Far Cry 6’s first expansion, Vaas: Insanity is now available and it certainly lives up to its namesake. A standalone DLC that contains plenty of less than sane content. It also keeps a lot of what’s great about the Far Cry series and offers some fresh, rogue-lite elements.
The game begins right after Vaas was killed at the hands of Jason Brody, the protagonist from Far Cry 3. You seem trapped in Vaas’s memory of his death and eventually exit through a door to what seems like the outside world. It’s quickly established that although exiting that door you have entered a larger recess of Vaas’s mind.
The narrative drive is provided by the voice of Citra, Vaas’s sister. Citra will taunt, goad and encourage Vaas to break out of his madness.
Vaas: Insanity Review
The sandbox area is very pretty and very strange. From raining blood to flying sharks it’s all a little, well insane. There are beaches and jungles as well as a huge nasty looking volcano to explore. It seems to be a disturbing version of the island from Far Cry 3 that Vaas has created in his mind. Vaas’s main goal while exploring is to track down three pieces of the dragon blade, the object of his demise.
While doing so you will certainly be entertained by some twisted visual design. I also very much enjoyed seeing Vaas looking sharp in the Far Cry 6 engine. There is not a lot to say about the gameplay, if you’ve seen or played a Far Cry game you know what to expect. The gunplay and mechanics are all very much the same and I see no reason to change them.
You begin with very little and will need to upgrade as quickly as you can if you want that dragon blade. There are hostiles everywhere and they drop cash when they die; yes there are indeed several funny comments to this being a thing. Amongst the landscape you will find temples scattered around, these provide trials for Vaas to upgrade his arsenal and abilities. Once you have raised enough cash and completed the weapon trials you can purchase upgrades and new weapons. This is where the rogue-lite elements come into play.
Upon death, you lose anything you are currently holding such as weapons, dragon blade pieces or temporary upgrades. This then starts you back at the original door and the whole map is reset as if it were a new game. However, what does carryover is the weapon unlocks and permanent abilities. You will then need to earn more cash to purchase weapons again and continue to get upgrades. As you progress your permanent abilities will allow for you to recover from death a lot easier giving a sense of progression.
There are also a bunch of collectables and equipment you can unlock by exploring or doing multiple playthroughs. The real goal is to unlock the higher difficulties to complete the alternate endings. But the journey is what makes this expansion so much fun, reliving past memories but in their own twisted versions. All the while Vaas self narrates and comments on everything happening around him. Sometimes he even breaks the fourth wall with some of the comments and notes you find around the island.
I should also note that the theme of Vaas: Insanity is very in your face. You will be going on many drug-fueled benders and committing a lot of violent acts. Some of the memory sequences also see a much more fleshed out relationship between Vaas and his sister Citra. Now that leads to some very weird assumptions that well, seem rather unhealthy.
I did enjoy some of these sequences that see the memories reversed, such as when he drops Jason down a hole with a cinder block tied to his feet. Watching on as the role is reversed and Jason spouting Vaas’s favourite catchphrase to him is hilarious, but what makes it funnier is Vaas’s narrations of seeing moments like these.
The Far Cry 6 expansions do come in a season pass at $59.95AUD ($39.99USD). The first episode can also be purchased individually for $22.95AUD, this seemed a little steep at first but I think the price is right. A lot of love and work went into this first episode and it shows. I would recommend the season pass for fans of the series as it will work out cheaper over the three total episodes it unlocks.
To summarise my relatively sane thoughts, Vaas: Insanity is very much a Far Cry expansion even as a standalone. It’s not too long but offers some replayability for the completionists without having to spend tons of time exploring a gigantic map. The gameplay is fun, the story is wild and the experience is insane. I would highly recommend this for any Far Cry 3 fans and the same for any new to Far Cry 6. It offers a little change to the pace and is tons of fun.
Vaas: Insanity was reviewed on PC using a code supplied by Ubiosft ANZ.
