Far Cry 6 - Pagan DLC - Review
Pagan Min, the flamboyant, eccentric and unhinged pseudo leader of Kyrat. A man who demands respect, rules through violence and intimidation and utterly delusional. Can you take control?
The second DLC for Far Cry 6 sees you taking control of the enigmatic and delusional antagonist of Far Cry 4, Pagan Min. Min is similar in a few ways to Vaas, but also incredibly different. Whilst Vaas is outright insane, and is happy to admit it, Pagan Min believes himself completely within reason. Lacking a true understanding of himself you descend into Min’s mind and explore his views on his lost lover and daughter, as well as his self-obsession.
Control starts off with a short cutscene, Pagan Min doting on his lover and daughter, before seeing a masked version of himself appearing to shoot them, and then shooting himself. This is what begins the descent into the world of Control. The Rogue-lite style of gameplay returns again, with a lot of carry overs from the first DLC. The mirror once again is your method of spending your currency, which is known as respect, to get permanently upgrades. I quite liked the idea of Respect being the currency used, as opposed to cash that was used by Vaas. Respect thematically matches Pagan Min’s views on himself and his character. Demanding respect of the world around him, his self-obsession making him believe that anything he does earns him more respect.
Somewhat frustratingly however, there is almost no uniqueness to the upgrades and unlocks that you get through the mirror. If there were any trees that had different abilities, it wasn’t notable at all. The upgrades were identical to what were given in Vaas’ DLC. Only a minor point, and I found myself being far more efficient in what I unlocked first this time around, I feel changing up the unlocks for each character would’ve lended them some more life, and not made it feel like playing a different character in the same game.
The world design once again blew me away however. Whilst Vaas’ world was collapsing and distorted. Sharks flying in the air, hundreds of Vaas’ heads buried in the sand, and a generally unbelievable and insane world. Pagan Min’s mind is very much a reflection of how he sees himself as well. Incredibly bright and colourful, giant golden statues of Min litter the landscape. There is a mountain sized cloud version of Pagan Min looking down and over the world at all times. Even the guns that Min uses are painted in the gold and pink and bright colours. The world feels like the kingdom that Min believed he was making Kyrat into. Self-obsessed and full of the flamboyant nature that he prides himself upon. Enemies explode into clouds of colour on death, and areas of interest are denoted by huge tapestries that cover mountainsides with intricate murals of Min’s view on the world and his memories of it.
Whilst Vaas was dark and chaotic, and unnerving. Min’s world is over the top and grandiose. It is a perfect reflection of the warped mind that is Pagan Min. This extends into the memories and missions. Min is completely unable to believe that he would never have thoughts about negative things. A mission involving the scaling of a warped and anti-gravity version of a clocktower to change a radio. The radio plays sounds of negative thoughts Min had thought. Mocking his lover’s obsession, complaining about his daughter getting attention and not him, or about his adulterous behaviour. Min comments constantly on these things not being true, as you scale the tower. Changing the radio changes the radio to positive suggestions. Obsession and love for his former lover. A loss of his daughter paining him. Whilst it may be true, we know that Min is delusional. Both thoughts are likely accurate, but it leads us to be unable to trust that what Min is saying is ever true.
Control feels much more difficult and better tuned than Insanity did. I never felt much danger in Insanity and in turn never died so never found a reason to level the tree that allowed more retaining of currency. Pagan Min’s world even at mind level one, feels far more dangerous and stressful. I died many more times and found myself feeling much more challenged than I had with any other Far Cry 6 content up to this point. This made for an immensely more enjoyable experience, and made me want to spend my respect more often. Unlocking better guns felt far more required even at earlier mind levels. The overall gameplay feels better fleshed out and challenging, even if it is much of the same from the first DLC.
Pagan Min feels far more chatty than Vaas did too. He is constantly commenting on things; regularly communicating with ‘The Tyrant’, who is the antagonist of Min’s mind. On top of that, he will often tell enemies to ‘F- off’ when they throw grenades or start shooting at him. He feels very real and constantly present, and not like an empty shell being piloted. Unfortunately, beyond Min and the memories, the rest of the world characters feel somewhat empty. The Golden Path enemies yell things at Min, and whilst Ajay, Yuma and Mohan all appear as boss type enemies, they feel mostly devoid. Ajay in particular felt like a reskin of Jason from the first DLC. Using the same weapons, and communicating in the same way. Yet Ajay is far less present than Jason was. Yuma is only particularly exciting in her dedicated memory section, and is very bland in the rest of the world.
There also felt like there was far less instances of unique world scenarios with the characters such as what I found with Jason in the Vaas DLC. So, despite Min feeling more fleshed out, and the world being very reflective of his mind, the character’s within it are far emptier. This may be an intentional choice, with Min being indifferent to people outside of his lover and daughter, yet we know that he is also obsessed with being Ajay’s father too, from the final sequence and the few things that are said throughout the game.
Whilst there are improvements over the first DLC, and the world is almost even more impressive, there is still something missing. The rogue-lite element staying is fun, and the increase in base difficulty is very much appreciated, the experience is somewhat hollow. I definitely had a better time with Control than I did with Insanity, and there is far more aspects designed for repeated play, encouraging higher Mind Level playthroughs. There is still a lack of real demand to complete the highest mind levels. I feel a ‘true ending’ may be locked behind a highest mind level completion, but I didn’t feel enough of a pull to get to that point. All the unlockables are still possible in the first mind level, so some people are still going to see little reason to continue play past the first playthrough.
Control is a good way to keep the content going, and Far Cry 6 is slowly turning into a fun 30-to-40-hour experience with all the DLC. Control is a definite improvement, and hopefully we see some more changes and great experience in the final DLC still to come.
The Score
7.0
Review code provided by Ubisoft
The Pros
+Great World Design
+Pagan Min’s character
+Increase in difficulty
The Cons
-Same Gameplay Loop
-Hollow characters
-Lack of requirement of higher Mind Level play
