FarCry 5: Early Impressions

Having abandoned FarCry 6, I've immediately jumped into the predecessor, FarCry 5. I've noticed that this one was much better received critically, and from the initial setup, I am impressed at how well it is put together. I am also, frankly, astonished that a game that frames white American Christians as the villains managed to be published and sold so well at this moment in time. 

FC5 was released in 2018, and was developed by the Canadian Ubisoft studios in Montreal and Toronto. This is probably key to the setup of the game--I truly struggle to imagine an American studio maintaining support for this particular villain. 

Imagine for a moment if Joseph Smith had founded his church in 2000 rather than 1830, and happened to have been in Montana rather than Utah. Perhaps his last name would have been 'Bundy' or 'Koresh' in this case (In the film he'd be played by Jared Leto), and his followers would have combined their religious zealotry with a radical anti-authoritarian perspective on the Federal government.  Indeed, the game opens with a US Marshal and his deputy (the player character) serving a warrant to the Eden's Gate leader, Joseph Seed. Subsequently, of course, the extraction goes extremely sideways, and the helicopter carrying the local sheriff, deputies, the marshall, the player and Seed crashes. This sets up the initial "on your own" situation that FarCry games depend on. 

From what little specific reading I have done about this specific game, it seems that the game (and it's developers) try to walk that same line of creating a very obvious, specific social commentary, while also not actually making a point that might offend parts of their potential market. Critics have been fairly harsh in describing the 'easily digestible evil' of the Eden's Gate members, but I am not seeing it, so far. To be clear, this game is not subtle, or particularly sophisticated as yet. However, when I think of the current batch of real-world radicals such as the Bundy family, Enrique Tarrio, Thomas Ryan Rousseau, and even certain members of the US House of Representatives, I fail to see the aspect of the Eden's Gate that they would find entertaining to gun down. That is, these Christo-facsists seem awfully familiar to me in the current moment. I have a hard time imagining a member of Patriot Front going home after a tiki-illuminated race-rally, and getting their kicks by gunning down the folks who took over Hope County, Montana. 

We shall see how the game pans out. Perhaps the caricature of evil will become too silly to take seriously - but I sort of feel like what we're experiencing in reality is almost beyond parody anyway. 

Far Cry 6: Nope

I've battled through several hours with the game, hit level 6, gathered a number of new weapons, cosmetics and trinkets, advanced the story quite a bit, taken out various installations and checkpoints, but I am just not feeling this game. 

I noticed the slapdash approach to the instigating plot in my previous post, and thus far, there were no interesting flashbacks or other methods for filling me in on the origin of the Viviro which they are spraying on the tobacco. I'm still not sold on the economics of the situation either - if the island had somehow stumbled on a general-purpose cancer cure, then the streets would be lined with gold. That isn't to say there couldn't be some kind of serious oppression going on, but I have a hard time buying the story I'm being sold. 

There was another aspect that jumped out at me: as the game tries to justify all the "busy work" necessary in a modern Ubisoft game, one of the main quest giver characters (Juan Cortez) says something to the effect of a guerilla needing to have a certain style, needed to live a certain way. Again, I just don't buy it. He's trying to sell a revolutionary "lifestyle" to Dani, and to the player, so we'll want to spend lots of time customizing our outfit, weapons, and cars. It feels almost verbatim lifted from a Grand Theft Auto game, but you just can't swap out "gangbanger" with "revolutionary guerilla" and have it come across the same. Revolutionary militia aren't believable when worrying about customizing their look - theirs is not a permanent, ongoing lifestyle, the way a gang member's might be. 

Anyway, story aside, the gameplay loop has been well and truly established early on, and it isn't enough to hold my attention for the many more hours that are going to be required to finish this thing. Speaking of mechanics, I also find the "Supremo" to be utter hogwash. Not just unbelievable in terms of a series of tubes strapped to one's back suddenly containing heat-seeking rockets, but it's also a "press to win" button of sorts that I felt really detracted from the experience. 

Far Cry 6: First Look

I recently started FarCry 6 after having not played an FC game for many years. I am more an Assassin's Creed aficianado, although Valhala didn't resonate with me. Both games are developed and published by Ubisoft, and I honestly hadn't realized how much crossover in mechanics had occurred between the two franchises. 

Getting started in FC6 follows a pretty familiar "new action game" pattern of throwing you into a high stakes escape/chase through a part of the map that you won't return to for quite some time. I wasn't able to completely comprehend exactly why the antagonist of the game (voiced and modelled after Giancarlo Espisoto) was quite so... antagonistic. The opening cut scenes move very quickly through explaning that the faux-Cuba has discovered a "cancer drug" that is made by spraying some kind of poisonous red fog over otherwise normal tobacco. 

Understanding where this discovery was made in this otherwise third-world country is a bit of a stretch, but the real confusion for me is that if this tobacco-based cancer treatment really worked, then a country like Yara would be absolutely rolling in cash. The island would be more Wakanda and less rock-bottom Cuba. Following from this, there would simply be no reason for El Presidente to mistreat his people so badly. Why would we be using rickety old technology, and spraying the fields with dubious chemicals from crop dusters, if we were selling cancer-curing tabacco to the entire world? 

As mentioned above, there is a lot of back and forth between this Far Cry and, for example, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. This is more particular than the generic premise of open world, hundreds of objectives to destroy, find, liberate etc. We encounter such familiar concepts as battling with specific alpha animals in hunting side quests. I am also surprised at the extent of collectibles and cosmetic customization that has developed - again, similar to Assassin's Creed. There is also a strong emphasis on finding the high ground to scout out locations prior to attacking or infiltrating them - very familiar to me from the various Assassin's Creed titles. 

I wonder about Ubisoft's other major open world franchise: the Tom Clancy series (particularly The Division). How similar is the setup in these games? Perhaps I'll have to find out sometime soon.