Ubisoft

Far Cry 5 is out today, and it’s time to revisit something I said back in May when the setting and concept of the game was first announced:

“Bold prediction: Far Cry 5 won't have much useful social commentary in any direction and will mostly just be shooting bearded guys.”

I may be wrong about a lot of things, but this one certainly panned out.

I like Far Cry 5. I’ve enjoyed my time with it, as I think it builds on the existing mechanics of the series well, it’s very good-looking and only suffers from usual Far Cry issues like open world bloat over time. But it’s a solid entry in the series and the best game since at least FC3.

But while I’m not going to dock it loads of review score points for not having social commentary, or really, any inclusion of politics at all, I do find it kind of hilarious and bizarre just how much Far Cry 5 steers away from taking a position on well, anything.

It’s true that Far Cry 5 was being conceived and built before the frenzied political climate in the US escalated to where it is now, but in practice, it’s more than a little strange to see a game set in rural America where players form a resistance to fight a militant Christian cult and it just has…nothing to say. Nothing at all, one way or another.

Ubisoft

Race and Gender

You might think that a religious cult in rural Montana might be forced to address issues of race or gender, but simply put, neither exist in the world of Far Cry. Women and men fight alongside one another on both sides of the conflict. Race is literally not mentioned once. Despite Eden’s Gate and the Seed family giving off some extremely white supremacist vibes in their conceptualization and their iconography, they truly are colorblind. Both sides have white, black and Asian fighters, you, the lead character, can be any race you want and it has zero effect on the story whatsoever. Eden’s Gate may want to kill you, but it’s definitely not because you’re not white. Truly, a forward-thinking murderous cult.

Guns

Don’t expect any commentary on guns or gun ownership in a game that is built entirely around them. Is it a good idea that a cult can militarize itself to the point of ridiculousness thanks to weapon availability in America? Who knows? We, the Resistance, have guns too, so we just shoot better than the cult and are able to win the war. Why does everyone in this tiny town have access to military grade hardware? Who cares! Moving on. Conversely, on the other side of the political spectrum, you could make the argument that this is why we “need” so many guns, in case our land and lives are threatened by invaders, yet the game doesn’t explicitly make that case either. Everyone just has lots of guns. The end.

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The Opioid Epidemic

There’s a plot thread running through Far Cry 5 about “Bliss,” a type of addictive hallucinogenic that binds people to the will of the Seed family and their cult. It’s a made-up drug, but you could easily see how it could have been a stand-in for the very real opioids that decimate rural areas in America like this. And yet, how does the game treat the drug? It creates “brain-dead” melee troops that sprint after you and can only die via headshots. These being people who were formerly citizens who were forcibly immersed in Bliss. They are now drug zombies, and you must kill them. Got it.

The Government

Again, I’m not even saying that everything the game deals with would have to be some progressive statement. You probably could have made an interesting game here about government overreach that leads to the creation of splintered militias like this, yet the game doesn’t really dive into these issues outside of a few wacky side characters. Also you are literally playing the game as a sheriff’s deputy, so you’re hardly an anti-government crusader as the hero. The entire plot mostly revolves around bad cell phone service so outside government forces can’t come in and rescue you.

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Religion

Alright fine, we can ignore all these other issues, but does Far Cry 5 have anything at all to say about its central topic, organized religion, specifically Christianity? Not…really. The game goes out of its way to make it clear that even if Eden’s Gate is spun out of Christianity, it is wildly far removed from it. Yes, it uses words like “God” and “Sin” and “Eden,” but the game makes it explicit that this is not “real” religion. Jesus is never mentioned, and the Seeds never quote Bible verses. There’s one scene where a Bible is literally slapped out of a pastor’s hands and replaced with the “word of Joseph” instead. Eden’s Gate does not want to be commentary on any actual religion or religious worldview, and instead is more like if Jim Jones was running a backwoods version of Scientology.

Here’s the thing. You can say that this is “just a video game” and that games are allowed to steer clear of politics. But the end result for Far Cry 5 is that refusing to take any stance on any kind of real world issue, despite drawing on a number of them for inspiration, just flat out makes the game’s story worse. Even if it took positions I disagreed with, it would still be more engaging than what we see here.

The Eden’s Gate cult is creepy, but ultimately uninteresting because their agenda is so muddied and nonsensical that it’s hard to even understand their purpose outside of doomsday prepping. All their dialogue is just a jumble of word vomit that sounds vaguely alluring and ominous, but ultimately means nothing (John Seed: “Say yes to life, repent for your sins,” Faith Seed: “Follow the path!”). I think these characters are well-acted, but they are simply air. There was a lot of potential here to deal with a number of interesting issues, and yet the game takes none of those roads, content to make bold statements like “murder is bad, unless you’re murdering murderers!”

Another explanation I hear a lot is “well, this is Far Cry.” Other games like Mafia 3 or Wolfenstein might wear their politics on their sleeves, but this is just goofy old Far Cry!

Like sure, but I wish it wasn’t? I don’t find Far Cry’s sense of humor particularly funny, with one goofy bull testicle joke for every five hours of gameplay, and I don’t think it would be the worst thing in the world if the game did decide to start taking itself more seriously, particularly in a game dealing with these kinds of a issues (or a game that should be dealing with these kinds of issues).

There’s a lot of talk about how too much “political correctness” can stifle creativity and freedom of expression, and while normally I find that sentiment eye-rolling, I see evidence for it here. Ubisoft wanted to make a game that seemed like it was going to push every hot button issue in America, yet it ultimately chickened out and delivered something that is desperate not to offend anyone. And unfortunately, the end result is a much less interesting game than we could have seen otherwise.

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