LifeisXbox’s Far Cry 6 Control DLC review | In this second DLC for Far Cry 6, we play as another key villain from the series. This time we learn more about the backstory of Pagan Min from Far Cry 4, and try to help him get through an afterlife hell-loop of his own making. Just like the Vaas DLC before it, this is a roguelike, meaning you’re expected to die a few times and keep getting stronger after each attempt.
Most Memorable Moment
Despite the mostly copy/pasted setup from the previous Far Cry 6 DLC with Vaas, it’s nice to see that some effort went into Pagan Min’s outing, as one particular moment really impressed me: You drain a small lake to reveal a temple that was hiding below the surface and the animation for this sequence was expertly done.
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox Series X | Review code provided by Ubisoft, this review is the personal opinion from the writer.
What we Liked!
- Learning more about Pagan Min | Far Cry 4 is a title I sadly haven’t played, because when it released I had only just beaten the third game and wanted some change of pace, but the game’s antagonist certainly managed to grab my attention. In this DLC you play in a sort of afterlife of his own making, where he needs to come to terms with his past and the decisions he has made. It’s a great way to look behind the curtains and see what was going through his mind.
- The visual flair | Interestingly, the enemies in the game all look like they have just run one of those marathons where they throw coloured powder at you and they explode in an equally colourful cloud of rainbow dust. It brings an almost festive feeling to the killing of goons by the hundreds…
- The interesting set-pieces | To grab your attention, they added some interesting touches to the imported elements from Far Cry 4, making it very clear that we’re playing in a fantasy world. There are buildings up the side of a wall, enormous golden statues of Pagan himself and smaller touches like floating carpets you can walk on. It’s enough to make the level design more appealing than the main game in my opinion. (but it’s also a lot smaller)
- The voice acting | Pagan Min is voiced by Troy Baker, who’s well known for his videogame performances. He really succeeds in making Pagan an unforgettable and unique character, through his extravagant persona and the way he puts himself on a pedestal. They also made a bold statement by confirming in this DLC that Pagan Min is indeed queer, something the fans have been asking for quite a while.
Mixed Feelings
- Getting around | The Pagan Min DLC doesn’t have a very large world to explore but you will have to do most of it on foot. If you invest in the right upgrades you can start using the wingsuit and even have quads dropped off at your safe houses, but you can’t just teleport to the parts of the map you already visited like in the main game. Instead, you’ll have to use these golden doors, but they sadly only connect to one other location. It makes getting around slower and that can get annoying in consecutive playthroughs.
- Roguelike | I can appreciate a good roguelike where dying resets part of your progress, but there aren’t enough random elements to make this interesting here. Enemies, weapons etc are all in the exact same locations every time and the only random drops are the hearts you collect, which grant you special boons like reviving upon death or added damage to a specific weapon.
- Pagan isn’t Vaas | Both characters attempt comedy through their internal monologues, but for some reason the Pagan Min ones didn’t hit me the same way. When an enemy throws a grenade at you, Pagan will say “thank youuuu” in a fittingly queerish voice, and I love that, but somehow the phrases Vaas uttered in his DLC made me laugh more frequently.
- The gun selection | In the main Far Cry 6 game you can wield outlandish weapons like the supremos and there is even a CD-launcher that plays music as you shoot enemies into pieces. Yet in the DLC episodes they go with a safe, boring selection of standard weaponry like machine guns and shotguns.
What we Disliked
- Repetition | This plays into the roguelike setup, but once you’ve completed a single playthrough of the DLC, you’ve seen almost everything it has to offer and there isn’t that much to keep you motivated for additional runs, except for maybe some achievements.
- Originality | When the Vaas DLC dropped it got some negative feedback because of the roguelike gameplay, but I loved it as it was so in-character for Vaas. His well-known speech goes as follows: “Did I ever tell you what the definition of insanity is? Insanity is doing the exact… same f*cking thing… over and over again expecting… sh*t to change…”
And this just makes perfect sense in a roguelike where you die, die, die and retry until you finally get further into the game and beat it. I was hoping for the Pagan Min DLC to have something that would fit his character, like say kingdom management, because he is a tyrant after all. (and DLC3: The Father could have had something about converting people to his faith) - It’s short, yet takes too long to 100% | I don’t mind a short experience and for a low enough price the ~2 hour runtime to beat the DLC would have been perfect, but then it does so many things to try and artificially increase the length.
How long to beat the story | 2 hours
How long to achieve the full 230G | 8-10 hours (5 playthroughs at least)
Robby lives and breathes video games. When he’s not playing them, he’s talking about them on social media or convincing other people to pick up a controller themselves. He’s online so often, he could practically list the internet as his legal domicile. Belgian games-industry know-it-all.