In December 2021 and January 2022, Ubisoft released 2 downloadable contents (DLCs) from Far Cry 6, Vaas: Insanity and Pagan Min: Control. The idea of these expansions is for the player to enter the minds of the iconic villains of the franchise and understand their stories a little more. These contents are included in the Far Cry 6 Season Pass package, which will still have one more chapter: the story of Joseph Seed, called Collapse, with a release scheduled for February.
But so far has this content been worth it? What should we expect from these DLCs? This and other questions we hope to answer in this text and also in the video that you can see below.
Vaas: Insanity
Let’s start talking about the one that was released before, Insanity (Insanity), which puts the player in control of Vaas Montenegro, probably the most beloved villain in the franchise. We are not going to spoil the history of the DLC or even Far Cry 3 here, but to fully understand the narrative of this content, it is necessary to have played or known the history of Far Cry 3, otherwise you will be left floating and wondering: “ who is this Citra?” and “who is Jason?” or even “who is Vaas?”.
Generally speaking, Insanity is a kind of roguelike. The gamer enters a world, collects a bunch of points (in this case, “money”), exchanges them for better weapons or skills in a type of checkpoint. As in every roguelike, if you die, you’ll have to start all over again; however, better equipped and with the skills acquired in the previous run. In addition to the map that already shows the points of interest we passed.
Among these points, there are some activities, such as defeating hordes of enemies to gain an extra life or a group of soldiers to unlock new weapons, as well as missions, which are called “piration”, that will tell a little more of the story of Vaas.
To advance in the general content, you must get 3 parts of a dagger (those who played Far Cry 3 know this weapon well) and, for that, you must explore the map well and find the locations that are marked with a symbol icon of a dagger.
The objective in each of these missions is different, but the structure is the same: find some objects on the map while a big quantity of enemies shoots, bites, sets fire, anyway… I understand.
Anyway, the basis of the Insanity DLC is this: after fulfilling the objective and finishing the content, you have to redo everything to earn even more points, weapons and even unlock a secret ending if all the requirements are met. It’s good to keep in mind that each time the main objective is achieved — which is to gather the three parts of the dagger and take them to the main base — it is necessary to start all over again and at a more advanced mental level, which means greater difficulty, but greater rewards as well. In total, there are five mind levels to explore.
Pagan Min: Control
Now let’s talk about Pagan Min’s DLC, “Control”. If you’re expecting something very different from what we saw in Vaas, don’t wait, because basically Pagan Min’s DLC is similar only taking place in Kyrat, and no longer in the Rook islands. If you’ve read this far, then you’ve possibly played Far Cry 4 and know who Pagan Min is, so let’s make a very shallow summary of it.
Pagan Min is a type of King of Kyrat, a small fictional country in the Himalayan region. During the events of Far Cry 4, he fought a rebel army known as the Golden Path. The only wish of the protagonist, Ajay, upon going to Kyrat was to fulfill his mother’s last request: to have the ashes thrown into a local river. However, he ended up getting involved in conflicts and dethroning Pagan Min.
Now, going back to talking about the DLC, it is essentially the exact same thing as the previous one: fight against a certain number of soldiers to unlock new weapons and do missions that will reveal more of the character’s history – including one that gives a good look at the villain’s past and a focus on characters in his family, like his wife, Ishwari, and even his father.
A small difference is that the missions to gain extra life are not defeating hordes of enemies, well, actually, yes, but the player needs to do this while staying in a delimited area at the foot of golden statues of Pagan Min. All this to get “respect”, which is the same as the “money” of the Vaas DLC, which serves the same purpose: to level up weapons and release new skills so that the endeavor is not so complicated.
Anyway, the final objective also follows the same line of reasoning, but instead of taking three parts of a dagger, you have to put together three pieces of a mask (but the idea is the same). In the end, everything must be taken to the main base, for the gamer to face the last ordeal and move to the next mental level or die trying.
It is worth it?
The DLCs can be short, Vaas’s took 2 hours and 15 minutes to pass the 1st mental level, but it can be done faster if the player wants to take a risk when having little equipment and skills, but they can also be much longer if the intention is to keep repeating the looping to access a more challenging level.
It also depends on how much the intention is to explore the maps to unravel all parts of the villains’ stories or even get enough points to level up the character as much as possible.
So time is relative. Another point to be considered is that Pagan Min’s DLC is slightly more difficult than Vaas’s, since in Vaas’s we managed to finish the first mental level by doing several extra activities without dying. As for Pagan, we died a few times.
In February, we will have the new chapter of this trilogy, the DLC Collapse, starring Joseph Seed. What we’ve played so far we think is cool, as most of the staff here are into roguelikes; on the other hand, the DLCs could have more obvious differences between them, and not just the story of the villains.
Some more interesting missions would also come in handy if they went beyond the simple “defeating a horde of enemies”, however fun that may be at first, there comes a time when it becomes always similar and it seems that you are playing the same game. chapter but with a different skin.
A suggestion: for those who really like one of these villains and want to try Far Cry’s Roguelike, it’s recommended to buy the DLC for their favorite character, as the others don’t change almost anything (I mean, let’s wait to see how Joseph’s will be , it is not?).
That was our analysis of the Far Cry 6 DLCs, Insanity and Control, I hope we helped. If you have any questions or want a video showing more of the DLCs just ask in the comments below and on Voxel’s YouTube channel.
