Last week a new "story trailer" for Far Cry 6 was released, revealing a bit more about the game's protagonist and, more importantly, its villain. As I have discussed at length before on this blog, the unique beauty of the Far Cry franchise is the way that it handles the trope of "good versus evil," or more specifically, evil versus extremely evil with some "good" qualities. In other words, the Far Cry games are nothing if not complex when it comes to the characters. There is no such thing as a purely good human in the Far Cry universe, and players are constantly being confronted with complex moral dilemmas.
In this trailer it is revealed that the moral dilemma that drives the game involves using slave labor to grow tobacco which, apparently, can treat cancer. It looks like the game will delve into the issues surrounding the pharmaceutical industry, which is certainly a real-life moral minefield. The trailer also looks at the perceived innocence of children, as the villain's young son is central to the story as portrayed in multiple trailers (the reveal trailer released a year ago shows more of this father and son relationship).
It should be mentioned that the Far Cry franchise pretty consistently blurs (or crosses) the line of racism and what stories are appropriate for white/western creators to tell. Many of the games take place in countries that are not considered "Western" and the villains are often people of color. It is questionable whether it is okay for European game developers to tell stories about the evils of humanity while using people of color as their examples. In Far Cry 5 the villains are very much stereotypical white American characters, but was that one game enough? As I myself am a white Westerner, I prefer to defer to those who are culturally closer to the subject at hand, though upon searching for sources I am finding that a lot of the discussions about racism in Far Cry are being led by apparently white men. (Here is one such article and here is another.) I did finally find an article written by a woman of color, but she leaves the discussion of racism open for individual thoughts and opinions. Basically, this is a subject about which we should all think critically.
In the meantime, I am very excited to get my hands on and play Far Cry 6. I absolutely loved entries 3 and 4 in the series, and was less than happy with the fifth game, but not to the extent that I have sworn off the whole series (don't get me wrong -- I was very excited about the premise of Far Cry 5 -- I just had some issues with the gameplay that kept me from completing the game). What do you think about the upcoming game? Let me know in the comments!
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