The Far Cry games are known for their rogue’s gallery of charismatic megalomaniacs. However, the titles themselves rarely offer a chance to explore the minds of the series' most memorable villains. Fortunately, Far Cry 6 lets fans into the minds of madness with its trio of trippy villain-focused DLCs.
The second of Far Cry 6's villain DLC’s, Pagan: Control, launched today on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and PC. Ubisoft accompanied the release with a new trailer setting up the expansion’s story. The DLC is available as part of the $50 Far Cry 6 Season Pass.
As the name implies, the new Far Cry 6 DLC follows Pagan Min, the self-styled King of Kyrat and antagonist of 2014’s Far Cry 4. As with the previous Vaas-centric installment, it takes the form of a trippy roguelike shooter entirely inside the mind of its titular character. However, whereas Vaas’s quest was to recover fragments of an ancient dagger, Pagan’s is a bit more personal. The DLC sends him through a dream version of Kyrat to rescue an imaginary incarnation of his daughter Lakshmana.
Players learn the name Lakshmana early in Far Cry 4, but unless they find the secret ending, its importance doesn’t become clear until the end of the game. Players who chose to spare Pagan learn that the protagonist Ajay Ghale’s mother Ishwari had an affair with Pagan many years ago and gave birth to a daughter named Lakshmana, Ajay’s half-sister. However, Lakshmana was killed by Ajay’s father before Ishwari killed him and fled the country. According to Pagan, Lakshmana’s death turned him into the despotic madman players see in Far Cry 4.
The launch trailer for Far Cry 6’s Pagan: Control DLC begins with a little girl telling a story about a king who fell in love with a goddess. The trailer soon reveals the girl to be Lakshmana, and viewers see a fantasy sequence of Pagan Min, Ishwari, Lakshmana, and Ajay living together as a happy family. However, Pagans’ dream quickly turns into a nightmare as he wakes up to hear Lakshmana crying out for his help. Viewers then see Pagan fighting across a dream version of Kyrat, searching for his missing daughter.
If the goal of Far Cry 6’s Season pass content is to make players sympathize with past villains, this seems like a way to do it. Lakshaman’s cries for help are particularly haunting, and Pagan’s fantasy sequence offers a glimmer of the man he might have become if things had been different. Hopefully, Pagan: Control lives up to the high expectation set by the previous Far Cry 6 DLC.
Far Cry 6 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.