Far Cry 6 is a 2021 first-person shooter game created by Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft. It is the sixth main game in the Far Cry series and follows Far Cry 5, which was released in 2018. The game takes place on a fictional Caribbean island called Yara, which is ruled by a dictator named "El Presidente" Antón Castillo (played by Giancarlo Esposito). Castillo is raising his son, Diego (played by Anthony Gonzalez), to take over his rule. Players control Dani Rojas, a guerrilla fighter (voiced by Nisa Gunduz or Sean Rey), who tries to overthrow Castillo and his government. The game focuses on combat and exploration, with players fighting enemy soldiers and dangerous animals using many types of weapons and tools. It includes features common in role-playing games, such as a system where players gain levels and complete side missions. The game also has a cooperative multiplayer mode where players can team up with others.
Development of Far Cry 6 started around 2016 and took a long time. The team studied real-life historical events, especially the Cuban Revolution of 1953–1959, to shape the game’s story. Castillo was inspired by Fulgencio Batista, a real-life dictator in Cuba. The game was designed to address political themes, such as the rise of fascism, the effects of imperialism, and the importance of free elections. This was partly a response to the controversy surrounding Far Cry 5. The team also included elements from earlier Far Cry games, such as a tropical setting and a fully-voiced main character. Giancarlo Esposito first hinted at the game in July 2020, and it was officially announced later that month during the Ubisoft Forward event.
Far Cry 6 was released worldwide on October 7, 2021, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Critics gave the game mixed reviews, praising some improvements to the gameplay but criticizing its story and lack of new ideas. Later, the game received additional content, including three expansion packs featuring characters from earlier Far Cry games.
Gameplay
Far Cry 6 is a first-person shooter game set in an open world that players can explore on foot or using vehicles such as cars, boats, and planes. The player controls Dani Rojas, a local rebel who was once a soldier but now fights against an enemy force. At the start of the game, players can choose Dani’s gender. The game world is divided into seven main areas with different types of environments, including cities, jungles, mountains, and oceans. The gameplay focuses on fighting enemies using weapons like pistols, rifles, shotguns, and grenade launchers. Players can customize their weapons using materials found in the world.
A new feature in the game is "Resolver weapons," which are experimental weapons that give players special abilities, such as a quiet nailgun or a weapon that shoots CDs. Another new addition is the "Supremo" backpacks, which allow players to add more abilities to their character, such as firing missiles that track enemies or seeing through solid objects. Unlike earlier games in the series, players can put their weapons away, so enemies will not attack them unless they are in restricted areas.
The game includes a "Rank Level" system that shows the player’s progress and the difficulty of each region. As the game continues and players explore more of the world, enemies become stronger and their bases are harder to attack. Outposts are scattered throughout the world, and players can destroy or disable enemy forces at these locations to weaken the enemy’s control. A new system called "notoriety" tracks how much the player is wanted by enemies. If the player’s notoriety level is too high, special forces will hunt them. Players can lower their notoriety by hiding or avoiding fights for a certain amount of time.
Players can build and upgrade guerrilla bases called "Camp Facilities," which provide resources, improve character skills, allow players to train animals, unlock fast travel points, recruit new allies, and organize missions with friendly NPCs. The game also returns a feature from Far Cry 5 called "Amigos," which lets players recruit animals with special abilities to help in battles and exploration.
Plot
Far Cry 6 is set in 2021 on Yara, a made-up Caribbean island that looks like Cuba. Yara is ruled by Antón Castillo (Giancarlo Esposito), a leader who controls the country. In 1967, a group of rebels overthrew the government led by Antón’s father, causing Yara to become isolated from the rest of the world. After this, Antón was imprisoned. In 2019, he was elected president and created Viviro, a new medicine for cancer made from Yara’s tobacco, which he hoped would help the country’s economy. Two years later, Antón announced a draft lottery, forcing citizens to work in tobacco fields. Antón has a 13-year-old son named Diego (Anthony Gonzalez), whom he plans to train as his future leader.
In the capital city of Esperanza, as soldiers round up people for the draft, Dani Rojas prepares to escape to Miami, Florida, with friends Lita Torres and Alejo Ruiz by boat. Alejo is killed after causing trouble with soldiers, and Dani and Lita escape on the boat. However, Antón stops the boat and reveals that Diego was trying to leave with them. After taking Diego back, Antón orders the boat to be destroyed. Dani survives and finds Lita mortally injured on a beach. Before dying, Lita tells Dani to find Clara Garcia, the leader of the rebel group Libertad. Clara tells Dani to bring back Juan Cortez, a former spy and weapons maker, to help Libertad fight the government forces. She also asks Dani to break the military’s blockade trapping the rebels and to help free the guerrillas in three regions of Yara: Madrugada, Valle de Oro, and El Este. If Dani completes these tasks, Clara gives him a boat to leave Yara. If he stays, Clara orders him to help the rebels in all three regions to overthrow Antón.
In Madrugada, Dani seeks the Montero family, who support the region’s rebels and tobacco workers. They help Dani defeat General José Castillo, Antón’s nephew and commander of Yara’s air force, who took land from farmers to grow Viviro tobacco. In Valle de Oro, Dani helps a rap band called Máximas Matanzas broadcast music to fight the government’s propaganda spread by María Marquessa, Yara’s culture minister and Diego’s mother. During a televised interview about Viviro, Dani kills María and meets Dr. Edgar Reyes, the scientist who created Viviro. It is revealed that Reyes conducted cruel experiments on poor workers in concentration camps. Dani then kills Reyes. In El Este, Dani meets “El Tigre,” a leader of the Legends of ‘67, veterans who helped overthrow Antón’s father. While El Tigre is willing to help, others are not, so Dani shows them photos of poor working conditions to convince them. Dani also teams up with La Moral, a group of university students fighting the naval commander Admiral Benítez. Together, they attack Benítez’s fortress and kill her. They then find Sean McKay, a Canadian businessman who controls Viviro’s trade, and either kill him or make a deal to fund Libertad.
After uniting the rebels, Dani learns that Antón is holding Clara at his private villa on an island, pretending to negotiate. When Dani confronts Antón, he and Diego reveal that Antón has had leukemia for 13 years and that Viviro no longer works. Impressed by Dani’s actions, Antón offers to spare Clara’s life if Dani becomes his general. Juan tries to kill Antón but shoots Diego instead, and Dani stops him. Antón then kills Clara and flees with Diego to Esperanza. With the rebels’ support, Dani enters Antón’s palace and confronts him. Dani promises to protect Diego, but Antón, fearing Diego would be tortured like he was after his father’s downfall, kills Diego and then himself. The rebels join Dani and see the Castillo bodies. They declare Dani the new leader of Yara, but he refuses and gives the leadership to them. After burying Clara, Dani and Juan fight Antón’s remaining loyalists.
If Dani leaves Yara before confronting Antón, the game shows an alternate ending. Three months later, Dani is seen relaxing on a Miami beach, while news reports say Antón has taken full control of Yara by crushing rebels and killing Clara.
Development
For the first time, Ubisoft Toronto led the development of the game. This team had previously worked together with other teams on earlier games in the series. A total of 10 Ubisoft branches helped create the game, including Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Kyiv, Ubisoft Berlin, Ubisoft Shanghai, Ubisoft Philippines, Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Pune, Ubisoft Odessa, Ubisoft Winnipeg, and Ubisoft Montpellier. The game was developed during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused many challenges. The game uses the Dunia 2 engine, which includes new features like ray tracing support on the PC version and support for AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution technology.
The developers wanted to give players many choices in how they experience the story. Unlike the previous game, where the player could not speak and had limited interactions, this game features a fully voiced protagonist. Narrative director Navid Khavari said, “It was essential for us to ensure that the protagonist has a personal investment in that revolution.” This is the first game in the series to include cut-scenes shown from a third-person perspective. Khavari explained that this allows players to see the story from a different angle, as the main character is not in those scenes.
Takedown animations that were removed in Far Cry 5 were added back to this game. The “Guns for Hire” feature no longer includes humans, focusing only on animals. The development team removed the Map Editor and Arcade Mode, which were in earlier games, and instead focused on improving the main campaign.
To create the game’s setting, Yara, the developers looked to Caribbean nations, including Cuba. Khavari said the team studied past revolutions, such as the Cuban Revolution, to help shape the story. Khavari spent a month in Cuba, speaking with residents to learn more about the setting. Using Cuba as inspiration brought back a tropical environment, similar to earlier Far Cry games, and gave the setting a “timeless” look by combining vintage cars with modern weapons. To achieve this, the team studied Cuba’s history, classic cars, and colorful Caribbean landscapes.
This is the first Far Cry game to include a major capital city with the antagonist’s presidential palace. The game features a large urban area with a mix of open and closed buildings, allowing players to run on rooftops, move through sewers, climb, jump, and fight in city streets. The environment was inspired by the Caribbean, which has many different types of landscapes. To create realistic trees, rocks, and plants, the team took thousands of reference photos from Caribbean islands. They built a large collection of photogrammetry assets to make the setting look as real as possible. The team also studied color palettes in Cuba to understand how colors are used in the country.
Unlike previous controversies about Ubisoft’s stance on Far Cry 5, Khavari said Far Cry 6 is “political,” adding, “A story about a modern revolution must be.” While the game’s story is inspired by events in Cuba, Khavari stated it does not make a political statement about Cuba specifically. He explained that the game focuses on themes like the rise of fascism, the costs of imperialism, forced labor, free elections, and LGBTQ+ rights. Khavari’s family experienced the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s and later moved to Canada. He used these experiences, along with research, to create a story about the conditions that lead to revolution.
News about Far Cry 6 was first shared in July 2020, when actor Giancarlo Esposito mentioned he had worked on a “huge video game” with voice and motion capture. Soon after, leaked images showed a character resembling Esposito. Anthony Gonzalez voices and provides the character model and motion capture for Diego. Esposito and Gonzalez did motion capture and voice work for the game’s trailer before filming the game’s story. This allowed developers time to create character models. Esposito was interested in the motion capture role, having done similar work for the canceled Mouse Guard film. Khavari said Esposito did extensive research on his own and brought deep empathy to his character, Antón.
Pedro Bromfman composed the game’s music. The score blends Latin and Caribbean music with Caribbean percussion. Bromfman said, “It’s a very unique score.” Instruments like flamenco guitar, Cuban tres, and Bolivian ronroco were used to match the game’s serious and oppressive tone.
Release
Far Cry 6 was first planned to be released on February 18, 2021, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. On October 29, 2020, Ubisoft said the release would be delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. During Ubisoft's February 2021 quarterly earnings call, the company announced the game would be released before September 30, 2021. On May 28, 2021, Ubisoft shared more details about the game and set the final release date as October 7, 2021.
The game's season pass includes extra content, such as story episodes where players can take on the roles of three antagonists from earlier Far Cry games: Vaas Montenegro from Far Cry 3, Pagan Min from Far Cry 4, and Joseph Seed from Far Cry 5 and Far Cry New Dawn. The actors who originally played these characters—Michael Mando, Troy Baker, and Greg Bryk—return for these episodes. The season pass also includes an updated version of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Additional free content includes a guest appearance by Danny Trejo, a mission inspired by Rambo, and a crossover mission with Stranger Things.
A separate paid expansion called Lost Between Worlds was released on December 6, 2022. In this expansion, Dani finds themselves trapped in a space between worlds after discovering an alien spaceship and an alien artificial intelligence named FAI.
Reception
Far Cry 6 received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, while the Xbox Series X/S version got "generally favorable" reviews, according to Metacritic, a website that collects reviews. Another review website, OpenCritic, said the game was strongly approved by 74% of critics.
IGN reviewer Jon Ryan wrote that Far Cry 6 "smooths over a lot of the bumps that have cropped up in the past few games. Even though it misses some steps, especially with its new inventory system, it's the best the series has been in years." Destructoid’s Jordan Devore noted the game is "solid and definitely has an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun."
Rachel Weber from GamesRadar+ wrote that Far Cry 6 "feels like the turning point for a series in transition. Everything you know and love about it is still there […] but the small changes that have been made have a big impact on the overall experience," such as the main character being visible in cutscenes. Eurogamer’s review stated, "There's plenty that's familiar about the latest entry in Ubisoft's open world shooter, but that doesn't stop it being a blast."
Polygon’s Diego Arguello said Far Cry 6 "is a waste of potential," criticizing its use of Latin American stereotypes and feeling the game failed to address its clear political theme. He mentioned an example where players rescue refugees using a weapon that plays the Macarena song while aiming. Writing for Vice, Matthew Gault called the game "creatively and morally bankrupt" and said he could not continue playing it. Screen Rant’s Alex Santa Maria and Kotaku’s Zack Zwiezen both said the game was too similar to earlier versions. The game was also criticized for including a cockfighting minigame.
In Japan, the PlayStation 4 version of Far Cry 6 was the second most popular game sold in stores during its first week, with 34,219 physical copies sold. The PlayStation 5 version sold 16,686 physical copies in the same week, making it the third most popular game in the country. It later became the 11th best-selling game in the United States in 2021.