Although the game leaked before it was intended to, fans finally got their first official look at Far Cry 6 during the Ubi Forward press conference, which came with a healthy dose of new information for a number of Ubisoft's franchises. And while Far Cry 6's PlayStation Network leak dampened the surprise, there's a ton to look forward to with the upcoming game, including the new setting, Yara.
Yara is an island heavily inspired by Cuba and ruled over by Far Cry 6's antagonist, Anton Castillo, portrayed by Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito. What makes Yara so unique is the variety of locations found on the island, which will range from jungle to farmland, all the way to the city of Esperanza, a first for the franchise.
Early screenshots of Yara have painted a breathtaking picture. Far Cry games have always boasted incredible graphics, but with next-gen hardware, Far Cry 6 has limitless potential as far as visuals are concerned, judging off the screenshots. There's an incredible draw distance, with mountains, jungles, and coastlines poking over the distance, and an insane level of detail in the environments and weapons.
Far Cry 6's protagonist, Dani Rojas, is from Esperanza, which has been teased as the final target for the game's revolution. It's the capital city of Yara, and a massive departure from what fans have seen in the past from the series, which typically focuses on rural areas to introduce the constant threat of hostile wildlife.
According to Far Cry 6's Narrative Director Navid Khavari, Esperanza opens a bunch of new possibilities for the game, both in terms of narrative and gameplay. And while Far Cry 6 won't be going into detail about gameplay for a while, Khavari did tease that the city allows for more verticality, stating, "When you walk into the city, it’s an amazing feeling to feel the imposition and power of Anton’s forces. And also, just in the verticality that a city brings with it."
What makes Yara especially interesting is that it's "frozen in time." the team's goal was to make Yara like a living postcard, with vintage cars selling the effect. Yara has largely been shut off from the rest of the world for quite some time, which gives the island such a unique look, something fans are bound to notice in the reveal trailer and screenshots.
However, equally important to Yara are the people that inhabit it. Khavari and his team spent about a month in Cuba talking with locals, including real guerrilla fighters. Khavari pointed out the people typically assume revolutions are one "monolithic" organization. "That’s not true," Khavari says, "These revolutions, often, are multiple groups that are all fighting for roughly the same things with different motivations, so for us, it was incredibly important to try and capture that feeling of not everyone necessarily gets along, not everyone necessarily is using the same methods, but they all want that same goal."
Yara sounds like it could be the most interesting setting in a Far Cry game to date. It offers players a fresh take on what the series has done in the past, while at the same time affording new possibilities for both gameplay and the narrative, which helps any game thrive. Fans will have to wait and see how different it is from prior entries, but it's certainly exciting.
Far Cry 6 releases February 18, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.