Ubisoft officially revealed the general time period and setting for “far cry 5” last week, in a teaser video for the fictional town Hope County in Montana. Along with some basic info – the game’s main characters and the February 28, 2018 release date – it gave the gaming community something to talk about other than gameplay details.
“Far Cry 5” has defined its villains, and they come in the most familiar form – one that resembles what the modern world is dealing with. They’re a doomsday cult, which eerily reminds viewers of Christian extremists, fueled by the sort of hyper-conservative gun-toting militias that are in fact very real, and usually very white.
Story
In the rural town of Hope Country, you play as a sheriff, whose race and gender can be chosen by the player. The task is to put an end to Joseph Seed’s reign, the leader of a cult called Eden’s Gate, who managed to have taken over the whole town with his irrational ideals along with his crazed fanatics.
Even the box art is provocative, leaning to what can only be described as a hipster-redneck Last Supper. Literally, the game is a far cry from the safe confines of previous plots. In the wake of the Donald Trump-fuelled age of hate and fear, the game’s narrative sends out a strong statement that got everybody, at least those who care, talking:
https://t.co/5KakRk9dhD
— Sledge Hammer (@SledgeHammer03) May 26, 2017
You'll never see a Muslim terrorist in a game again and they blow people up in real life. The only bad guy... whitey
Kind of cruel for Far Cry 5 to be about Christian Extremists, how come there's never been a game about evil Muslim people? Never been one.
— Cally K-Pax (@callumkaypee) May 26, 2017
Meanwhile, a group of people who call themselves Gamers United seem totally against Ubisoft’s releases over the years, the last straw being “Far Cry 5,” so it seems.
A petition is currently circulating around the web indicating the “wrongs” of the upcoming sequel, summarized in the excerpt below:
“Alter the villains. Even if you insist on making the villains American Christians, consider mixing the races a bit to not target white people exclusively. There are plenty of nationalists of every stripe and every race and creed.
So throw in some blacks and Mexicans. There’s no reason a protectionist nationalist movement would all be one race? Why stop being politically correct here?”
Ubisoft hasn’t responded and there’s no hint if it had been made aware of the petition. As of now, however, it looks like there’s no stopping the company from pushing the sequel’s release.
A far cry strategy
It’s easy to assume Ubisoft has suddenly gone all political and intentionally dropped the bomb for the gaming community to see. It works both as a marketing ploy and as a meticulous branding of what the company believes in.
On the other hand, a writer, or a group of them, may be just doing their jobs and came up with something relevant, which they know would spark interest. Either way, the company deserves kudos of some sort for the unique take and the terrifying parallels. “Far Cry 5” is the most interesting approach Ubisoft has taken in years.
