Far cry 6

 

 far cry games have always been really

good at taking the moments that are

affecting us most and infusing the bad

guys with those characteristics in far

cry 5 the villain spoke to an internal

nihilism that we were all facing in that

era and this belief that death and

destruction would have to be better than

what we have now in that case with the

joseph seed cult far cry 6 on the other

hand is a look at the political strife

of american imperialism versus

independent global south powers it's a

fascinating political look and likely

the most outwardly political game ive

ever played

despite ubisoft suggesting perhaps that

it isn't and that's what i want to talk

about today there's going to be a lot of

people much better than i explaining the

ins and outs of the gameplay mechanics

what it all offers and how it all

connects together very basically afterplaying this game entirely it's a lot of

what you've seen before only bigger not

necessarily better if in the previous

game you had one base to deal with now

you have three if in the previous game

you had a few weapons that you could

Customize now you have over a hundred

that have dozens of customizations if

you had a couple hundred missions

beforehand now there's even more

sometimes that's wonderful a lot of

times that's tedious but the main thing

that always interests me about the far

cry series are the villains and what

they represent so i want to talk a

little bit about anton castille the

dictator of the fictional country of

yara which is absolutely a placeholder

for cuba or possibly even colombia you

can replace it with any country in south

america that has something that the

west

wants so anton castillo is the currentdictator in yara he is the son of the

former dictator that was ousted and

brutally tortured in 67 by the legends

which are represented as kind of a

communist revolution once that

happened

though there was an american blockade

this fictional world that really

devastated the country and the region

this mirrors of course what has

happened

in the global south due to american

influence for the past 50 years there

are easily a dozen countries that it is

proven the cia had active operations

within and america had diplomatic

tensions with mostly culminating in

these blockades in yara these blockades

led to such destitution that eventually

the people were disillusioned with this

idea of a communist revolution and

decided instead to vote for castillo

anton promised to bring decadence andprosperity and a return to norms

also making sure that the new viviro

wonder drug would be used effectively

essentially it's discovered that on this

small

very poor country island there is a drug

that can cure cancer that has to do with

the tobacco plants that grow there when

anton gets into power he ups the

production of that and then makes the

crucial decision

not to sell any of this wonder drug to

any western powers that have previously

pushed their influence on this small

country it's a really interesting

thought experiment when applied to real

world politics imagine what would

happen

now if a country like cuba discovered

let's just say the cure for covet

imagine what american forces would do

and more broadly western powers would

do

to ensure that they get access to thisPM

prosperity and a return to norms

also making sure that the new viviro

wonder drug would be used effectively

essentially it's discovered that on this

small

very poor country island there is a drug

that can cure cancer that has to do with

the tobacco plants that grow there when

anton gets into power he ups the

production of that and then makes the

crucial decision

not to sell any of this wonder drug to

any western powers that have previously

pushed their influence on this small

country it's a really interesting

thought experiment when applied to real

world politics imagine what would

happen

now if a country like cuba discovered

let's just say the cure for covet

imagine what american forces would do

and more broadly western powers would

do

to ensure that they get access to thisthey help support a guerrilla rebellion

just like the real american forces have

done for decades only this time we are

the face of it you discover very early

on as you're playing this character

danny a guerilla fighter to take down

castillo that your organization is

funded by the cia specifically through a

cia task master that you have that's

your second in command you find this

Out

very early on so i don't really consider

ita spoiler for the story and i just

want to consider that for a second whatare trying to tell us by making the

player

essentially identify with many of the

different quote-unquote terrorist forces

that have been backed by

american money specifically through the

cia in the global south for decades it's

as if we are the contras and fighting

the sandinistas now when you actually

play the game they deal with this

problem by making

castillo and his home army seeking

independence the most cartoonishly

gruesome and horrific human beings on

the planet

there's artists that are making statues

out of humans dipped in molten lava

they're brutally torturing and killing

everyone in in every way possible so

it's very easy to frame them as the bad

guys despite all of the environmental

information telling us that we should as

the guerrilla forces be the bad guys.