Far Cry 6 is a 2021 first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft. It is the sixth main installment in the Far Cry series and the successor to 2018's Far Cry 5. The game is set on the fictional Caribbean island of Yara, ruled as a dictatorship by "El Presidente" Antón Castillo (portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito), who is raising his son Diego (Anthony Gonzalez) to follow in his rule. Players take on the role of guerrilla fighter Dani Rojas (voiced by either Nisa Gunduz or Sean Rey), attempting to topple Castillo and his regime. Gameplay focuses on combat and exploration; players battle enemy soldiers and dangerous wildlife using a wide array of weapons and gadgets. The game features numerous elements commonly found in role-playing games, such as a leveling-up system and side quests. It also features a cooperative multiplayer mode.
Development of Far Cry 6 began around 2016 and was extensive. The team studied several revolutions of recent history for the game's narrative, primarily the Cuban Revolution of 1953–1959. Castillo was based on the real life dictator Fulgencio Batista in Cuba. The game was designed to be "political", covering themes such as the rise of fascism in a nation, the costs of imperialism, and the need for free and fair elections, in reaction to the controversy generated by Far Cry 5. The development team also sought to bring back several elements from earlier Far Cry titles such as a tropical setting and a fully-voiced protagonist. The game was first teased by Esposito in July 2020, and officially announced later that month, at the Ubisoft Forward online event.
Far Cry 6 was released worldwide for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on October 7, 2021. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the small improvements brought to the series' gameplay formula, but criticized its story and lack of innovation. Several releases of downloadable content were subsequently published, including three expansion packs centered around antagonists from past Far Cry games.
Gameplay
Similar to the previous entries in the series, Far Cry 6 is a first-person shooter game, set in an open world environment navigable on foot or via various land, water, and air vehicles. Players assume the role of a local rebel named Dani Rojas, a former conscript in the military turned into a guerrilla fighter, whose gender they can select at the start of the game. The world is divided into seven main regions with an array of terrain, ranging from urban areas and dense jungles, to mountain ranges and open oceans. Gameplay focuses on armed and close-quarters combat. Players are able to use a wide array of conventional weapons (such as sidearms, assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, light-machine guns, sniper rifles and grenade launchers). Firearms can be customized using materials found throughout the world.
In a new addition to the series, the game features several prototypes of special weaponry, called "Resolver weapons", each offering a certain perk to the player's loadout, for example a silent close-range nailgun or a sling-shot projectile weapon which fires CDs. Another new addition is the "Supremo" backpacks, allowing augmentation of the playstyle by assigning more perks to the player's loadout, such as firing homing missiles or seeing enemies through solid objects. Unlike the previous titles in the series, players are able to holster weapons; as a result, enemy NPCs will not attack the player on sight, unless within restricted areas.
The game introduces a "Rank Level" system which indicates the player's rank and highlights the level of a specific region. As the game progresses and the player explores more of the world, enemy forces will be equipped with more powerful gear and target locations become more heavily fortified. Like previous games in the series, outposts are scattered throughout the world, allowing the player to kill or neutralize the enemy presence to reduce the dominance of forces in a particular area. The game also implements a new notoriety and reputation-style gameplay mechanic. If a high notoriety level is earned, as a result of actions taken against enemy NPCs for example, the player will be hunted by special forces. The notoriety meter can be reduced by fleeing combat and staying hidden for a specific period of time.
The player has the ability to construct and upgrade guerrilla bases called "Camp Facilities", which provide useful resources and in-game bonuses to increase the skillset of the character, specialize perks in hunting animals, unlock fast travel locations throughout Yara, enlist new recruits and manage their equipment, or launch friendly NPC operations. The game's version of Far Cry 5s "Fangs for Hire" companion system returns, called "Amigos", which features recruitable animals with a variety of abilities and perks tasked to assist the player in combat and exploration.
Plot Far Cry 6 takes place in 2021 in Yara, a fictional Caribbean island nation inspired by Cuba ruled by the dictator Antón Castillo (Giancarlo Esposito). In 1967, a guerrilla revolution topples the regime of Antón's father, leading to Yara's isolation from the rest of the world. Following the nation's collapse, Antón becomes a political prisoner. In 2019, Antón is elected president and oversees the creation of Viviro, a new cancer treatment developed from Yara's tobacco, promising it will stabilize the nation's economy. Two years later, Antón announces a draft "lottery" to conscript citizens as farmers in the tobacco fields. Antón has a 13-year-old son, Diego (Anthony Gonzalez), whom he grooms to be his successor.
In the capital Esperanza, as Yara's armed forces round up citizens for the draft, Dani Rojas prepares to escape to the American city of Miami via fishing boat, alongside friends Lita Torres and Alejo Ruiz. Alejo is shot and killed after provoking troops in the street, while Dani and Lita flee to the awaiting boat filled with other refugees and escape. However, Antón stops the boat and reveals that Diego was attempting to flee with them. After retrieving Diego, he orders the boat sunk by gunfire. Dani survives the commotion and wakes up with a mortally wounded Lita on an island's beach, far away from Esperanza. As Lita dies, she urges Dani to look for the nearby Clara Garcia, leader of the guerilla movement Libertad. Upon arrival, Clara tells Dani to invite ex-spymaster and weapon maker Juan Cortez back into Libertad, disrupt the Fuerzas Nacionales de Defensa (FND) forces on the island, and clear the blockade trapping the guerrillas in the region. Once Dani fulfills all the tasks, Clara gives Dani a boat to flee Yara. If Dani does not leave, Clara gives the order to aid anti-Castillo forces throughout Yara's three major regions—Madrugada, Valle de Oro, and El Este—and convince them to help Libertad oust Antón.
In Madrugada, Dani searches for the revered Montero family, who are allied with the region's guerrillas and tobacco workers. They take down General José Castillo—Antón's nephew, commander of Yara's air force, and a slave driver who robbed the Monteros and other local farmers of their lands to grow the Viviro tobacco. Over in Valle de Oro, Dani assists the rap band Máximas Matanzas in airing TV and radio performances to push back against pro-Castillo propaganda spread by María Marquessa, Yara's Minister of Culture and Diego's mother. Upon killing María during a televised interview about Viviro, they encounter Dr. Edgar Reyes, the scientist behind Viviro's conception; it is revealed that he performed cruel experiments on disenfranchised tobacco workers in concentration camps as part of his effort to create the drug. With this in mind, Dani goes to one of his research facilities and kills him. Meanwhile, in El Este, a man known as "El Tigre" awaits Dani's arrival on top of a mountain hideout housing the Legends of ‘67, the veteran revolutionaries who overthrew Antón's father. While he is willing to help Libertad, the others are not, so Dani shows them photos of poor working conditions in tobacco farms to convince them to join. While attempting this, Dani comes across an anarchist rebel group of university students known as La Moral who are fighting against Yara's naval commander Admiral Benítez. The two groups unite and storm Benítez's fort to kill her, ending her iron-fisted rule on Yara's seas. They then track down Sean McKay, a Canadian business magnate who handles Viviro exports and imports, and either kill him or make a deal with him to finance Libertad.
After uniting the anti-Castillo forces under the flag of Libertad, Dani learns that Antón is holding Clara at his private island's villa, under the pretense of a parley. When Dani confronts him, he and Diego reveal that Antón has been suffering from leukemia for 13 years, and the Viviro treatment stopped working 6 months earlier. Impressed by Dani's feats, and wishing that Diego has a protector for when he dies, Antón demands that Dani become his general in exchange for Clara's life. Juan attempts to assassinate Antón but opts to shoot Diego instead, though Dani knocks him out of the way. In reaction to the shooting, Antón kills Clara and escapes with Diego to Esperanza. Using Anton's private island as a staging ground, Dani leads an amphibious assault of Esperanza, with the backing of the newly united Libertad. While Libertad guerillas push the FND out of Esperanza, Dani enters Antón's presidential palace alone and confronts him in his office. Dani promises to protect Diego, but Antón, believing that Diego would instead be tortured as he had been after his father's toppling, fatally shoots Diego before committing suicide. The resistance forces unite with Dani and witness the Castillo corpses. They unanimously declare Dani the new leader of Yara, but Dani refuses the leadership, turning it over to them. After burying Clara, Dani and Juan wage war against Castillo's surviving loyalists.
An alternate ending occurs if Dani sails away from Yara before confronting Castillo. Dani will be shown three months later relaxing on a beach in Miami, with a news broadcast detailing how Castillo has consolidated his hold over Yara by crushing rebel forces and executing Clara.
Development For the first time, the game's development was led by Ubisoft Toronto, which had previously worked as a co-developer on previous games in the series. A total of 10 Ubisoft subsidiaries worked in the co development of the game including Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Kyiv, Ubisoft Berlin, Ubisoft Shanghai, Ubisoft Philippines, Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Pune, Ubisoft Odessa, Ubisoft Winnipeg, Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Québec respectively. The advancement of the game took place in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and was met with several constraints. The game runs on the Dunia 2 engine, with new features such as ray tracing support on the PC version and support for AMD's open source variable resolution technology, FidelityFX Super Resolution.
Gameplay design
The developers aimed to provide players with numerous choices in how they wish to experience the entire campaign, players being able to approach the story however they like. In contrast to the previous installment where the player is mute and interactions were limited, in this game, the protagonist is fully voiced, regarding this narrative director Navid Khavari, stated, "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 feature cut-scenes presented from a 3rd person perspective. As stated by Khavari, this helps players experience the story from a different angle since the main character is not present in those scenarios.