and armour on the fly, which we found was actually quite limited in the first half of the game. There’s a slow grind of weapons in Far Cry 6 and we have to assume it’s because Ubisoft wants you to try out different weapon types and see their abilities. We got a SMG quite early on that fired bullets that set the enemy on fire which turned out to be a lot more useful than we would have otherwise thought, so it’s worth trying out each weapon as you acquire it in case it does something you didn’t expect it to. Some of the end-game weapons are an absolute blast to play with though, but we won’t spoil them.

While you’re allowed to have three main weapons and a sidearm, there’s a new weapon called the Supremo which is a backpack with incredibly strong abilities which also have a long cooldown. The first Supremo you get access to is a bunch of rockets that launch in the direction you’re targeting and are great for taking out vehicles of all types as well as some of the bulkier hardware you’ll come across in the game. Weapons can also be customised a fair but with the use of mods, and the Supremo can have up to seven mods which really allow you to customise it to behave exactly as it would. It’s not quite as advanced as the customisations in Just Cause 4, but it did remind us of the over-the-top abilities in that game.

Amigos are back in Far Cry 6, this time offering a wild assortment of animals to suit your sidekick needs. The first amigo you unlock is the crocodile called Guapo who raises all kind of attention when you’re making your way through Yara. Not too long later, Chorizo becomes available – a cute sausage dog that finds loot for you and is actually pretty aggressive in combat. If you’ve pre-ordered or purchased the Gold edition or above, you’ll also get the Blood Dragon set which not only includes a great head start on armour and weapons but also includes the K-9000, a near-invincible doggo that basically destroys worlds.

The menu also includes a section for your summonable ride which gradually evolves, giving you a pimped out formidable vehicle to take on the Yaran forces, fully customisable right down to the horn and dangling rear-view mirror decoration choice. Vehicles in Far Cry 6 are easy to come by however, and each one can be taken back to a vehicle deposit point to be respawned at a later time. This actually becomes a bit of a completionist activity because every type and colour of vehicle can be obtained and customised, making Far Cry 6 one of the most customisable games in the franchise when it comes to vehicle choice. One of the coolest new vehicles in Far Cry 6 isn’t actually a vehicle at all. Horses have finally been added to the franchise and they play a fairly large role in traversing many of the narrow paths through the Yaran forests. There’s almost always a horse nearby, and they too can be collected and customised.

Gameplay in Far Cry 6 is very similar to previous games but mostly reminded us of Far Cry 3. The environments are similar with dense rainforest, plenty of hills and streams to explore, and lots of different encampments and fortifications to attack. Like with every Ubisoft game, it’s worth playing through the story and side missions before just running around the map randomly however, otherwise you’ll find you’ll be clearing areas twice unnecessarily. There are however loads of collectables to be found across the map which will keep the completionist busy for dozens of hours.

Far Cry 6 of course uses the CryEngine which again makes the game feel like every other Far Cry game in existence. While it’s not necessarily a bad thing, there are aspects of the engine that aren’t incredible. Far Cry 6 looks amazing, but things like its water physics and character animations let it down when it comes to immersifying you in its world. The environment looks amazing, the weapons, vehicles, weather and explosion effects are all very next-gen, but we did continue to get hung up on the facial reactions of characters and the limited water effects given Yara is an archipelago.

Ubisoft has put together an amazing story for Far Cry 6 that expands across the map before climactically retracting towards Anton and his son Diego. There’s so much to explore in Yara that even when you’re patrolling in a helicopter you still can’t see the entirety of the map. We were pleased to see that the game took on some of the best features of the past two games while focusing on trying to replicate the extraordinary experience of Far Cry 3. With over a hundred hours of content and three interesting expansions focused on characters from previous games on the way, we’re confident in saying that Far Cry 6 will go down as one of the better games in the franchise and probably one of Ubisoft’s best games of this generation.

Rocket Chainsaw reviewed Far Cry 6 on Xbox Series X with review provided by the publisher. Far Cry 6 is also available on PlayStation 5, Windows PC and previous generation platforms. For more information, head to the official website.