Far Cry 6

• 1. Introduction

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  Far Cry 6 opens with a fishing boat full of refugees slipping away from the Caribbean island of Yara, bound for Miami. It never arrives. The island's own president, Antón Castillo, stops the boat at sea. He discovers that his 13-year-old son Diego was trying to escape among the passengers. He takes the boy back, then orders the boat sunk by gunfire. One passenger, a rebel in the making named Dani Rojas, survives and wakes on an unfamiliar beach far from the capital. This is the starting point of Far Cry 6, a 2021 first-person shooter and the sixth main installment in the Far Cry series. Behind the opening lie several questions. Which real dictator did the villain grow out of? What did the designers learn from a month spent talking to residents of a real island? How do you build a game about revolution during a global pandemic? And how did critics and players respond to the story it told? The answers begin with the place itself.

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• 2. Inventing Yara

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  Navid Khavari, the game's narrative director, spent a month in Cuba talking with residents before the island of Yara took shape. His team had been reading about revolutions of the recent past. The Cuban Revolution of 1953-1959 offered the richest ideas for driving a player into a fight against a repressive government. The villain grew from a real figure too. Antón Castillo is modeled on Fulgencio Batista, the dictator of Cuba. Yara itself blends inspiration from several Caribbean nations, with Cuba as one of them.

  Economic blockades imposed on Cuba gave Yara a "timeless" look. Vintage cars share the roads with modern weapons. To reach that look, the developers studied history, classic cars and the vibrant colors of the Caribbean. They also analyzed the palettes of Cuba to understand how the country uses color. The choice brought back a tropical setting, a feature of the earlier Far Cry games.

  Thousands of reference photos of trees, rocks and foliage taken on Caribbean islands fed the game's plant life. From those photos the team built an extensive library of photogrammetry assets, aiming for maximum realism in the flora and fauna. The wide variety of biomes in the Caribbean supplied the template for the environment.

  Esperanza, Yara's capital, is a first for the series. It is a major city that contains the antagonist's presidential palace. The urban area mixes open and closed buildings, offering rooftop runs, guerrilla paths through sewers, climbing, jumping and gunfights in city streets. Khavari was careful, however, to say what the setting was not meant to be.

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• 3. A Deliberately Political Game

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  When Far Cry 5 arrived in 2018, it set off a media controversy, shaped by Ubisoft's effort to distance that game from any political statement. Khavari took the opposite line with its successor. He called Far Cry 6 "political" and added, "A story about a modern revolution must be."

  He also drew a boundary. The game, he said, "doesn't want to make a political statement about what's happening in Cuba specifically." It likewise avoids "a simplified, binary political statement specifically on the current political climate in Cuba."

  Khavari's own family history shaped the project. His relatives lived through the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s and eventually fled to Canada. He combined that experience with his Cuban research and other work done by Ubisoft. The goal was a story "about the conditions that lead to the rise of fascism in a nation, the costs of imperialism, forced labor, the need for free-and-fair elections, LGBTQ+ rights, and more."

  Themes that heavy needed a villain to carry them. The writers built one around a father who is preparing his son to rule after him.

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• 4. Rebels and Regime

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  A guerrilla revolution in 1967 is where Yara's trouble begins. That uprising toppled the regime of Antón's father, and the island sank into isolation from the rest of the world. Antón became a political prisoner in the collapse. In 2019 he was elected president. He then oversaw Viviro, a cancer treatment developed from Yara's tobacco, with a promise that it would steady the national economy. Two years later he announced a draft "lottery" that conscripted citizens as farmers in the tobacco fields.

  The story proper begins in Esperanza, as the armed forces round up citizens for that draft. Dani had planned the escape with two friends, Lita Torres and Alejo Ruiz. Alejo was shot dead after provoking troops in the street. Lita, dying on the beach, sent Dani toward Clara Garcia, leader of the guerrilla movement Libertad. Clara has three jobs for the newcomer. Dani must bring the ex-spymaster and weapon maker Juan Cortez back into Libertad. Dani must also disrupt the Fuerzas Nacionales de Defensa forces on the island and clear the blockade trapping the guerrillas. Once those tasks are done, Clara offers a boat out of Yara. A Dani who stays is sent to rally resistance in three major regions.

  In Madrugada, the revered Montero family stands with the region's guerrillas and tobacco workers. Together they bring down General José Castillo, Antón's nephew and the commander of Yara's air force. He was a slave driver who robbed the Monteros and other farmers of their land to grow the Viviro tobacco.

  In Valle de Oro, the rap band Máximas Matanzas fights back against pro-Castillo propaganda by airing TV and radio performances. The propaganda comes from María Marquessa, the Minister of Culture and Diego's mother. Dani kills her during a televised interview about Viviro. The trail then leads to Dr. Edgar Reyes, the scientist behind the drug. He performed cruel experiments on disenfranchised tobacco workers in concentration camps while creating it. Dani kills him at one of his research facilities.

  In El Este, a man known as "El Tigre" waits on a mountain hideout with the Legends of '67, the veterans who overthrew Antón's father. El Tigre is willing to help Libertad, but the others are not. Dani shows them photos of poor working conditions on tobacco farms to win them over. Nearby, an anarchist group of university students called La Moral is fighting Admiral Benítez, Yara's naval commander. The two groups storm her fort and end her iron-fisted rule over the seas. Last comes Sean McKay, a Canadian business magnate who handles Viviro exports and imports. Dani can kill him or strike a deal that finances Libertad.

  With the factions united, Dani learns that Antón is holding Clara at his private island villa under the pretense of a parley. There the dictator and Diego reveal that Antón has suffered from leukemia for 13 years. Viviro stopped working six months earlier. Impressed by Dani's feats, and wanting a protector for Diego after his death, Antón demands that Dani become his general in exchange for Clara's life. Juan tries to assassinate Antón but opts to shoot Diego instead, and Dani knocks him out of the way. Antón kills Clara and escapes with Diego to Esperanza.

  Backed by the resistance, Dani enters the presidential palace alone. Dani promises to protect Diego. Antón believes the boy would instead be tortured, as Antón himself was after his father's toppling. He shoots Diego fatally and then takes his own life. The resistance forces declare Dani the new leader of Yara. Dani refuses and hands the leadership to them. After burying Clara, Dani and Juan wage war on Castillo's surviving loyalists.

  There is a second ending for a Dani who sails away before the confrontation. Three months later, that Dani relaxes on a beach in Miami while a news broadcast reports that Castillo has crushed the rebel forces and executed Clara.

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• 5. Playing the Revolution

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  Seven main regions make up the map of Yara, running from urban areas and dense jungle to mountain ranges and open oceans. Players cross it on foot or by land, water and air vehicles. Dani is a former military conscript turned guerrilla fighter, and the player picks Dani's gender at the start. Combat is the heart of the game. The arsenal includes sidearms, assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, light machine guns, sniper rifles and grenade launchers, and firearms can be customized with materials found around the world.

  Two additions are new to the series. The "Resolver weapons" are prototypes that each carry a perk, such as a silent close-range nailgun or a slingshot that fires CDs. The "Supremo" backpacks add further perks to a loadout, such as firing homing missiles or seeing enemies through solid objects.

  Holstering a weapon is possible for the first time in the series. As a result, enemy soldiers do not attack on sight unless the player is inside a restricted area. A "Rank Level" system tracks the player's rank and flags how dangerous a given region is. As the player explores, enemy forces gain more powerful gear and target locations grow more heavily fortified. Outposts still dot the world, and neutralizing the enemy at each one weakens that force's grip on its area. A notoriety mechanic raises the stakes. High notoriety, earned through actions against enemy soldiers, brings special forces hunting the player. Fleeing combat and staying hidden for a time brings the meter back down.

  Guerrilla bases called "Camp Facilities" can be built and upgraded. They provide resources and bonuses, specialize perks in hunting animals, unlock fast travel locations, enlist recruits and manage their equipment, and launch friendly operations. Far Cry 5's "Fangs for Hire" companion system returns under the name "Amigos," a roster of recruitable animals. In the earlier "Guns for Hire" idea, humans were excluded and the focus fell solely on animals.

  The designers wanted players to approach the campaign however they liked, and role-playing touches such as a leveling-up system and side quests support that. A cooperative multiplayer mode is also included. Takedown animations that Far Cry 5 had scrapped were restored. The Map Editor and Arcade Mode from earlier installments were dropped so the team could concentrate on the main campaign.

  The protagonist of Far Cry 5 was mute and interactions were limited. Dani speaks. Khavari explained, "It was essential for us to ensure that the protagonist has a personal investment in that revolution." It is also the first game in the series to show cut-scenes from a third-person perspective. Khavari said this lets players see the story from a different angle, since the main character is not present in those scenes.

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• 6. Voices and Sound

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  In early July 2020, the actor Giancarlo Esposito mentioned that he had recently done voice work and motion capture for a "huge video game." Rumored leaks followed, including screens that showed a character resembling him. Later that month, Ubisoft officially announced the game at its Ubisoft Forward online event.

  Esposito had a particular reason to say yes. He had done some motion capture for the cancelled Mouse Guard film and wanted to do more. He was also drawn to the kind of character Ubisoft had created for him. Khavari said the studio sent Esposito background material before recording. In Khavari's words, Esposito had "done so much research already based on the material that we sent him." He added, "He brings an amazing empathy to his characters, and he brought that same empathy to Antón that I wasn't expecting."

  Anthony Gonzalez voices Diego and also supplied the character model and motion capture. Esposito and Gonzalez recorded the voice and motion-capture work for the game's trailer before any narrative footage was shot. That order gave the developers time to build the character models for the game itself. Dani, meanwhile, is voiced by either Nisa Gunduz or Sean Rey.

  Pedro Bromfman composed the score, blending Latin and Caribbean music with a great deal of Caribbean percussion. Flamenco guitar, Cuban tres and Bolivian ronroco accentuate the oppressive and somber narrative. Bromfman said, "It's a very unique score."

  All of this work had to be finished while a global pandemic was reshaping how Ubisoft's teams could work together.

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• 7. Production in a Pandemic

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  Development of Far Cry 6 began around 2016 and was extensive. For the first time, Ubisoft Toronto led the project, after previously serving as a co-developer on earlier games in the series. Studios in Montreal, Kyiv, Berlin, Shanghai, Bucharest, Pune, Odessa, Winnipeg, Montpellier and Québec, along with Ubisoft Philippines, joined the co-development. The work took place in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and met several constraints. The game runs on the Dunia 2 engine. New features include ray tracing support on the PC version and support for AMD's open source variable resolution technology, FidelityFX Super Resolution.

  The game was first scheduled for the 18th of February 2021, on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. On the 29th of October 2020, Ubisoft announced a delay because of the ongoing pandemic. During the company's quarterly earnings call in February 2021, it said the game would arrive before the 30th of September 2021. On the 28th of May 2021, during further gameplay reveals, Ubisoft named the date it had settled on.

  A season pass added story episodes in which players take the role of three antagonists from earlier Far Cry titles. Vaas Montenegro from Far Cry 3 was played again by Michael Mando. Pagan Min from Far Cry 4 returned with Troy Baker. Joseph Seed from Far Cry 5 and Far Cry New Dawn came back with Greg Bryk. The pass also includes an updated version of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Free content added a guest appearance by Danny Trejo, a Rambo-inspired mission and a crossover mission with Stranger Things.

  A separate paid expansion, Lost Between Worlds, was released on the 6th of December 2022. In it, Dani stumbles across an alien spaceship and an alien artificial intelligence named FAI, and ends up stranded in a space between worlds.

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• 8. The Critical Verdict

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  On Metacritic, Far Cry 6 received "mixed or average" reviews, while the Xbox Series X/S version received "generally favorable" ones. OpenCritic found strong approval, with 74% of critics recommending the game.

  An IGN review by Jon Ryan said the game "smooths over a lot of the bumps that have cropped up in the past few games." He noted that it misses some steps, especially with its new inventory system, but called it "the best the series has been in years." Jordan Devore of Destructoid wrote, "Solid and definitely has an audience." Rachel Weber of GamesRadar+ called the game a turning point for a series in transition. She said the small changes had a big impact, such as the main character being visible in cutscenes. Eurogamer called it "a blast."

  Other critics were harsher. Diego Arguello of Polygon called the game "a waste of potential." He criticized its Latin American stereotypes and felt it fumbled any meaningful statement despite its overt political theme. He cited a moment "in which you rescue refugees by using a weapon that plays Macarena while you're aiming down its sights." Matthew Gault of Vice described the game as "creatively and morally bankrupt," and noted that his article "isn't a review" because he could not continue playing. Alex Santa Maria of Screen Rant and Zack Zwiezen of Kotaku both said it was too similar to its predecessors. The game has also been criticized for including a cockfighting minigame.

  Sales told a steadier story. In Japan, the PlayStation 4 version was the second best-selling retail game in its first week, with 34,219 physical units sold. The PlayStation 5 version sold 16,686 physical units that week and ranked third. In the United States it went on to become the 11th best-selling game of 2021.

  The game also appears in several awards lists. At The Game Awards 2021 it was listed for Best Action Game and Innovation in Accessibility, and Esposito's performance as Antón Castillo was listed for Best Performance. The Visual Effects Society Awards listed its "Chicharrón" commercial. The New York Game Awards 2022 listed it for Best World and listed Pedro Bromfman for Best Music in a Game. The GLAAD Media Awards listed it for Outstanding Video Game. Even a returning villain drew attention. Michael Mando's acting as Vaas Montenegro was listed alongside Esposito's for Best Acting in a Game.

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