While I wasn’t given a review code for this game, I did receive it through a promotion for buying an AMD processor.

After eight months of COVID-19 delays, Far Cry 6 has arrived! In this installment of the series, the nemesis is Anton Castillo who is enslaving his people of Yara (a fictional version of Cuba) to harvest chemically treated tobacco plants that are said to cure cancer. If people refuse to do slave labor, they are shot on sight. This is not the vision Yarans were expecting when they voted for Anton Castillo. It’s up to your (male or female) character, Dani, to unite the regions of Yara and overthrow this ruthless dictator.

Upon launching the game, you can choose between Action Mode and Story Mode. The Story Mode is a little easier where you take less damage and recover health faster. The story begins with your character and her friends escaping the military presence in their town. Poor and orphaned Yarans are automatically selected for slave labor despite Anton Castillo mentioning a lottery system. Your first task is to get on a ship and flee the country. Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned and Dani finds herself on an island that’s inhabited by guerillas who want to overthrow Anton Castillo and his protégé son, Diego. With no other options, Dani joins the resistance group, Libertad.

Clara Garcia is the leader of Libertad and sees Dani’s guerilla potential. Dani has a vision of uniting Yara which is divided into three regions that have resistance groups there that need to all work together in order to dethrone Castillo’s regime. Each region also has a high-ranking official that needs to be dealt with in order to liberate that area.

Before taking out the top military officials, you’ll want to set your sights a little bit lower and focus on attainable military checkpoints, bases, and facilities to weaken their defenses and claim valuable resources. Destroying anti-aircraft cannons serves two purposes. Not only you can fly through enemy airspace without being shot down, but you can also scavenge the uranium that’s always near by for weapon upgrades.

Before taking out any military occupied area, it’s in your best interest to get on some high ground and scout out the area. You’ll want to take note of high ranking officials who have the power to heal fallen comrades and call reinforcements as well as any alarm devices that will have to be disabled so the soldiers can’t call for backup. Not all of the soldiers are hostile, as some can be bribed for valuable information on supply drops and military base locations to investigate. If they have an exclamation point over their head you may want talk instead of shooting first. I wish people had a bribe indicator in real life, politics would be so much more interesting!

Though it’s fun to take out military bases, the main story and side quests are fascinating too. Each of the regions has plenty of optional and story quests to help Dani earn some experience and trust while proving herself to them. As you take out more soldiers and bases, Castillo will respond by increasing the presence of special forces that are harder to take down.

As your character levels up and earns cool titles, Dani will also be able to gain access to better quality guns. Dani also wears a backpack that can launch rockets which is pretty cool. Almost as cool as having a pet crocodile that you can tell to attack soldiers of your choosing. There are other animal companions you can unlock throughout the game, but the crocodile is pretty hard to beat.

Throughout your journey, you’ll come across various supplies like medicine, metal, scrap parts, and gasoline. You may also stumble upon roosters that you can collect and fight with in a Mortal Kombat style cockfighting mini-game. Not surprisingly, PETA took offense to this mini-game.

Another mini-game is managing banditos (outlaws) in timed events. In order to participate in these events you’ll have to start them during the given time period by assigning a leader. Once assigned, you can make appropriate decisions based on the scenario. There are multiple options and you’ll see how many resources will be required, the number of banditos that may be lost, and most importantly, the chance of success. If the mission is a success, you will earn rewards which can sometimes include weapons. If you’re ever at a basecamp, it’s worth doing these missions.

Another thing to do at camp is to upgrade the facilities with the materials you collect. Some of the upgrade options include a café that cooks meals that will temporarily boost your stats, or having vehicles waiting for you at captured checkpoints. Given that you can fast travel to captured checkpoints, a vehicle waiting for you there is extremely useful.

You’ll be doing a lot of traveling as you head towards your numerous objectives. Walking and running can take a while if your next location is far away. You can travel by horse, car, ATV, motorcycle, plane, helicopter, and boat. If you bring back a mode of transportation to a base camp, you’ll be able to summon it again out of thin air, free of charge.

Almost every vehicle has a radio turned on and playing music. I like how your character sings along to it at times! The voice acting is well done though it’s laced with all kinds of profanity in English and Spanish. The Lord’s name is taken in vain too.

Like most first person shooters, blood and violence is a given in this title. To save on ammo and keep the noise level down, I often used my machete to take down enemies. It’s pretty gruesome watching my character slit a throat or penetrate a skull effortlessly. There are many torture scenes and you’ll witness your character getting a couple of molars removed without concern for hygiene or pain blockers. Alcohol is used to address emotional pain and you’ll witness your character along with others getting inebriated.

Your character isn’t the only one tortured and you’ll see bodies of victims wearing only undergarments. Other characters wear revealing or tight clothing by choice. Sexual encounters are implied but there is no nudity. There is a lot of PDA between one couple and later on you’ll learn that one of them is transgender.

The visuals are amazing and worth the extra 40GB of SSD space to accommodate the high-resolution textures. The open world is begging to be explored, though I opted to fast travel whenever possible to save time. There’s a lot of attention to detail and I like how you can customize your weapons with various paint jobs and charms.

It took me roughly twenty-five hours to complete the main campaign. I like how the game is open ended and has more to do after finishing the main story. The weekly challenges are guaranteed to keep people engaged in the game both on and offline. The ability to play cooperatively is nice, though I couldn’t find any games to join. Another gripe worth mentioning is the e-mailing. I love seeing my stats at the end of the game, but I’d prefer not to have them e-mailed to me randomly throughout the week.

Despite those complaints, I enjoyed my time liberating Yara. If you played the previous FarCry installments you’ll be pleased to hear about many of the previous villains returning as DLC characters. If you’re not put off by the excessive violence and language, or pandering to the LGBTQ agenda, Far Cry 6 is worth looking into.