After spending more than 20 hours in Hope County, the fictional area of rural Montana that serves as the backdrop for Far Cry 5, I'm as internally conflicted about the video game as it itself seems to be. On one hand, I'm having a lot of fun playing it as a pure, mindless piece of entertainment, where smart open-world design meets fun, explosive action. On the other hand, I'm disappointed when I catch glimpses of what might have been a hard-hitting storyline that in fact has no teeth.
The game opens as a small group of fellow law enforcement officers walk into a church to arrest Joseph Seed, who his followers call "The Father." He's the leader of a doomsday cult called Eden's Gate, which has been stocking up firearms and taking over territory all over Hope County. He's a bit like David Koresh with a touch of Cliven Bundy, and he's very successful at convincing his flock that the end is nigh.
It's a powerful, serious intro that ends in bloodshed and kicks off a small-scale war, and given today's political and religious climate in America, the timing felt perfect for a story that tackles tough issues.
Eden's Gate is never directly referenced as being a sect of Christianity, and despite the scripture references scrawled on some walls and multiple instances of singing "Amazing Grace," there is not much here that any reader of the Bible will recognize. That will help the game avoid controversy, but it comes at a tremendous cost: The story doesn't ever really say anything.
Even the character who is a Christian, pastor Jerome Jeffries, contributes little in this area. He's a man of faith who clearly cares about the people around him, but he also doesn't hesitate to put a bullet into the heads of cult members who threaten his flock. There was plenty of opportunity for this character to offer some sort of commentary on religious violence, American Christianity or turning the other cheek. Instead, Jeffries is just sort of there.
It's just one example of Far Cry 5 hedging its bets every step of the way. After having a serious discussion about the dangers of the cult, you're asked to pick up Rocky Mountain oysters for a town's "Testicle Festival." (Yes, really. They called it the "testy festy.") Characters satirically mock the fear of the government taking away our guns while the game gleefully gives players explosive weaponry. And when the game wants to add a hint of the supernatural to its events, drug use (through a toxic mist called "The Bliss") takes center stage.
As a Christian, I don't like it when media disparages my religion (especially when it does so through misinformation and misunderstandings about faith), but I also want the art I consume to have a message and make me feel an emotion, even if that emotion is frustration.
Far Cry 5's story rarely made me feel much of anything.
The game cuts into its own dark tone with a style of humor that would feel more at home in a Grand Theft Auto game. One particularly "ripped from the headlines" side mission in the game involves recovering a highly sensitive video of "the Big Man." It is heavily implied that the video in question is President Donald Trump's alleged "pee tape," though you only know this if you pick up on the heavy-handed winks and nods referencing "wet works."
It's not as if Far Cry has never used this sort of commentary and satire before, but everything about the game's marketing and first several minutes implies that this is a game with serious things to say about a serious subject matter. Every time it comes close to fulfilling that promise, the plot backs off.
"But it's a video game!" you might be saying. "Why would you expect more than mindless action?" I expect more because the medium is capable of more, even in the realm of first-person shooters. 2012's Spec Ops: The Line, for example, managed to evoke both Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now with a plot that very directly addresses the morality of war and the changes in a soldier's mental state. 2013's Bioshock Infinite, which also features a religious leader as its protagonist, made more serious attempts to address racism (which Far Cry 5 barely even acknowledges) and religious extremism, especially of the American variety. It didn't always succeed, but at least it tried.
What sucks is that plot aside, Far Cry 5 can be highly entertaining. If the entire package had come together in a more meaningful package, it might be an early favorite of 2018. Instead, it's an early disappointment -- one I nonetheless can't stop playing.
