Far Cry 6: aliens to Yara in Shipwreck between worlds, review of the new DLC

Between robotic dinosaurs, yetis, hordes of zombies, adventures on Mars and so on and so forth, the franchise of the gaming giant has already moved in many (unusual) directions, so it is no surprise that we welcome Shipwreck between worlds the new Far Cry 6 DLC, ready to offer an experience different from that of the revolucion yarana (here our review of Far Cry 6).

Aliens in Yara

Shipwreck between worlds is an episode in its own right, inserted in the middle of the events related to the revolution against the dictator Antón Castillo. In no way does it communicate with the game, and the fact that it is accessible from a specific item in the main menu, not finding a sort of integration in the extensive open world of the production, just as happened for the DLCs on Vaas, Pagan Min and Joseph Seed. Dani Rojas, protagonist of the basic adventure, is there on the beach downing two beers and lo and behold a fiery bolide crosses the skyand then crashed to the ground.

Clearly the revolutionary runs to see what happened, and when she finds a floating object in front of her, she doesn’t think twice about shooting it, ending up suddenly imprisoned in a sort of dimensional fracture. The strange vehicle was none other than Fai’s spaceship, an incorporeal alien with an easy and sarcastic gab: the damage to the UFO caused reality to be distorted, and Dani just doesn’t have the five million years necessary for roadside assistance to arrive ( oops, space!). That’s why she is forced to venture into dimensional fractures in order to recover the crystals needed to repair the medium. These bizarre but not very elaborate narrative foundations are certainly not the pillars on which the experience of Shipwreck between the worlds is based, and although the exchanges between Dani and Fai are always quite tasty – with the alien always ready to make fun of the materiality and the poor skills of the guerrilla – the writing is not the strong point of the additional content. Indeed, despite its declared extraneousness to the core of the main game, the feeling that it has been added somewhat artificially it is perceptible.

Between one fracture and another

Shipwreck between worlds offers an alternative to the classic playful recipe, with gimmicks to diversify the adventure inserted in a roguelite-style progression. Basically, Dani has to deal with fifteen different fractures in a non-linear waybecause each calls to choose between two forks, and in case of failure it starts again from the beginning, with the loss of the equipment recovered up to that point.

From the initial fracture, which is always the same, alternative routes unfold, and a practical map allows you to orient yourself without problems; the fifth rift contains one of the fragments needed to repair the ship.

All settings also offer a feature that diversifies the gameplay. For example, in one it is necessary to find shelter from the lightning that strikes the ground, in another the exploration takes place almost entirely underwater, with Dani forced to constantly look for sources of oxygen. A further path requires you to find mortars, which is the only way to destroy the crystals that block a tortuous path. As if that weren’t enough, in order not to miss anything, the revolutionary must even extricate herself between the changing walls of a labyrinth.

In short, the situational variety is not lacking but not everything went the right way. Shipwreck between worlds has a hit and run philosophy, as evidenced by its short duration, which can be certified at around two hours, but the impression is that of being faced with a set of “complications” seen elsewhere many times. Given the nature of progression, revisiting certain rifts – and the challenges they contain – it gets boring quickly.

In this sense, obtaining particular objects that allow access to specific shortcuts helps little. Fortunately, by paying a small price in the event of death, it is possible to start again from the section that had seen us defeated, without going back to the beginning, because otherwise the feeling of repetitiveness would have been overwhelming. Maybe not putting so in the background the shooting component – which turned out to be rather dull – would have helped to keep up the pace of the adventure, which only improves during the final boss fight. The enemies are in fact few and badly disposed, and pulling the trigger thus becomes an almost casual activity within the fractures. The “crystal faces”, as Dani calls them, are enemies of two different colors, and must be shot down with ad hoc bullets, this is an expedient frankly not very incisivewhich adds nothing to the experience of a content clearly focused on other playful cues.