Requesting a refund from the Epic Store for Far Cry 6

Having been out of the country for over a month, I was drowning in backlogged tasks that I couldn’t even get the chance to turn on my gaming laptop. When I did, as expected, I had a million things to update.

After updating Windows 11 and all the apps, I launched Steam and Epic launchers to see what was the latest. Epic was (and still is) running a mega sale where I could own Far Cry 6 for just a little over $22.

I’ve always been a Far Cry fan. Except for Far Cry 2, I’ve loved all the Far Cry games in the series. Like most people, my favorite was Far Cry 3. I’ve enjoyed the gameplay in Far Cry 4 and Far Cry 5 a lot, but I wasn’t a fan of the story.

Naturally, I was very interested in Far Cry 6. I didn’t buy it when it came out because I was waiting for the price to drop.

Seeing that the moment had arrived, I bought the game and downloaded it overnight.

I had high hopes when I launched Far Cry 6 yesterday. I’ve always loved the sprawling nature and the myriad of things to do in the Far Cry world. Unfortunately, I couldn’t play the latest one for more than 15 minutes.

As you may know, Far Cry 6 opens with you, the protagonist, escaping the building. You have to avoid detection and escape into the sewer. There are tight places that you need to navigate around. I started feeling nauseous and somewhat dizzy while playing those bits at the very beginning of the game.

Less than 10 minutes into Far Cry 6 and I remembered that I had motion sickness from video games.

No more first-person games for me

I didn’t know I had motion sickness until recently. In fact, some of my favorite movies are in the “found footage” genre, which has a dizzying array of motion. Cloverfield, The Blaire Witch Project, etc. are some of my all-time favorites. So how come video game makes me feel sick?

I don’t know the answer to that. I remember feeling nauseous when playing video games way back in the late 2010s. I used to play Half-Life 2, and I would frequently need to take a break for feeling sick. I didn’t know at that time, and I never quite figured it out, until I wrote a detailed review of the Resident Evil Village Demo.

You’ll see that I wrote about physically feeling unwell when playing the demo, and someone caught that and told me I was showing the symptoms of having motion sickness. I did my Googling and sure enough, I had all the symptoms they said motion sickness would show.

I know that I would need to see a physician to confirm if it is indeed motion sickness I’m feeling, but the fact that this is a repeated pattern that only happens when playing select first-person shooter games makes me think it is.

What makes it weirder is that I played Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4 — both first-person shooters — and never felt unwell. I’ve played a number of other FPS games, like many in the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchise, but never felt physically ill. I also played a fair share of Overwatch and Counter Strike back in the day. No issues there.

So, I don’t know what exactly triggers it. But I know when it’s coming. And I felt the early symptoms in those first few minutes of Far Cry 6.

Requesting a refund on the Epic Store

My first instinct was to quit and uninstall the game but keep it in the library. In this part of the world, refunds aren’t that common. So I’m not super used to asking for refunds. But then I thought, why not give it a try? I don’t think I’ll play the game anymore.

For some reason, the Far Cry series doesn’t feel as alluring as it once did (and it’s not just due to my health issues). So I wouldn’t miss it if it wasn’t ready to be installed on my Epic library.

I looked up and found out you could request a refund if the total playtime of the game is shorter than 2 hours. I had clocked in about 18 minutes, so I headed to my Epic account on the browser and followed these steps:

  • Navigated to the account settings.
  • Clicked Transactions
  • Clicked on the Far Cry 6 purchase
  • Clicked Request a Refund
  • Selected a reason for canceling/refund. I chose “I don’t like the Title” for the lack of a more fitting reason.
  • Confirmed the refund request.

My card issuer’s app notified me within a few hours that the refund had been processed.

I was happy with the experience. I’m sad that I’ll be missing out on the new world Ubisoft has created in Far Cry 6. I loved casually encountering wild animals in the middle of the in-game night and having to defeat them in brutal, often fatal fights, and I was looking forward to more of such enjoyable gameplay with the latest installment in the series.

Oh well. I guess I’ll go back to Game Pass’ new addition, Sniper Elite 5. I’ve played that for about 30 minutes and so far, I’m loving it! The third-person POV means I’m not feeling nauseous or displaying any motion sickness even when roaming around in tight spaces.

At least, I don’t have to give up on all games!

2 thoughts on “Requesting a refund from the Epic Store for Far Cry 6”

  1. Motion sickness occurs when signals from ears, eyes, muscles do not match.
    If other games you play you don’t have motion sickness, then the problems are ears.

    Reply

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