At its heart, it is more Far Cry. And that is unequivocally a great thing. Except for Far Cry 6, Ubisoft's tropical open-world action/adventure/shooter franchise seems in the midst of a dual-makeover. On the one hand, it chases an even more serious tone than previous Far Cry games, underscored by the presence of the brilliant Giancarlo Esposito voicing villainous dictator Anton Castillo. Simultaneously, the game wants to give you new and zany ways to wreak mayhem across the imaginary island of Yara. The end result is plenty of fun (because hey, the mayhem is an absolute blast), even if it does mess with your mind. Far Cry 6 is both a well-crafted blast and a tonally inconsistent game, and that second characteristic never ceases to be noticeable. Previous Far Cry games have always had just a hint of Just Cause in them, offering you helicopters and wingsuits and arming you with potent weapons that allowed you to wreak havoc on countrysides on whatever island you were battling through. But Far Cry 6 seems intent on arming you with more than you've ever had -- and on doing it from the near-get-go. You'll craft your first few weapons from basics, but barely an hour into the action, you'll find yourself with a missile-launching pack (which can be upgraded, by the way) and an annoying crocodile tagalong who always seems to know how to blow your cover (pro-tip: Leave him somewhere. It's better). That crocodile, Guapo, is a constant reminder of the "game-y" side of Far Cry 6, a side that wants to give you tools of destruction and let you have an unremorseful blast. That side of the game controls exceptionally well, too. After six games, Far Cry has its mechanics down, and in many ways, this game manages to feel like a continuation of the action from Far Cry 5. Shooting and stealth, the two backbones of gameplay you'll need as you take down enemy bases and help restore Yara to a world without Castillo, are fluid and easy to get into, although the stealth needs a hair of tuning. All that action, however, gives the game an air of freedom and carefree frivolity: Kill, because it's what you want to do, dear gamer. And the mayhem you can create is extreme and fun. But it grows hard to reconcile that with the presence of the serious Castillo, masterfully played by Esposito, and the seemingly serious tale that the game is trying to tell you.