For starters, let me state that FC 6 is NOT a bad game. At all. There is a lot to enjoy here, and I thoroughly did. But I popped FC 5 in a fee days ago, after finishing 6 and I believe 5 is better overall.
Let's begin with what's great about 6.
1.) Very large and interesting map. It's always better when devs have flexibility to make a new world to play in. Love it.
2.) Tropical exotic locations allow for more interesting side quests. The adventurer in me begs to explore ancient caverns and pirate coves, discovering treasures and escaping booby traps (need more of that, btw. More elaborate traps and caves etc). Maybe it's my age, but when I can hear the Indy theme in my head during a treasure hunt, it's a good thing.
3.) Rideable horses. It's about damn time. Since FC Primal (which is the best in the series btw) having mounts, I thought it would be the norm going forward to have at least one animal to ride, but no. We had to wait. And at last, these lovelies come along and I ALMOST couldn't be happier (see my post "who programmed the horses?). Still, very nice.
4.) Dani. A good overall character with few flaws. Male Dani has a terrible haircut though. Voice acting was very strong. Well done.
5.) Pretty good villains. Giancarlo Esposito certainly elevated the game. Should've been in it way more though. Diego was also fun to watch. The other bosses I found to be semi-cookie-cutter, but serviceable nonetheless. None are bad. Not as good the Seed family though.
6.) Weapon customization. Good stuff. Not too difficult to find materials. Overall a plus.
7.) Pirate outfit. That's just hilarious and the perks are excellent. I do have to say that the hat should've included long, Jack Sparrow-esque hair with it, but still my go-to outfit.
8.) Amigos. I haven't unlocked the chicken yet, but the others are all fun to have around.
9.) Certain side characters. Namely Danny Trejo. Too bad he was only in it a little bit. And the Monteros were all very good.
10.) Half of the Resolver weapons/Supremos. About half were neat. The harpoon launcher, the shotgun pistol/shield combo, chain gun, nail gun. I found all of these to be fun. I may have missed one. The rest I either never used or they didn't function properly, so I couldn't use them. Same with the Supremos. The mortar launcher, emp, healer pack and Oula pack were good. Didn't care for the others.
11.) Lots to do. Almost never a dull moment with treasure hunts, chests, side quests, etc. Most of them were good.
Now the not-so-good bits about 6...
1.) Overall story was kind of dull. There was never a "Dani, I. Am. Your. Father kind of moment in it. It was fairly straight forward, which most times isn't a bad thing, but 1 twist would've been neat.
2.) The poor side characters got way too much screen time. Holy crap, Juan is annoying! Doesn't that guy ever STFU?!? Can't I hear more from Clara? And now that I've finished the game, I can say, unequivocally that the entirety of the Maximas Matanzas story line was awful. Just bloody awful. Zero redeeming qualities. The character design, the dialogue, their music, all of it was atrocius. I'd rather have the actor that played Hurk sing show tunes of shows I hate in on a loop than listen to these turds one more time. I'd rather listen to Kit Harrington give a lecture on acting! At least that'd be funny! I'd rather listen to one of my ex's tell me every one of my flaws! I'd rather sit through an entire Jar Jar Binks origin film! Were I running an actual revolution, these jackasses would be nowhere near being vocal/visible leaders. I'd gladly send them on suicide missions until they didn't come back. The Legends and college kids were ok, but just ok.
3.) No perks system for leveling up. Nuff said. Shoulda been there. Not the worst thing ever, but annoying.
4.) Crappy or nonfunctional weapons. Some weapons never worked at all (hello EVERY sniper rifle) and some barely worked (hello, revolvers). Not sure what's up with those, but I expect submitted this to support, because it needs to be remedied.
5.) No guns-for-hire. Now why the hell can't I gather a couple guerrillas and take them with me, hmm? After 5 and New Dawn did it so well, that should've been a thing. I call shenanigans. Big time.
6.) Insurgency. Just let me reset the bases like 5 and New Dawn whenever I want, as much as I want. No need for this weekly nonsense.
That's pretty much it. As you can see, overall, it's. Solid title, but it is lacking in some very key things.
Now onto FC 5 positives...
1.) The best overall story in an FC game. I think the story in 3 and 4 are excellent, most times (though your character in 3 is insufferable), 5's was just so well written, it was terrifying. The males of the Seed family scared the [censored] out of me. I had genuine pity for Faith at the end, because I knew she was just a tool for Joseph, to be used and discarded. John, I genuinely hated, mostly because he was a revolting sadist. He was so well preformed, I always do his region first. Jacob was the scariest though, with the brainwashing bits. Still gives me chills. And all of the actors, both good and evil were top notch. I didn't dislike a single performance.
2.) Rook is the way to go from here on out. Complete customization should be in damn near every game, (unless it's spider-man or something where you just do costumes and weapons) from here on out. While Dani's dialogue was ok, the Doomguy, strong, silent type protagonist is far better, and more immersive. Unless you're playing a Duke Nukem game, I dont much care for player dialogue in an FPS. You always run that risk of just being annoying. FC Primal avoided this by having a made up language and subtitles.
3.) Fantastic map/location. Having actually lived in Montana, I was impressed. Though Hope County is fictitious, it smacked of MT. From the wildlife, to the towns to the waterways, it just brought me back there and I loved every second of it. I miss it, but not the winters there, holy crap!
4.) Weapon selection was great. The ONLY thing missing was the actual old fashioned six shooters lots of people there have, handed down from family members. They all functioned well and felt great.
5.) Vehicles are superior. I don't know if it's on purpose, but the cars in FC 6 just feel sluggish. Granted, I mostly ride a horse or fly in 6, but still, all the cars feel like you're stuck in tar in 6. Not so in 5. It could be the crappiest Gremlin, most souped up sports ar or most insane prepper truck, the vehicles in 5 just work well. I do miss the Buzzer copters though.
6.) Guns for hire. What a great idea! If you aren't crazy about the big side characters and don't want an animal sidekick, just recruit 2 npc buddies! And dismiss them at your leisure! What could be better?!?
7.) More fast travel options. Nuff said there. Should ways be more rather than less.
8.) More random, crazy wildlife encounters. Those are always neat, topping a hill, only to run face first into a bear or a bison.
9.) Good Dlcs. Now this isn't exactly fair because I have no plans to buy the Vaas dlc. I MAY buy the Pagan or Joseph ones, but I found Vaas to be excruciatingly annoying, so I'm skipping that one and haven't played the others yet. However, 2 of the 3 for FC 5 were very good, very fun (Mars and Zombies) and the Vietnam one was serviceable enough.
10. The big one. Arcade mode. Any action/FPS game that has a good, functioning level editor is right up my alley. Whether its Doom 2016, FC 5, Disney Infinity or even Lego Indy 2, I'm there for it. I love making my own stuff and I love seeing other people's creations. Arcade isn't as good as Doom's snap map for ease of use and has a few more bugs, but overall, there are some sick levels out there worth everyone's time.
11.) Overall performance. So far I've encountered lots of lag in FC 6. In comparison to 5, 6 is a mess there, but this can be fixed via patch.
12.) Reaplayability. FC 5 has it in spades. I may never replay 6 again from the beginning so I never have to suffer through Maximas Matanzas again. I will just stick to the Insurgency bits and try to forget those characters ever happened.
Now, with all that said, 5 does have some drawbacks. Not many, but they're still there...
1.) Complete lack of any Native American culture. The devs said they went to MT to research. There were videos of it. You can't walk almost anywhere in MT without tripping over some Native heritage or historical site. No Native Npcs, Rook skins or outfits. Complete nonsense.
2.) Montanans don't have southern accents. Unless they're transplants. Who made that call at Ubisoft, I wonder?
3.) Lack of exotic treasure hunts. I know the game is set in MT, but there's a ton of Indigenous history there to draw from. Hell, Ubisoft could've made up a whole new tribe to use for that kind of stuff, or just used the groups from Primal to gather artifacts from. Treasure hunts for gear are neat, but get great with actual treasures and lore. The more Indy the better, I say!
4.) No mounts. People in MT have horses. There are lots of horses in MT. In the town I lived in, old cowboys (real cowboys) would sometimes ride their horses into town and pick up supplies. Young and middle aged ranchers would use horse trailers, etc, but its a thing there. The planes were a neat inclusion, but I'd have traded them for horses in a heartbeat to make it more authentic.
5.) Lack of post story cultist encounters. Not the biggest issue, but in FC 3, 4 and 5, after the credits roll, there were damn near no villains left on the map. Granted, you'd won and the baddies were vanquished, so it makes sense, but when playing New Dawn (and even Ghost Recon Wildlands/Breakpoint) there are always enemies to keep you playing. You could always run into a random patrol and it keeps things fresh. Resetting the bases was a definite plus, but the patrols make it even better. New Dawn and 6 have this feature and it's great.
That's it. Far Cry 6 is a solid entry in the series, but 5 is a better overall game. And that's not even taking into account New Dawn as a massive Add-on-ish sequel, expanding on that game's goodness. That only makes it better! If you have any counter points or think I missed something, let me know!
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