LifeisXbox’s Far Cry 6 Collapse DLC review | In this third DLC for Far Cry 6, we play as another key villain from the series. This time we learn more about the backstory of Joseph Seed, better known as “The Father” from Far Cry 5, and try to help him get through an afterlife hell-loop of his own making. Just like the Vaas & Pagan Min 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
The previous two episodes had something particularly noteworthy, but sadly I can’t say the same for Joseph’s little roguelike outing. If I really had to pick a single moment, it would be seeing the giant marble book floating in midair as an early gateway to an optional challenge.
ℹ️ Reviewed on Xbox Series X | Review code provided by Ubisoft, this review is the personal opinion from the writer.
What we Liked!
- The interesting set-pieces | While not as visually appealing as the previous two DLC episodes, mostly because it has a less exotic location, there were some interesting visual elements that drew my attention: a giant cross formed on the clouds, the giant floating bible I mentioned already and the broken statue from Far Cry 5 that we get to fix in this DLC.
- The music | This is one part where Collapse excels compared to its predecessors, with excellent choice of music to amplify some story moments and variations on well-known songs hummed by the cast. I immediately dove into the sound settings to give the background music the attention it deserved.
- Gunplay | The enemies drop easily and it’s satisfying to mow them down by the dozens. Far Cry has managed to find a decent balance between bullet sponges and enemies that only take a well-aimed headshot to beat which keeps the pace going at a pleasing rate.
Mixed Feelings
- Learning more about Joseph Seed & his siblings | While Vaas and Pagan Min are interesting antagonists to me and I always wanted to learn more about them, The Father and his sibling gospel never quite managed to hit the same chord for me. Added to this, I don’t feel like I was getting any background information from this DLC that wasn’t already explained in Far Cry 5.
- The voice acting | Joseph seed is not as outlandish a character as Vaas or Pagan Min (I know I keep drawing the comparisson, but it’s hard not to) and the voice acting of Joseph failed to give him a distinct character. We could have just as well been playing as the main protagonist of Far Cry 5, I was hardly able to tell the difference. One nice detail though was the mini-sermon given when performing a take-down on enemies.
- Getting around | The Collapse 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 a horse to ride on, 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 white 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. 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.
- 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. To add insult to injury, most of the ones offered here had a slower reload animation.
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 next two DLC episodes to have something that would fit their character, like say kingdom management for Vaas and converting people to his flock for The Father. But sadly it all feels a bit too “copy/pasted”. (ironically, so is part of this review)
- 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 like having to succesfully play through it 5 times to get an achievement.
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.